After 21 years of searching, the German Hop Museum has now found its final location. A spectacular new building was constructed in the heart of Wolnzach’s city center, a museum in the shape of a hop garden.
Founding of the association and location problems
In 1984, a group of Wolnzach citizens gathered in order to set up the “Verein Deutsches Hopfenmuseum e. V. Wolnzach” (registered association for promoting the German Hop Museum). Their aim was the founding of a museum for the history of hop growing in the heart of the Hallertau, the world’s largest hop producing area. The naming reflected the mission because this museum was not supposed to become a small local history museum with local ambitions but a museum for researching, preserving and presenting the diverse cultural history of hop growing at a supraregional level. Shortly after the founding, the association had already gathered as many as several hundred members. Moreover, all important institutions from the hop producing and hop trading industries as well as several German breweries have permanently supported the project as sponsors or members. Up to 2008, master electrician Norbert Nemetz served as first chairman of the association. Currently, Johannes Sommerer is in charge. Unfortunately, the originally planned location in the so-called Lipphof, an empty building from the 1930s, was no longer at disposal during the planning period. Beginning of the 1990s, an odyssey began leading to at least a dozen of planned and rejected locations at the outskirts and in villages around Wolnzach. In retrospect, this period can be considered as a kind of „maturing period”. In 2000, everyone involved agreed that the German Hop Museum had to be located in the center of Wolnzach! As originally planned, it was erected on the Lipphof premises, in direct vicinity of the hop growers association, the hop consulting service and the HVG Hallertau e.G., on the future “Platz des Hopfens” (hop square).
A hop garden as a museum
In order to find an appropriate building responding to the importance of museum and location, the local authorities launched an architectural competition in the year 2000. The concept of the Munich office Krug & Partner emerged as the winner. The design was a building in the shape of a hop garden with a roof and supporting structure that is supposed to remind one of the juxtaposition of hop poles. Spectacular and traditional at the same time, this modern architecture sets up a distinct connection to the traditions of the hop growing region.
Administration union: administrative region – district – municipality – association
In 1990, the “Zweckverband Deutsches Hopfenmuseum” met in order to secure the funding of the project and the future operation of the museum. It comprises at equal shares the municipality of Wolnzach, the district of Pfaffenhofen/Ilm and the administrative region of Upper Bavaria. The municipality of Wolnzach on behalf of the “Zweckverband” is the proprietor of the building.
In 2007, the “Verein Deutsches Hopfenmuseum e. V.” became a member of the “Zweckverband”.
