Cities & Culture

German Leather Museum Offenbach

This museum boasts a unique collection spanning six millennia and five continents and featuring more than 30,000 objects from the applied arts, ethnology and the German Shoe Museum.

Highlights include masterpieces of European leather design from the Middle Ages to the modern day, footwear spanning four millennia and exceptional ethnological items from America, Africa, Asia and the polar region. Within the Applied Arts Collection, the items on display include Coptic Egyptian belts and bags, Late-Romanesque book covers and little boxes, decorative objects from noble and bourgeois households from the 17th and 18th centuries, and trunks, bags and travel accessories from the modern and post-modern age with all kinds of designs.

The museum also presents new developments based on sustainability and innovation. It is even home to items made from alternative materials that are similar to leather. The impressive collection of shoes is made up of over 15,000 exhibits that represent the footwear of many ethnic groups from four millennia. Visitors can expect to see boots worn by Roman legionaries, platform shoes belonging to Venetian courtesans and the silk ankle boots of Austrian Empress Sissi. Opening times: Wednesday to Friday: 10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m., Saturday, Sunday, public holiday: 11.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m., on the second Thursday of the month until 8 p.m.

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