25th anniversary
The Museum for Musical Automatons in Seewen, Solothurn, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2004. During the anniversary year, a total of 25 events were hosted under the motto “25 years – 25 events” focusing on April 2004, since the museum opened in April of 1979.
25 years of artistic sound
The Museum for Musical Automatons has a unique, world-famous collection in the area of mechanical music. The museum, combining music and technology in a one-of-a-kind manner, owes its existence to the passionate collecting of Dr. h. c. Heinrich Weiss, who brought together a number of objects currently on display from throughout the globe. He converted his collection studio into a public museum in 1979 and led it with considerable success. In 1990, he and his daughter Susanne Weiss donated the museum to the Swiss Confederation. The donation was contingent on a generous expansion to the facility, which was built in the following year. The expansion doubled the exhibition space to its current ca. 1,300 square meters. The Museum now boasts a restaurant including a terrace with a view, a reception area, a new fourth exhibition hall and a museum shop. The thoroughly remodeled museum was able to open its doors in the spring of 2000, but remained opened during the renovation phase in the later half of the 1990's, so that the museum could celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2004. Under the motto "25 years - 25 events" the anniversary activities merged with a year-long overview of all the museums facets.
The fact that the Museum for Musical Automatons is not easily categorized in the museum landscape is both a privilege as well as a challenge. The museum is not just a musical museum; rather technology also plays an important role, in addition to the music. And yet technology does not dominate, as the exhibited objects also include historical components. The manufacture of music boxes, musical jewelry and musical automatons was an important industrial sector in its own right in 19th century Switzerland. The musical automaton museum does not aspire to be merely a historical museum, as the musical automatons also have a certain playful, theatrical nature that is also depicted as such in the museum as part of corresponding tours.
The multifaceted nature of the museum's operation was the subject of events during the anniversary year. Aspects of the house were presenting individually as part of four different open door events. During one weekend each in April, June, September and November, the topics "25 years of artistic sound", "Fair", "Vaudeville" and "Technology" were presented in an exciting manner. The result was a well-rounded image of the museum throughout the anniversary year.
