New master plan for Altenburg: Future of the Schlossberg will be concrete!

New master plan for Altenburg: Future of the Schlossberg will be concrete!

On June 4, 2025, high -ranking representatives of the Altenburger Museums presented the new master plan "Prince in the Sleeping Beauty Castle" at a press conference. At the event, Uwe Melzer, district administrator of the Altenburger Land, André Neumann, Mayor of Altenburg, and Dr. Roland Krischke, director of the Altenburger Museums. The master plan, which includes over 100 pages, is the result of several years of preparatory work and sets the course for the future development of the Altenburger Schlossberg and its museums.

This new master plan follows the plan "The Lighthouse on the Blue Flood", which was already adopted in 2017. The focus is on the topics of accessibility, inclusion and sustainability, while a vision for the future use of the properties on the Schlossberg is formulated. The goal is a linden sauce campus that integrates the museums into the educational landscape and further increases the attractiveness of Altenburg as a cultural location with its rich historical heritage.

grow together

The presentation of the master plan falls into a phase of change for the Altenburg museums. In the future, the institutions will be merged into a joint special-purpose association, such as evangelische-zeitung.de. A association of the Lindenau Museum with the Altenburg Castle and Playing Card Museum has been sought under a common sponsorship since 2020. This measure is part of the synergies and the creation of a uniform museum identity.

dr. In his speech, Krischke made it clear that the overall structure of the museum landscape is being worked on. The new master plan not only serves as a basis for discussion, but also as a strategic framework for the future development of the museums. Particular attention is paid to Bernhard August von Lindenau, which is an essential impulse provider for the museum landscape.

The collections and their future

Significant collections are housed in Altenburg, which include East Asian, paintings, textiles, weapons and in particular one of the largest gaming card collections in the world. This collection includes almost 30,000 card games. A restructuring of the museum landscape provides for teamwork under a central management, which is intended to eliminate individual museum management. This is how the playing card museum and the city history museum are to be accommodated in the Prinzenpalais.

In addition, the palace garden is redesigned to bring visitors closer to the beauty of the historical facility. A sculpture mile and the modernization of the Schönhaus are planned. The ducal forest house could serve as a location for artist workshops, while renovation work at the Lindenau Museum is already being planned.

digital perspectives

A central concern of the new master plan is also the digitization of the offer. Under the title LindenaCampusdigital, access to educational opportunities is to be improved. The exhibition operation of the museums continues to run according to schedule, whereby the year 2024 must already be filled with various themed exhibitions. An annual exhibition from May 2024 will discuss the prehistoric collection, while from December 2024 an exhibition tracks the history of chocolate to Altenburg.

The Altenburger Museums had over 70,000 visitors in 2023, which represents an increase of around 30 percent compared to the previous year. The successes of the past few years, especially in the context of anniversaries and special exhibitions, create a solid basis for the future development of the museums, which is financed with the support of the federal government and Free State of Thuringia.

The master plan "Prince in the Sleeping Beauty Castle" stands not only for a vision of the Altenburg museums, but also for an offensive strategy to strengthen the cultural identity and attractiveness of the city of Altenburg.