Leipzig Museum of Ethnography

The Leipzig Museum of Ethnography (German: Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig) is a large ethnographic museum in Leipzig, Germany. Today it is part of the Grassi Museum, an institution which also includes the Museum of Applied Arts and the Museum of Musical Instruments, based in a large building on the Johannisplatz.

The Leipzig Museum of Ethnography is one of three museums in the Saxonian State Ethnographical Collections which belong to the Dresden State Art Collections.

The museum traces its origins to the historian, librarian and court counsellor Gustav Klemm, whose cultural historical collection found a permanent home in the newly founded museum in 1869, shortly after his death. At first it was provisionally kept in former chemical laboratories in Leipzig. The collection was expanded in the following decades, and exhibitions were held in various buildings across the city, organised by the Association of the Museum of Ethnography. In 1895 the collection moved into the Old Grassi Museum on the Königsplatz, built over three years specifically for this purpose, though now home to the municipal library. The city of Leipzig took over the museum in 1904. In 1929 it moved into the New Grassi Museum on the Johannisplatz, whose construction had begun in 1925.

The museum closed at the outbreak of World War II. The building was severely hit by a bombing raid in 1943 which destroyed 30,000 objects. Rebuilding began in 1947, with the first permanent exhibitions reopened in 1954. Damage to the central heating forced the closure of the museum from 1981-85. Since 1991 the museum has been run by the Saxonian State Ministry of Science and Art. In 1994 the German postal service issued a memorial stamp to commemorate the museum's 125th anniversary. The New Grassi Museum was renovated from 2000–05, necessitating the closure of the main Ethnography Museum during that time, though a small exhibition was held elsewhere. The museum was gradually reopened from 2005-09.

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