Museum for local history in Rudolstadt.

The Thuringian farmhouses are considered to be the oldest open-air museum in Germany. However, the Heinrich Heine Park in Rudolstadt is not the original location of the farm complex, which consists of several buildings. In 1914/1915, the two houses, the Unterhaseler Haus and the Birkenheider Haus, were demolished at their original locations and rebuilt here. Local Rudolstadt residents saved the half-timbered buildings from imminent demolition. They found support in the "Marie Richter Foundation", which goes back to the Richter family, owners of the "Richters Anker-Steinbaukästen" production facility in Rudolstadt. They not only contributed to the industrial boom in Rudolstadt, but were also involved in cultural and social projects. After the houses were built, volunteers from the "Verein für Rudolstädter Geschichte und Heimatschutz" (Association for Rudolstadt History and Heritage Protection) took over the furnishing of the houses with rural furniture, household and work tools as well as textile folk art products collected in the Rudolstadt area. Over the years, more than 1000 individual pieces were collected, from spoons to cradles, from potato graters to looms. Despite the First World War, the reconstruction and furnishings were completed in just over a year, enabling the museum to be officially opened in May 1915. In 1939, the museum was taken over by the city of Rudolstadt. In 1964, it became a branch of the Heidecksburg Rudolstadt State Museums. Since 2006, the facility has once again been run by the town of Rudolstadt, while the inventory belongs to the Thuringian State Museum Heidecksburg. The beautifully shaped and colorful products of folk art form an apparent contrast to the low social status of the rural population. This art, which reached its peak at the turn of the 19th century and can be seen in its unity of interior decoration and architecture, was intended to form a counterpoint to their poor social situation. It is not an art that is exclusively geared towards representation, as is the case with the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, but peasant art is almost without exception applied art, combining practicality with beauty of form.