"Having a wild time!”, the Hirschwirtscheuer is saying goodbye

More than 100 exhibitions in almost 40 years

The Hirschwirtscheuer was the first exhibition venue initiated by Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Reinhold Würth and combined the history of the Sommer family of artists with modern and contemporary art from the Würth Collection. Since its opening in November 1989, after Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG had the historic Hirschwirtscheuer building reconstructed based on plans of Öhringen-based Hugo Müller architects, the building has shaped the cultural life of the historic town center of Künzelsau. The Würth Collection presented a total of 103 exhibitions there. In addition to smaller monographic and thematic presentations of modern and contemporary art as well as a small permanent exhibition on the Sommer family of artists, works from workshops of Hotel-Restaurant Anne-Sophie with art by special people were regularly shown.

The historic house with barn had been built around 1760. At the time, Ms. Hirsch decided to underline her position as an innkeeper with an “atlante”, a structural support sculpted as a male figure by Johann Andreas Sommer (1716-1776), turning it into an early art-on-the-building monument and characteristic feature of the Hirschwirtscheuer. In 1984, Fritz Kellermann, founder of the Künstlerfamilie Sommer e. V. non-profit association, approached Reinhold Würth after research into the family and asked him to chair the association. Reinhold Würth gladly accepted and kept his chair until 1999. The participation of many members in the association, the subsequently established Stadtmuseum Künzelsau working group, the Volkshochschule education center and a great deal of volunteering helped raise awareness for this cultural heritage throughout the region. In November 1989, the Hirschwirtscheuer was inaugurated as a museum for the Sommer family of artists.

The Sommer family of artists, a Franconian family of sculptors, master builders and artisan carpenters, is considered one of the most important families of the Southern German Baroque period. They were active in the region from the 17th to the 19th century, especially for the Hohenlohe princely houses. Their workshop was located at Schlossplatz, Künzelsau, and their works can be found in the castles and churches in and around Künzelsau, as well as in the towns of Castell, Stetten im Remstal and Weikersheim. As only a handful of original pieces of the Sommer family of artists were available, the Hirschwirtscheuer quickly turned into an exhibition venue showing art from the Würth Collection in context with cultural-historical topics from the region.

C. Sylvia Weber, long-standing Director of the Würth Collection, shaped the exhibition program from the very beginning, from 1999 as Chair of its supporting association, accompanied by Roland Krause and Wolfgang Kunzfeld and other cultural professionals in the region, as well as artists from the Würth Collection. This was supported by generous funding by Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG and the team of Museum Würth. Three sculptures from the Sommer family of artists, which were shown in the Hirschwirtscheuer as permanent loans from the town of Künzelsau, will be returned to the town of Künzelsau after its closure. The sculpture group of Olympic gods by Georg Christoph Sommer and further permanent loans from the barons of Crailsheim will be put on display elsewhere.

Maria Würth, Executive Vice President of the Würth Group for Arts and Culture, said: “The Hirschwirtscheuer laid the foundation for the exhibition activities of the Würth Collection and remains a vivid memory. With the new building, we want to maintain the importance of this place while at the same time creating room for new encounters in the heart of Künzelsau.”

New building to expand Kulturhaus Würth

The new building on a space of roughly 600 m² will help develop this traditional venue for the future. The barrier-free design with a stepless entrance and elevator allows for easy access for all visitors. At the same time, an event room for some 100 people and a meeting room create new opportunities for the neighboring Kulturhaus Würth. Author readings, workshops, lectures or the “Singbar!” music event will be hosted here in the future. The relocation of the event space to the new building also provides for more space in Kulturhaus Würth for an individual area for children’s and youth literature in the Bibliothek Frau Holle library.

The cultural center Kulturhaus Würth, which was opened in 2017, is home to Carmen Würth’s in-person library, the Bibliothek Frau Holle library, and was established upon her initiative. More than 10,000 books from fields such as non-fiction, and children’s literature, world literature and fiction are available to the public free of charge. Tn addition, it is also a venue for civil marriages as an official location of the Künzelsau marriage registration office. As