Picture gallery - Blue Salon

Out and about on the adventurous Middle Rhine - Biedermeier ambience

Watch out - the English are coming

A large number of views of the town show Oberwesel during the so-called Rhine Romantic period. The old views, from times before the railroad and car traffic, are impressive. The first Rhine tourists - mainly English - arrived before 1800.

With the expansion of steam navigation in the first half of the 19th century, they came to the Rhine in droves, raving about the picturesque castle ruins and the old gray towns. Many painters brought landscape paintings home with them and produced inexpensive steel engravings there. This is how tourism began here on the Middle Rhine - wonderfully illustrated by the excellent pictures in the gallery of our museum.

The Blue Salon - lifestyle in the century before last

Anyone who was self-respecting and had the necessary money would set up a drawing room on their second floor. This was intended for representation and offered the opportunity to receive guests and host family celebrations in keeping with their status. The Franz Hoffmann family, who had the former winery built in 1867, had the same idea. During the conversion of the house into a museum, it was possible to reconstruct the so-called Blue Salon on the first floor, also known as the "Sälchen", largely in its original state. In particular, the wonderful wallpaper - fine manufactured goods - was uncovered under various layers with great sensitivity.

The last living member of the family died in 2000 and had lived in her parents' house until then. She had seen three centuries, as she was born in 1896 - Antoinette Hoffman, a young lady and an Oberwesel original in the best sense of the word.

The museum is delighted to keep her memory alive.