Barnim Panorama

Barnim Panorama

Graphic of the new building
Former name	Agrarmuseum Wandlitz, Museum der agraren Produktivkräfte
Established	1955 Local Museum; 1975 Agricultural Historic Museum; October 2013: new Building
Location	Wandlitz
Type	Agriculture museum
Visitors	up to 25.000
Curator	Christine Papendieck
Architect	Reese Lubic Woehrlin aus Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg (für den Neubau)
Owner	Municipality Wandlitz
Nearest parking	On site (no charge)
Website	http://www.barnim-panorama.de/

The Barnim Panorama, owned by the municipality Wandlitz, was created in September 2013 by combining the Agrarmuseum Wandlitz and the visitor center of the Barnim Nature Park. It has the largest agricultural collection in Brandenburg and offers six themed rooms to give visitors an insight into the 200-year-old history of agriculture in Brandenburg. The museum in the quarter Wandlitz was built in 1955 and could only use provisional arrangements until 2013. Because of the growing demand for more exhibition space and better opportunities to present its collection, the quarter decided to construct a new building across the street from the original museum.

In 1955 the Heimatforscher (somebody researching his homeland, home town or region) and owner of the Meierhof Walter Blankenburg (1901-1984) from Wandlitz opened the so-called “Heimatstube”. He and his wife Margot had been collecting various commonly used items from rural households with the help of other residents over the course of several years that could now be shown for the first time raising a lot of public interest. Over time and with public funding the “Heimatstube” was expanded into a museum by repurposing two barns, a stable, and a 5,381 square foot (500m²) large auditorium gifted by the Free German Trade Union Federation was added to cope with the fast growing collection, now largely consisting of agricultural equipment and machinery. The museum staff was supported on an academic level by the Berlin State Museums.

In 1975 the museum was renamed to "Museum der agraren Produktivkräfte" (approximate translation: Museum of the Agricultural Workforce).

The sculpture, created by Walter Arnold, positioned in front of the multi-purpose building in the 1980s was a long-time loan to the museum from a museum in Berlin. The sculpture was given back to its original museum in Berlin in 2011.