The Tobacco Museum @museum.de

Hello and welcome to the Upper Rhenish Tobacco Museum in Mahlberg – the largest tobacco museum in Europe!

From the mid-19th century to the Second World War, tobacco-growing was an important industry here in Baden, in the neighbouring Palatinate and in the Alsace. The gentle climate and the nutrient-rich soil meant that farmers were able to make a success of growing tobacco. The local population, mainly the women, worked in small manufactories, in factories or from home, processing the tobacco harvest.

During periods of deepening recession and increasing unemployment, this gave the local population a secure livelihood. The factory owners, for their part, generated substantial wealth from the tobacco processing business.

The tobacco plant actually originated in South America, where it caught the eye of Christopher Columbus during his journeys of exploration. In his notes, he tells of the indigenous inhabitants of the New World, and of “herbs, of which they drank the smoke”.

In Germany, tobacco only became widely known due to the smoking habits of soldiers in the Thirty Years’ War. In 1774, Carl Ludwig, Baron von Lotzbeck, founded a snuff factory in the nearby town of Lahr, and thus laid the foundation of the tobacco industry in the Ortenau district. Lotzbeck promoted tobacco-growing and supplied farmers in the surrounding area with seedlings and seeds.

The region’s first cigar factory was also established in Lahr -- founded in 1840 by Adolf Bader.

Within a generation, the district had some 2,500 workers involved in making cigars. By the 1920s, the number of people employed in the cigar industry had grown to 6,000.

Before we continue with the success story of the Baden cigar, we want to look briefly at the history of the cigarette and discover how that product has been marketed. Please head down the ramp opposite the annexe with the ticket office into the room beneath the curing barn.