Origin and its development

At the beginning of the fifties numerous relics fromthe Bronze and Iron Age were brought to light in the region of the town Oderberg and the surrounding gravel pits. In order to make these finds accessible to the general public, a museum of local history was founded in 1954. The founder of this institution was Hermann Seidel, a committed Oderberger, teacher and hobby archaeologist. In his honour the museum‘s street was named after him in the 1990s.

Only a few years later the museum began to dedicate itself more to the subject of inland waterways transport in the Oder region. The initiator of this development was Günther Hoffmann, also a teacher and later director of the museum. As a passionate enthusiast of inland navigation, he not only ran model building companies, but also pushed ahead with the specialisation of the former local history museum into a museum of technology. He also succeeded in acquiring the Elbe side paddle steamer RIESA from the White Fleet Dresden in 1978. The ship had been destined for the scrapyard.

In the past decades the museum has continued to evolve into the inland navigation museum in its present form. The historical development as well as the development of the inland waterways and the pulsating traffic in this region is presented in theme-related exhibition rooms. The open-air exhibition with the museum steamer RIESA completes the full range of exhibits.