Museum
In 1967, the then Automobilwerk Eisenach opened an exhibition pavilion on Wartburgallee right next to the B19 road which it used as a company museum until 1995. Thanks to the dedication of the car manufacturing museum association Verein Automobilbau-Museum e. V., sponsorship of the museum was transferred to the City of Eisenach at the end of the 1990s to allow the technical cultural assets shown in the museum to be kept in Eisenach and presented to the public there in the long term.
As an alternative location, the idea soon emerged to set up a museum on the site of the former car factory Automobilwerk Eisenach (AWE). The listed O2 building from 1935 which housed the administration of AWE until the factory closed in 1991 is located there. The symbolic foundation stone for the new exhibition named automobile welt eisenach was laid there to mark the anniversary of 100 years of car manufacturing in Eisenach, which was celebrated in 1998. The museum was reopened under the new name on 4 June 2005. As the city’s financial resources were limited, the Automobile Welt Eisenach Foundation took over the sponsorship of the museum on 1 April 2014.
1898
… was the year in which car manufacturing started in Eisenach. The museum presents the history of car manufacturing in Eisenach from the very beginning. The exhibition is divided into different modules. It shows vehicles produced in Eisenach as well as artifacts bearing witness to car manufacturing and the living conditions of the time. We present vehicles from all production periods there, including one of the first Wartburg motor cars from 1899, the Dixi 3/15, the BMW 328, the EMW 327, the EMW 340, series models from the car factory Automobilwerk Eisenach (AWE) and an AWE racing car from 1956. In addition, wooden bodywork models as well as prototypes and construction plans provide an insight into vehicle development in Eisenach.
