Living tradition

The thatched house has been a listed building for a long time. However, Ellen Melzer, who has been working passionately for the four Mönchgut museums since 2005, says that Ms Bahls would not recognize it from the inside. In addition to the local history museum, these include the Rookhus in Göhren, the museum ship Luise and the Mönchgut Museumshof. Ms. Bahls has simply collected and inventoried everything she could get from the old-established Mönchgut residents," she explains, "95 percent of what we have accumulated over the years can no longer be shown here.

Probably also because the aim and aspirations of the museum have changed over time. The local history museum in Göhren aims to show tradition and history, but in a modern guise. The light, architecturally appealing extension to the half-timbered house built in 1850 was already a highlight. Since the modernization last year, the upper floor of the museum has now been included in the exhibition for the first time. In his pictures from the 1960s, the Stralsund-born photographer Volkmar Herre showed the originality and idyll of Mönchgut. Particularly impressive are the motifs of the local fishermen, who will not be forgotten in this way.

One of the highlights of the local history museum are the various traditional costumes that used to be the everyday wardrobe of the people of M¨nchgut. The mostly plain black garments sometimes weighed up to 7.5 kilograms. Ellen Melzer explains: „This also included the shirtshirt trousers, which were calf-length with wide legs and a knotted linen waistband.“ Why were the garments so heavy? „People probably lived according to the motto: ‚What is good for the cold is also good for the warmth.“  

The traditional costumes were painstakingly made by hand after the fabrics were produced on massive looms. One of them is still in the museum today. Spinning and weaving have a long tradition on Mönchgut, and sheep have been bred here for centuries. The Pomeranian sheep in particular characterize the image of the gentle green hills of the region. And even today, the sheep in the Südost-Rügen biosphere reserve are both landscape conservationists and wool producers. Shepherds Frank and Christian Westphal are the second generation to breed the animals and process the organic wool into modern and sustainable wool clothing in cooperation with the regional company „Nordwolle Rügen“.

A brand new: 5,000-year-old artifacts from the duke's tomb

For the first time, some 5,000-year-old artifacts from the famous „Duke's Tomb“ are now on display in Göhren. Until now, only a few replicas of the finds made by teacher and local poet Fritz Worm in 1920 between Göhren and Alt Reddevitz in a Neolithic grave were on display. The originals have now been made available to the museum of local history by the University of Greifswald.

A visit to the Rookhus

If you want to experience an entire 17th century Mönchgut fisherman's farmhouse, you can also do so in the architecturally unique Rauchhaus – plattdeutsch „Rookhus“ –. It is just a five-minute walk from the Göhrener Heimatmuseum –! 

„My favorite topic  in the museum, however“, reveals Ellen Melzer, „is, besides the “Rookhus”, the so-called Petersburg Hängung in one of our rooms. These are wonderful paintings by artists who all have a connection to Mönchgut, such as Tom Beyer, Elisabeth Büchsel or Hans Porwoll. I really love this room.“

Concept good. All good.

And what about the visitors – are they also taking to the newly designed museum in Göhren? Managing Director Jörn Kleinhardt can confirm that: „Our  visitor numbers are very pleasing,  the concept seems to be working. Or as Ellen Melzer puts it: ‚Those who visit us know afterwards: this is M nchgut. This is the history of our homeland.‘“