Bitterfeld District Museum

Germany's only source of amber of economic importance once lay beneath the mighty brown coal seams of the Bitterfeld mining district. Until 1992, Bitterfeld miners extracted the fossil resin, which is over 20 million years old.
Since 2001, the Bitterfeld district museum has been showing the history of Germany's only significant amber mining site in an impressive permanent exhibition. The exhibition provides information on the history of the formation of fossil resin from the Late Tertiary period to its extraction in the modern era. Impressive inclusions of plants and insects, an excursion into the variety of forms and types of amber, its extraction and processing make a visit to the museum, which was founded in 1892, well worthwhile.

Other special focuses of the Bitterfeld Museum are the history of geology, stoneware, lignite mining in the Bitterfeld region and the history of ballooning.

Facts:

1892: Founded by Emil Obst

1901: Moved to girls' school

1905: Town museum

1961: District museum

from 2001: Amber exhibition