FIRST FLOOR: 1918 to 1945
The first years after the end of World War Two
were a time of need and want. Hauenstein was
part of the French zone of occupation. Shoes
were made from substitutes. Leather shoes
could often only be got on the “black market” in
exchange for food.
These problems, however, were soon a thing of
the past. In the 1950s, Hauenstein fully
participated in the “German economic miracle”.
Not only many Hauensteiners, but also a lot of
people from the surrounding villages worked in
the shoe factories. All in all, there were 34
factories at Hauenstein which employed more
than 2500 workers. A typical shoe shop of the
1950s helps the visitor to visualize this boom
time.
Since about 1965, however, the situation of
German shoe manufacturing started to
deteriorate. Imported shoes conquered the
German market. At the same time the
automatisation
of
shoe
manufacturing
progressed and the number of workers
employed decreased. The museum shows this
process of automatisation by means of different
types of pincing maching. The efforts to
rationalize and modernize production could not
stop the crisis and downfall of German shoe
manufacturing.
At Hauenstein, too, a lot of factories had to shut
down and many workers were made redundant.
Today shoe manufacturing has lost the
overwhelming importance for the local economy
it had had between the 1890s and 1960s. The
region now tries to attract other industries.
Furthermore it succesfully promotes tourism,
whose importance for the region has grown
during the last two decades.
A TOUR THROUGH THE
MUSEUM
SOME BASIC INFORMATION
„The Museum of Shoe Manufacturing and
Industrial History“ documents the development
of shoe production during the last two centuries.
It has three floors. Each floor deals with a
specific period of history. Yellow arrows and the
letter „R“ (Rundgang = circuit) show the visitor
the way through the museum.
Attention:
Our museum is meant to be an open museum.
Therefore, groups wanting to visit the museum
are also welcome outside the official opening
hours.
The circuit starts on the ground floor.
GROUND FLOOR: 1740 to 1918
The circuit continues on the third floor
Third Floor
The origins of shoe manufacturing in the
Palatinate are at Pirmasens. It was started by
discharged soldiers who worked as artisans. The
workshop in the front part of the ground floor
illustrates this kind of shoe manufacturing. In
the middle of the 19th century, the Pirmasens
shoemakers began using machines. While
Pirmasens was becoming one of the centres of
European shoe manufacturing, Hauenstein was
still a small village of poor peasants who also
worked in the woods. The trunk in the museum
helps the visitors to visualize this kind of
employment.
At first some Hauensteiners did domestic work
for the Pirmasens shoe manufacturers. In 1886,
however, the Seibel brothers founded the first
shoe factory at Hauenstein. The hand-driven
machines then used can be seen in the
museum. At Hauenstein, the years up to 1914
were a time of a great economic boom. In 1914
there were 20 factories which altogether
employed more than one thousand female and
male workers. This boom was interrupted by the
war. Many factories were shut down, while the
rest had to produce boots for the army.
On this floor we can see the great and
fascinating “Ernst-Tillmann-Sammlung” It is the
biggest European shoe collection and contains
more than 3 500 shoes from all over the world.
Every shoe tells his own story.
The circuit continues on the second floor
SECOND FLOOR: 1918 to 1945
The 1920s and 1930s were years full of
economic and political problems: The Palatinate
was occupied by French troops between 1918
and 1930. The great inflation of 1922/23 and
the world economic crisis which started in 1929
threatened to overwhelm shoe manufacturing at
Hauenstein. Foreign competition and the
changes of fashion forced the factory owners to
modernize production and to adapt rapidly to
changing circumstances. Times were much more
difficult than before World War One.
The exhibits on the second floor document the
different steps which are needed to make a
shoe: design, cutting, clicking, sewing, pincing,
bottom attaching, finishing. The museum
displays the machines which were then used in a
mechanised shoe factory. Those machines got
their energy from a steam engine which was
connected to them by a system of transmission
belts. Such a steam engine can be seen at the
entrance of the museum.
In 1933 the national socialists seized power in
Hauenstein, a village where hardly anyone had
voted for them during the elections between
1930 and 1933. The canteen in the back part of
the second floor is meant to illustrate the
political and social atmosphere of the nazi
period. More and more, the factories now made
foot wear for the German army. During the war,
many forced labourers from Russia, Poland, and
France had to work at Hauenstein.