Skins and things

German Leather Museum offers detailed look into tanning industry, ways in which hides have been used through the ages

Story and photos by Karl Weisel

U.S. Army Garrison Hessen Public Affairs Office

“Shoes are the first adult machines we are given to master,” — Nicholson Baker

 

“If I have any justification for having lived it’s simply, I’m nothing but faults, failures and so on, but I have tried to make a good pair of shoes. There’s some value in that,” — Arthur Miller

 

“You can do anything, but lay off my blue suede shoes,” — Carl Perkins

 

What do 15,000-year-old depictions of humans discovered on a cave wall in Spain have in common with a 5,000-year-old man found frozen in a glacier?

The answer is they were all wearing shoes.

Like Imelda Marcus who was fascinated by the subject of shoes, Offenbach’s Leather Museum offers rare insight into the leather industry and the many uses of animal skins throughout history.

Actually three museums in one, the German Leather Museum offers visitors a wide-ranging look into the changing styles of footwear through the ages, the multifaceted ways in which leather has been used in everything from African masks to Chinese shadow plays to whimsical artistic renderings of fanciful foot fare.

Three museums in one

Housed in a reconstructed warehouse, the museum combines Europe’s largest Shoe Museum with an Ethnological Museum and a Museum for Applied Art and Industry. One might assume leather to be a rather dry subject, but quite the opposite is the case, and children too will discover much to hold their interest.

Objects range from elaborate costumes used in African fertility dances to shrunken heads taken in battle by Jibaro Indians in Ecuador and Peru, drums constructed by the original inhabitants of the American plains to a size 22 shoe once worn by Miami Heat superstar Shaquille O’Neal, then with the Los Angeles Lakers. Other unusual exhibits include the smallest leather-bound book in the world, “Vaterunser,” printed in some seven languages and a leather-made Irish round boat which traversed the Boyne River in the 1920s.

Egyptian discovery

One of the oldest objects on display, a 6,000-year-old vessel unearthed in an Egyptian tomb, is purported to be the oldest existing decorated leather container still available in the world, according to German Leather Museum director, Dr. Christian Rathke, who explained that while there are other vessels just as old in other museums, Offenbach’s is the only decorated object of its kind. It survived through the ages thanks to the warm climate and airtight conditions of the tomb, he said.

Despite few of the exhibits having English-language descriptions, visitors will still discover a wealth of intriguing displays showcasing everything from Spanish cowboys and German pioneers in America to a briefcase carried by Napoleon Bonaparte and a hat box used by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Those interested in American history will discover that anthropologists speculate pre-Columbus America was populated by some 5-10 million people who spoke more than 500 different languages. Today only a smattering of those languages have survived, and until the 1950s most children in reservation schools were only taught English.

The shoe making craft was mostly women’s work among the Native American tribes, according to museum literature.

Visitors can view moccasins dating back to the 1800s worn by plains Indians and will learn that sandals have been found that were once worn by Anasazi Indians, forefathers of the Pueblo, around 100 A.D.

Those interested in American history can also read about how Pennsylvania namesake William Penn traveled to Frankfurt in 1677 to describe the religious tolerance and freedom observed in the New World and to invite more German pioneers to join his colony in America. One will also learn that the city of Bethlehem, Penn., was founded by Count Nikolaus Heernhaag of Büdingen in 1741.

It’s no coincidence that Offenbach, just east of Frankfurt on the Main River, serves as the home of Germany’s Leather Museum. The city was Germany’s leather capital before World War I and continued to host hundreds of vendors specializing in leather wares even later in the early 20th century. Due to the city’s proximity to Frankfurt — Germany’s trade fair and market center for centuries — leather handlers had easy access to the world’s markets.

In 1925 there were some 507 leather firms in Offenbach, according to museum literature, but with the ever increasing availability of less expensive leather wares from other countries — such as the now 40 percent imported from China — by 1998 there remained only 24 companies specializing in leather production in Offenbach.

Age-old craft still practiced in Germany

A video exhibit on the ground floor of the museum, situated just off from a cafeteria featuring coffee, cake and other refreshments, details how leather is still produced by hand in Germany.

Offenbach’s Leather Museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Saturdays it remains open until 10 p.m.). It is located not far from the downtown area at Frankfurter Strasse 86. The S-1, -2, -8 and -9 S-Bahns stop near the museum at a station marked “Ledermuseum.” Signs also direct drivers entering Offenbach to the museum.

Admission is €4 for adults, €2 for children and €8 for a family ticket.

For more information about the museum visit www.ledermuseum.de or call civ (069) 810 900.