Siegburg Heads @museum.de

F: One of the first works Engelbert Humperdinck composed in a little attic room in this building was called Bahnwärters Abendlied – an evening song for a lineman on the railway. It provides a fitting prelude to our tour of his birthplace. The Steingräber grand piano, from Humperdinck's estate, is on loan from the Historical Museum in Frankfurt am Main.

M: On the walls, we have portraits of major figures from Siegburg past and present – including, of course, a likeness of Engelbert Humperdinck, who, as you’ve already heard, was born in the building. Next to him hangs a portrait of Maximilian Jacobi, a senior government medical official, who lived from 1775 to 1858. He established a modern method of treating what were then called “lunatics”. These days, we talk of “psychiatry”. He was the director of an insane asylum on Michaelsberg in Siegburg.

F: On the opposite wall, we have Charlotte Bertram, calling for tolerance – of course, you met “Lottchen” earlier. Lottchen's image is flanked by the German football player Wolfgang Overath, a member of the national team that won the 1974 World Cup. In 2014, all these images were shown facing outwards in the windows of our museum as part of an installation by the artist HA Schult.

M: The display in this room – including what you see in the showcases – gives a foretaste of what you can expect to see in the museum – albeit on a small scale. It presents a brief chronological run-through from early history to the period following the Second World War.

F: Take your time to watch the film, which we are showing here. It will get you in the right mood for the follwong tour.

Please note: the film is only available in a German language version.