Imhoff-Schokoladenmuseum

The Chocolate Museum in Cologne is the first museum which presents the chain of making chocolate from the cocoa bean to the consumer by the consumer in a clear manner with historical exhibits.

History

Founder of the museum was the Cologne Chocolate producer Hans Imhoff. The majority of it since January 1972 belonging Stollwerck AG was one of the leading historically significant chocolate manufacturers worldwide. She had a large pool of exhibits that in the new location Köln-West Hoven stood out the company owner when moving in December 1975. He came up with the idea to build a chocolate museum where these exhibits were better off. When moving the company Stollwerck to Cologne - Westhoven he saw also that a comprehensive portfolio of business records and photographs documenting the history of the company and the business family Stollwerck, along with numerous exhibits were preserved.

With his idea of the museum he initially met with skepticism. But he got involved in an experiment in which he from July 8 to August 20, 1989 an exhibition in Cologne Gurzenich hosted for the 150th anniversary of the company business Stollwerck and a legendary chocolate fountain presented. Then came to the exhibition within six weeks, more than five times as many visitors as he had made ​​it a condition. The museum was planned independently of the production as the first building in the new city district Rheinauhafen by the architect Fritz Eller. Here, the former customs building and the swing bridge with stone tower was included.

The then and now only remaining one of its kind museum was opened as Stollwerk Chocolate Museum by the then Stollwerck CEO Hans Imhoff on 31 October 1993. The cost was 53 million marks.

Attractions

In the exhibition, the entire history of chocolate, from their beginnings in the Olmec, Maya and Aztecs to today's chocolate -containing products and their production methods. On the extensive 4,000 sqm of exhibition space, a miniature production plant is installed, the visitors demonstrated the operation of industrial chocolate making.

A small (100 square meters ) walk- tropical house - a glass cube with an edge length of 10 meters - shows cocoa trees of the species Theobroma cacao Theobroma grandiflorum and. Some production facilities were rebuilt miniaturized, which you can in the manufacturing process of small chocolate bars that are distributed at the entrance to the visitors watch. A special attraction is the three-meter high chocolate fountain, dipping to that of an employee of the museum waffles in the liquid chocolate and distributed to the visitors. In the entrance area of the museum is a store with chocolate and chocolates of all kinds with an emphasis on Lindt & Sprüngli - products.

Precious collection pieces are porcelain and silver bowls of the 18th and 19th century pieces from the pre-Columbian Mesoamerica for drinking chocolate. Furthermore, exhibited historical machines and molds for casting chocolate figures. Furthermore, a collection of historical Chocolate vending machine is shown.

Location and meaning

The museum is located in Cologne's city center on the peninsula in Rheinau Rheinauhafen. It counts with 4,000 annually guides and 650,000 visitors to the 10 most popular German museums. The operation of the museum does not require subsidies, including a marketing department contributes. It is used as a venue by the Chocolate Museum Gastronomie GmbH. Since inception in October 1993 came by October 2013 more than 11 million visitors, or an average of about 650,000 per year. Nearby is the German Sports and Olympic Museum was established.

Operator

The museum is operated by the Chocolate Museum Cologne GmbH. New partner in the production exhibition since March 2006, the Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Sprüngli. Prior to this partnership was borne by the Cologne Chocolate Manufacturers Stollwerck, which was also reflected in the old name of the Museum ( Imhoff -Stollwerck Museum).

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