Association & collections

The association of the Burgdorf Castle Museum

The charitable association of the Burgdorf Castle Museum has been running since 01 February 2017.  It is responsible for the new conception and the management of the new museum in Burgdorf Castle. The collections are organised into three associations. The museum and its role as a cultural institution of regional importance is maintained by the town of Burgdorf, the canton of Berne, the regional communes and the Burgergemeinde Burgdorf by annual financial contributions.

Charter
The charter describes the overall direction of the work of the museum:
the charter in PDF form (in German)

Organisation chart and contactsThe current organisation chart in German (PDF)
All contacts of the museum

A brief history of the museumThere has been a museum in Burgdorf Castle since 1886. At that time, some citizens took the initiative to start up the association of the Knights’ Hall in order to preserve this historic hall and make it accessible to the public. The historic collection started with objects donated by the Civic Community of Burgdorf and committed individuals. In 1959, the association of the Knights’ Hall was able to open the dungeon, the entrance tower platform and eight rooms for the public, and gradually a museum was established. In 2000, the Swiss Museum of Gold inaugurated its exhibition rooms by exhibiting its geological and artisanal collection.  Finally, in 2001 the Burgdorf Ethnological Museum moved into the castle with its collection founded by Heinrich Schiffmann (1872 – 1904). When the court, the prison and the prefecture left the castle in 2012, other rooms became free. They have been occupied since 2020 by the new museum, a youth hostel and a restaurant.

The collectionsThe Burgdorf Castle Museum contains three collections that are organised into autonomous associations:

• The historic collection of the association of the Knights’ Hall
• The ethnological collection
• The gold room

The historic collection of the association of the Knights’ HallThe association of the Knights’ Hall is the owner of the historic collection. Founded in 1886, its goal was to prevent the Canton of Berne from constructing prison cells in the Knights’ Hall and the chapel. The outcome was one of the first museums in Switzerland. The collection of the association of the Knights’ Hall contains a rich body of objects and documents dating from the central Middle Ages to the 21st century. There we can find testimonies from historical characters like the Maritz family of cannon producers, the educator Pestalozzi, the liberal politicians of the Schnell family or even the writer Jeremias Gotthelf. Furthermore, the collection comprises numerous objects that tell a story of the daily life, artisanship, commerce and industrial history of the region around Burgdorf. Documents enable us to see social, political, economic and cultural events in the canton of Berne and in the Burgdorf region from around the 17th century until the present day. The association of the Knights’ Hall looks after its collection and constantly enlarges it through purchases and donations.

President: Edith Müller
Contact: Burgdorf Association of the Knights’ Hall, 3400 Burgdorf, Tel 034 422 86 86, Email
Become a member: individual membership: CHF 20.-, couples: CHF 30.-, companies and associations: CHF 100.-, life membership: CHF 500.-

The Burgdorf ethnological collectionThe foundations of the Burgdorf ethnological collection were laid by Heinrich Schiffmann (1872 – 1904), son of an important family of cheese exporters. Suffering from tuberculosis, he spent a lot of his life travelling all over the world and bought many ethnographic objects that he bequeathed in his will to the gymnasium of his native town, Burgdorf. Five years after Schiffmann’s premature death in 1904, his collection, made up of 500 objects, was opened to the public on 02 May 1909. In the 100 years that followed, the collection continually grew thanks to the tireless commitment of its curators. Today, the ethnographic collection of Burgdorf contains 5,000 objects from the cultures of Asia, Africa, America and Oceania.

Online publication: Thomsen, H. B., Gruber, M. R., Gomez Morilla, R., & Herren, A. (Éd.). (2017). Entdeckerlust – Burgdorfer Sammlerpersönlichkeiten und ihre ostasiatischen Schätze. History of Art Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Download E-Pub-File

Presidents : Beat Gugger, Richard Kunz
Contact : Support association of the Burgdorf ethnographic collection, CP 1544, 3401 Burgdorf, Tel 034 426 10 40 (Mon-Thr: from 08.30 to 11.30), Email
Become a member: individual membership: CHF 40.-, couples : CHF 60.-, companies: CHF 100.-

Swiss gold roomIn June 2000, the Swiss gold museum was opened in Burgdorf Castle on the initiative of Werner Lüthi. Its collection is unique in Switzerland and documents the history and the search for gold in Switzerland from its beginnings up to the emergence of gold panning as a hobby, which today is relatively popular in Switzerland.  The “Gold Room” association owns, manages and augments the collection, which includes specimens of gold in its most diverse forms, whether that be gold flakes or nuggets from various rivers in Switzerland and abroad or crystallised gold from Europe, Canada, the USA and Australia. The collection also includes objects from different cultures, art and science, which show the wide range of uses and the importance of gold in the cultural history of humanity.

President : Werner Lüthi
Contact : Goldkammer Schweiz, 3400 Burgdorf, Email
Become a member : individual membership: CHF 30.-, couples : CHF 40.-, companies and associations : CHF 100.-