Spiegelgasse Active Museum, Jewish history museum in Spiegelgasse, Wiesbaden, Germany.
The Spiegelgasse Active Museum occupies two connected buildings at numbers 9 and 11 on the street of the same name and documents the Jewish history of Wiesbaden. Building number 11 is one of the oldest residential structures in the city and houses a library with archives and rotating exhibitions.
In autumn 1987 citizens joined to save house no. 11 from decay and demolition; in March 1988 this initiative became the Förderkreis Aktives Museum deutsch-jüdischer Geschichte in Wiesbaden e. V. The association opened its office at Spiegelgasse 7 in 1993, rented the restored no. 11 as an exhibition house in summer 1999, received the city's culture prize that November, and took its present name in 2001. In 2004 co-founder Lothar Bembenek and chair Dorothee Lottmann-Kaeseler received the Obermayer German Jewish History Award.
The place takes its name from the street where it sits and shows how Jewish families shaped daily life in the city over centuries. The exhibitions and archives tell stories of their crafts, businesses, and everyday routines in Wiesbaden.
The association's office, the roughly 6,000-volume specialist library and the archive are in Spiegelgasse 9, while the exhibition house is the restored timber-framed building at Spiegelgasse 11. The two neighbouring houses stand in the old town centre, a short walk from the Michelsberg, the site of the destroyed synagogue. The AMS is run by a volunteer association, so visits and group tours should be arranged in advance.
About 784 memorial stones have been placed in front of 427 houses across Wiesbaden under the museum's supervision. These brass plaques honor individual Holocaust victims and make their stories visible throughout the city.
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