mechanical production of the 20th century. The products of this unique cutlery industry can be seen today in the German Blade Museum in the Solingen suburb of Gräfrath. The exhibits include every sort of sword [...] the collection was officially taken into the newly-opened German Blade Museum in the former Gräfrath town hall. In 1991 the museum moved to its final destination in the imposing buildings of the old Gräfrath [...] aristocratic table. In addition there is a traditional tin works in the lower ground floor of the museum showing how pewter tableware was made. The most famous local example of such tableware is the so-called

Already in pre-industrial times chairs were made in Rabenau; but the industrialization of production was hesitant. It was not until 1870 that the chair merchant Ferdinand Reuter build a large factory complex [...] woodturners and 6 for stainers and polishers. A precursor of today's chair museum was established in 1931, and in 1978 the museum already moved to the farm buildings of the castle. Since 2005, a major attraction [...] of the chair-maker Kurt Aehlig, its equipment largely dating back to the early 20th century. The museum also displays chairs of different styles from the Baroque to “Rabenau Thonet chairs”, as well as

high temperatures and loads with the help of wire. It is no surprise that this museum is located in Altena. The industrial history of the town is brimming over with wire-drawers. Not to speak of hooks and [...] neighbouring town of Iserlohn have remained important centres of the wire industry to the present day. The German Wire Museum exists since 1965. It was originally housed in a part of the mediaeval Altena [...] wire or wire netting you’re in for a huge and very pleasant surprise when you visit the German Wire Museum in Altena in the Sauerland region, south of the Ruhr. Here you can see everything which has been

Sea coast, the German Naval Museum was opened by volunteers in 1998. It is housed in one of the oldest surviving workshop buildings used for the city’s shipbuilding industry, built in 1888. Three galleries

The birthplace of the German oil industry can be found in Wietze, a municipality on the edge of Lüneburg Heath and 18 kilometres west of Celle. Heavy oil was extracted here above ground in “tar wells” [...] followed. By 1963, there was even an oil mine with a track length measuring 95 kilometres. The museum’s grounds, which have an area of 18,000m2, cover part of the old oil field and include various functioning

and even as a salt capital of the Middle Ages. The German Salt Museum/Industriedenkmal Saline Lüneburg [Lüneburg Salt Works Industrial Heritage Site] has commemorated these production facilities since 1989 [...] the central component of the main building and the industrial heritage site. A third of the building (approximately 1,000m2) is now used for the museum. Thanks to preserved production facility parts, visitors [...] general global importance of salt in the past, present and future. The grounds of the German Salt Museum include several buildings and remnants which were placed under a preservation order in 1982 as an

the Far East, shoemaking in Germany declined, and it is no longer the principal industry in Hauenstein. The shoe museum, in a building of striking appearance in the Bauhaus style, covers the history of [...] town of about 4,000 people, which was one of the principal centres of the Palatinate shoemaking industry. Large-scale domestic manufacture of shoes in the region began after the Napoleonic Wars when the [...] Hauenstein. The first factory in Hauenstein was established by the brothers Seibel in 1886, and the industry subsequently prospered. There were 20 factories in the town by 1914. During the Second World War

provides the large museum park with its windmills, historic engine shed, brewery, and the prominent water tower. Inside this building complex visitors can experience not less than 15 museum departments covering [...] Meanwhile the adults can follow another audio guide going back in time to the Industrial Revolution. Thus, every visit to the museum rapidly turns into a fascinating expedition. [...] witnessed during the past 120 years are showcased in the capital's Deutsches Technikmuseum (German Museum of Technology). Greeting travellers from a distance there is a "raisin bomber" (Rosinenbomber) right

a doll-making family from Sonneberg. Visitors to the museum can also go to the showrooms and factories of toy manufacturers in Neustadt. The museum arranges a festival of dolls annually on Ascension Day [...] been a centre for the manufacture of toys since the eighteenth century. Its importance in the toy industry was increased after the Second World War with the settlement there of skilled workers from Sonneberg [...] Sonneberg in Thuringia, less than 10 km to the north, which was incorporated in the DDR. The museum, opened in 1984, claims to be the oldest of its kind in Germany and is based on a large collection of travellers

There was some contraction of the industry, but it remains lively, and today about 1,000 people work for small- and medium-sized companies in Sonneberg. The museum, located in a handsome baroque building [...] There was some contraction of the industry, but it remains lively, and today about 1,000 people work for small- and medium-sized companies in Sonneberg. The museum, located in a handsome baroque building [...] government policy forced toy manufacturers to join large–scale collectives. Ultimately the whole toy industry in East Germany was incorporated into one nationalised concern with 27,000 employees, 10,000 of

Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry , located in the world's oldest surviving passenger station of 1830, the railway already entered the steam age thanks to the inventions of industrial pioneers such [...] of monuments and museums that recount the success of railway transport in the 19th century as well as its further development. The České Budějovice (Budweis) horse-drawn railway museum in the Czech Republic [...] move to adapt heritage railways for visitor trips marked the beginning of the Talyllyn Railway in Wales, which has been in operation since 1951 and claims to be the world's first museum railway. Thus,

of Basque industrial development, visitors can match the El Pobal foundry in Muskiz, right in the heart of the Bizkaia mining zone and dating back to the 16th century, with the Dolomite Museum in Karrantza [...] Anchor Points on the Basque Country Regional Route that represent more peripheral industries in the region: the museum at the former textile factory La Encartada in Balsameda - once successfully producing [...] being on the oil, chemical, automotive and electrical industries. Ever since, the capital Vitoria-Gasteiz has become one of the most important industrial hubs in the Basque Country. ERIH Regional Route Basque

in respect of industrial, ecological and social aspects. At the same time, the museum is the starting point for several trails that take visitors to the monuments of industrial heritage. The manufacture [...] manufacture of firearms is another important part of the metalworking industry, as shown in the Arms Industry Museum in Eibar. However, a crisis in the armaments sector at the beginning of the 20th century triggers [...] well as in the textile, paper, armaments, consumer goods and cement industries. This is reflected, for example, in the Basque Iron Museum in Mirandoala Iron Valley , located in a former iron foundry in Lagazpi

like the German Museum of Watchmaking in Glashütte or the museum in Schlettau Castle , which explores, with its passementerie workshop, a very particular branch of the textile industry. Another castle [...] elements indium and germanium were discovered in the 19th century. The Freiberg Municipal and Mining Museum reveals the interconnections involved and highlights the remains to be experienced. Many sites in [...] address specific aspects of the region's mining history and thus create a diverse mosaic. Saigerhütte Museum , with its six-tonne, operational wrecking hammer, is all about copper processing, including the

production of cutting blades for agriculture in the form of scythes and sickles was a specialist industry. Scharnstein became an important centre for it after four workshops were built on the River Alm [...] The mechanization of agriculture and foreign competition led to closure of the factory in 1987. The museum was created by volunteers in 1992. It preserves a late-nineteenth-century scythe factory intact.

World Heritage Site. The factory of Giovanni Panizza & Co was founded in 1861, worked until 1981. The felt hats it produced were exported to all parts of the world. The factory now houses a museum which

bath house, once used as a stable but now part of the museum displays. Two sections of the museum are of particular relevance to the theme of Industry and War. There is a room illustrating the Great Siege [...] in extent, has many military and naval monuments that reflect on the relationship between war and industry. The Royal Navy maintained extensive facilities at Gibraltar from the 18th century until almost [...] victualling store of 1807. Responsibility for historic artefacts rests with the Gibraltar National Museum, established in 1930 by the then Governor General Sire Alexander Godley. It occupies Ordnance House

coal fires. Low wages and appalling living conditions made the town a nightmare for generations of industrial workers. All this was a stark contrast to the exquisite china and the luminous glazed pottery and [...] world-famous for its pottery manufacture. Nowadays potters are still at work in the Gladstone Pottery Museum, which is housed in an original old pottery factory. Here they model clay on the historic potters’

Krosno is the largest producer of glass, crystal and glass-fibre in Europe. The industry goes back over five centuries but in 1920 a large new production plant was established (later called Krośnieńskie [...] It continued after privatisation in the 1990s and has been joined by smaller producers. The Glass Heritage Centre opened in 2012. It has interactive displays, a cut-away model of a glass furnace, explanations [...] in optics and special exhibitions by leading glass artists. But the focus is on experiencing the industry first-hand. Visitors begin in the glass-making workshop, where they can watch glassblowers and even

Marinha Grande became a focus for the glass industry after the British industrialist William (Guillermo) Stephens settled set up a glassworks in 1769. The museum is in the neoclassical mansion that Stephens [...] The Glass Museum celebrates glassmaking in Portugal from the seventeenth century to the present. The collections come from several sources and includes glass products, machinery, tools and archives. Marinha [...] also exhibitions of leading makers and designers in the centre for contemporary art connected to the museum. Marinha Grande is still an important centre for glass manufacturing and tours of working factories