When Georg Höltl, the founder of Rotel Tours, opened the Hotel Dreiburgensee in 1973, he became aware of the more than 500-year-old Rothaumühle, just a few hundred meters away. It had already been decided to demolish it, but he bought the mill and restored it. In 1974 he opened a local museum in it, the first building in the Bavarian Forest museum village.
With the large number of museum visitors, Georg Höltl received a flood of sales offers from all parts of the Bavarian Forest: agricultural and handicraft equipment, farm household items and old furniture, clothing and linen, and finally buildings, initially many grain boxes, then residential houses and entire homesteads. In the years 1975 to 1980 alone, the Höltl family were offered more than 200 farm properties.
The disappearance of the historic house landscape in the Bavarian Forest was unstoppable.
Georg Höltl set himself the task of saving at least part of the historical building fabric and also collecting the associated household items and equipment. In this way, future generations should be able to keep witnesses of their own past.
This is how the Bavarian Forest Museum Village came into being over a period of 25 years. Over 150 buildings were transferred to the Bavarian Forest Museum Village and rebuilt based on historical views of the town. They give an impression of the different settlement structures in the Bavarian Forest.
More information at Anreise: Museumsdorf bayerischer Wald
