Permanent exhibition

The collection includes works of art and artefacts from every art-historical period from medieval to modern times, represented, for example, by works of contemporary artists like Thom Barth or Res Ingold. The present collection was only started in 1948, as the old museum had been completely destroyed by bombs during World War II. Of particular importance are works of art by artists who went into ‘inner emigration’ at the time of the ‘Third Reich’ and retired to the Lake Constance region: Otto Dix, Max Ackermann, Willi Baumeister, Erich Heckel, Julius Bissier, and others.

The collection also has some surprises in store, among others the painting ‘Judith with the Head of Holofernes’ of 1605 by Thomann von Hagelstein. The artist painted it on the back of a printing plate, from which the oldest surviving maps of Asia were printed. Another outstanding example of regional art is the mid-15th-century crucifix discovered in a small chapel just a few kilometres north of Friedrichshafen in the late 1980s. The restorers carefully removed layers of paint applied to it in subsequent centuries to reveal the original colouring.

Prints and drawings form the bulk of the museum’s art collection. To protect these works of art, only a small portion is on show for a limited period at any one time.