The only ceramics museum in Thuringia describes the 450-year history of the pottery trade in Bürgel. The permanent exhibition documents the production and use of pottery through the ages using traditional methods and long-forgotten vessel shapes. The history of the museum itself dates back to 1880 - a display collection was set up at the suggestion of Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. A modeling and drawing school was also intended to help the pottery trade in Bürgel to flourish economically; traditional pottery workshops, majolica factories and art potteries produced pottery here. Around 1900, the Belgian designer and pioneer of Art Nouveau, Henry van de Velde, was commissioned by the Grand Duke to design model series of tableware and decorative items as artistic advisor to the Bürgel workshops. The immediate proximity to the later Bauhaus ceramics workshop in Dornburg also left its mark in Bürgel. The museum's special exhibitions focus on the history of individual Bürgel pottery workshops; in addition, the „Ceramics Prize Winners“ series also presents representatives of modern ceramics every year.