The Museum Village Cloppenburg-Lower Saxony Open-Air Museum is one of the largest open-air museums in Central Europe. Covering a total area of 25 hectares, it shows sections of the historical rural domestic and cultural landscape of north-western Germany. In accordance with the claim of being a central, scientifically oriented and appropriately managed open-air museum, which is anchored in its statutes, our institution is an attractive and lively place of research and communication for its visitors. Our museum pursues a holistic approach, i.e. it presents the concrete living conditions of the people from a micro-historical perspective in their respective contexts (holistically) on the basis of their surviving material evidence (house, furniture, tools, personal objects). The main focus is on the documentation and presentation of the most important house and farm types of north-western Lower Saxony in their landscape and social differentiation, with the integration and presentation of historical work and craft techniques, typical regional cultural landscape elements, old domestic animal breeds and historical useful and ornamental plants. The Museumsdorf Cloppenburg sees itself as a dynamic museum institution. Its collection and educational focus ranges from the early modern period to the present day. With regard to the more recent collections, which include the area of public festive and popular culture, we also document the transitions from a rural production society to a consumer and service society living in the countryside. With the building-related presentations in the open-air museum, additional exhibitions and events as well as a lively publication activity, we show a multi-layered picture of the cultural and everyday life of people in Lower Saxony.
On the three upper floors as well as on the first floor of the Münchhausen barn, in the Arkenstede house and also in some of the houses in the museum village, exhibitions show objects and pictures relating to the history and culture of the region, the use of implements and historical aspects of life in rural areas.
Permanent exhibitions offer insights into the rich treasures of the museum collection. Special exhibitions present themes and presentations on cultural-historical topics and issues. In the Helmut Ottenjann Hall, the entire field of agricultural technology is presented on more than a thousand square meters with tractors, equipment for working the fields and harvesting machines.

https://museumsdorf.de