Pre-modern collection of the Ruhr Museum

The pre-modern collection is one of the Ruhr Museum's oldest collections. Its history goes back to the founding of the museum, when the citizens of Essen set out to collect the relics of a world threatened by industrialisation and to reassure themselves of their traditions and identities. In this respect, the pre-modern collection is also, at least in its origins, the most regional, indeed the most local, of the museum.