Cloppenburg Museum Village

The Cloppenburg Museum Village and Lower Saxon Open-Air Museum (German: Museumsdorf Cloppenburg – Niedersächsisches Freilichtmuseum) located in the Lower Saxon county town of Cloppenburg is the oldest museum village in Germany. The museum is a research and educational establishment specializing in cultural and rural history.

The Lower Saxon Open-Air Museum is a non-profit organisation. Although the museum does not set out to compete for visitors, in 2009 the Cloppenburg Museum Village had more visitors than any other museum in Lower Saxony (250,000). In 2004, the museum was visited by more than 60,000 students as a part of their school curriculum.

The Museum Village was laid out in 1934 by the Cloppenburg senior schoolmaster, Heinrich Ottenjann, and was ceremonially opened on Ascension Day in 1936. On 13 April 1945, six houses in the museum village were destroyed by artillery fire, including the Quatmannshof farm. By 1962, this farm had been rebuilt in a way that was faithful in detail to the original. The second museum director after Heinrich Ottenjann was his son, Helmut Ottenjann (1961–1996). Since 1996, Uwe Meiners has been the director of the open-air museum.

Today, the Lower Saxon Open-Air Museum acts as a research and educational establishment for cultural and agricultural history. The museum's education facilities are always activity- and product-oriented.

Research work concentrates on folklore, regional history and historic rural houses. A team of three scientists is responsible for investigation and construction of new houses, work that is constantly supported by volunteers and project partners. This work is documented not just in scientific journals and volumes; the museum village also publishes its own books and papers. The scientific staff are supported by craftsmen, who maintain the museum village and demonstrate traditional crafts to its visitors.

Since 2009, the Carola Wüstefeld Foundation has supported the village by donating €50,000 annually for the maintenance of its buildings.

Covering an area of about 20 hectares (49 acres), the Lower Saxon Open-Air Museum portrays the history of rural life in the Lower Saxony region from 16th century to the present. Over 50 historic buildings, with their associated rural gardens and surrounding agricultural fields, illustrate the relationship of man to his environment over the course of time.

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