Glasmuseum Wertheim, Glass museum in Wertheim, Germany

Glasmuseum Wertheim occupies roughly 650 square meters of exhibition space displaying glass objects from ancient times to the present day. The collection shows both artistic pieces and practical applications of the material across many different periods.

The museum was established in 1976 to document the development of glass-making techniques from early times through the modern era. It preserved knowledge of the craft and industrial processes that the region had practiced for a long time.

The museum's name and collection trace back to Ilmenau glass physicist Hans Löber, who left East Germany with specialists in 1949 and founded a laboratory glassworks in Wertheim in 1950. He gathered historical glass across eras and, with employees, created the support association in 1973. In the entrance hall hangs a glass-bead tree over a metre tall, styled after an East German Christmas pyramid.

The museum occupies two half-timbered houses, the Kallenbach'sches Haus of 1577 and the Kleines Haus of 1588, separated by an inner courtyard. The exhibition is ordered alphabetically from A to Z rather than chronologically, so visitors can follow their own interests. In the workshop a glassblower works glass tubing and rods before a flame of 1600 degrees Celsius, and visitors may blow their own glass baubles.

The collection includes scientific instruments, medical equipment, and industrial components made of glass, showing how versatile the material is beyond traditional art forms. These practical objects often reveal surprising stories about the demands and innovations of different fields of work.