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The Museum Henry Dunant is fit for the future!
The extensive renovation was completed in autumn 2023. With careful and respectful interventions on and in the listed building, the 19th century building was brought into the present and the basis for an open, contemporary museum world was created. The realisation of the new core exhibition lasted until August 2024.
On 10 August, the refreshingly designed Museum Henry Dunant opened its new, inclusive and multimedia exhibition. It takes visitors on a thematic journey through the life and work of the ICRC initiator, is based on the humanitarian compass and builds a bridge to the here and now. Under the motto Humanity never sleeps!, the museum is open seven days a week from 11 am to 4 pm. Guided tours for groups and school classes are also possible outside opening hours.
Info
The Museum Henry Dunant is the only museum in the world that focuses on the life and work of the visionary initiator of the International Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions. Henry Dunant (1828-1910) spent the last 18 years of his life in Heiden. The Appenzell village with its classicist architecture was an internationally renowned health resort at the time. He wrote his memoirs here. At 800 m. above sea level, with a view of Lake Constance and across borders, he further developed his ideas for a more peaceful world and an International Court of Justice. It was in Heiden in 1901 that he received the announcement that he would be the first person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The museum dedicated to him is housed in the building where Dunant lived as a reclusive pensioner until his death on 30 October 1910.
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1 October 1874 marks an important day for the Appenzell region: the first hospital of both Appenzell is opened in Heiden. In 1892, Henry Dunant moves into a room on the 2nd floor of the classicist building as a pensioner. Around a hundred years later, in 1998, the first Henry-Dunant-Museum is opened on the ground floor of the former district hospital. In 2020, a repositioning process is initiated. With a careful conversion of the listed building, the reorganisation of the rooms and a new core exhibition, the museum takes a step into the 21st century. The reopening was celebrated on 10 August 2024.
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Based on the life of the ICRC initiator, the Museum Henry Dunant facilitates an examination of human rights, international law, peace and democracy. Under the co-direction of Kaba Rössler and Nadine Schneider, the museum is turning closer to the present and developing into an interdisciplinary place of dialogue. All of the museum's exhibitions, actions and events have a common goal: to reflect on the humanist heritage and to think ahead so that these values also reach future generations.
→ Complete vision (German)
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In front of the Museum Henry Dunant, mounted on an installation by St. Galler artist Lucie Schenker, floats a peculiar object: the Nagasaki Peace Bell. It is one of 5 copies worldwide of these angelus bells, which survived the bombing of the Japanese city on 9 August 1945, practically unscathed. The magnificent bell, a gift from Nagasaki, arrived in Heiden in March 2010. Since then, every year on 9 August, in the context of a public celebration with prominent guests, the catastrophe of Nagasaki is commemorated with the ringing of the peace bell.
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Forty years after the death of Henry Dunant, Jakob Haug, a master carpenter from Heiden, wants to erect a monument to the initiator of the Red Cross. After several hurdles, he was able to inaugurate Switzerland's first Dunant monument in Heiden in 1962. The sculptor Charlotte Jahn Germann created a remarkable work from 7.5 tonnes of granite from Graubünden. She did not carve Dunant's likeness in stone, but his pioneering idea of humanitarian aid in an abstract representation: a Good Samaritan and a person in need of help.
The unconventional financing is worth mentioning, as all Swiss cantons supported the project with one cent per inhabitant, totalling 45,000 Swiss francs.
Team
The museum is co-managed by Nadine Schneider and Kaba Rössler. They are supported by a committed team.
General management
Secretariat, projects
Mediation, events
Reception
Head of reception
Reception
Association
The Society of the Red Cross Heiden was founded on 27 February 1890 by Henry Dunant and co-sponsored by him as honorary president. After the dissolution of the communal Red Cross societies and the merger into cantonal organisations, the society was renamed the Henry Dunant Museum Association in 1997. Already in the following year, the Henry-Dunant-Museum could be opened in the parterre rooms of the former district hospital. The tax-exempt association aims to keep the memory of Henry Dunant and his visions alive. The association's supporting organisation is the → Swiss Red Cross Cantonal Association of the two Appenzells.
Delegate of municipal council
Delegate SRC Appenzell AR/AI
Honorary member
Honorary president
Support
The Museum Henry Dunant receives recurring financial support from the municipality of Heiden, the cultural promotion of the Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden as well as the Appenzellische Gemeinnützigen Gesellschaft (AGG) and the Ebnet Foundation.
The exhibition and event programme is co-financed on a project basis by foundations, sponsors and private patrons as well as by the Circle of Friends.
The Museum Henry Dunant is part of the platform Museen im Appenzellerland, which is supported and managed by the Office of Culture of the Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden.
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Thanks for supporting the 2024/25 programme:
acrevis Bank AG, Appenzellische Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft, Ebnet Stiftung, Gemeinde Grub AR, Gemeinde Heiden, Gemeinde Lutzenberg, Gemeinde Speicher, Gemeinde Wald AR, Gemeinde Walzenhausen, Gemeinde Wolfhalden, ippnw, Kulturförderung Appenzell Ausserrhoden, SRK beider Appenzell
Thanks for supporting the repositioning:
Andreas und Heidi Keller Stiftung, Appenzellische Winkelriedstiftung, Arnold Billwiller Stiftung, → Beisheim-Stiftung, Belgian Red Cross-Flanders, Bertold-Suhner-Stiftung, Deutsches Rotes Kreuz DRK, Dr. Fred Styger Stiftung, Ebnet-Stiftung, ecodocs foundation, → Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Erika und Conrad Schnyder-Stiftung, Ethel Madeleine Kocher sel. (Legat), Frieda und Ulrich Steingruber-Stiftung, Gemeinde Heiden, Hans und Wilma Stutz Stiftung, Ida Wagner-Rüesch Fonds, Irene Colinet-Stiftung, Johannes und Hanna Baumann-Stiftung, Jolanda & Walter Maier Stiftung, Kanton Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Kath. Kirchgemeinde Heiden-Rehetobel, Katholischer Konfessionsteil des Kantons St. Gallen, Kiwanis-Club Appenzeller Vorderland, Kiwanis Foundation, Krüger Foundation, Kulturförderung Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Kurverein Heiden, Liechtensteinisches Rotes Kreuz LRK, Lienhard-Stiftung, Metrohm Stiftung, Otto Gamma-Stiftung, Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz ÖRK, → Paul-Schiller-Stiftung, Peter und Huldi Aeschbacher-Graf Stiftung, Qatar Red Crescent Society, Raiffeisenbank Heiden, → Schaffner Gartenmöbel, → Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz SRK, → SITAG, SRK beider Appenzell, Steinegg Stiftung Herisau, Stiftung Corymbo, Stiftung EW Heiden, Stiftung für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte Winterthur (SKKG), Stiftung Fürstlicher Kommerzienrat Guido Feger, Stiftung Heiden, Stiftung STAB, Susanne und Martin Knechtli-Kradolfer-Stiftung, SwissLife Stiftung «Perspektiven», Swisslos-Fonds Kanton Appenzell Innerrhoden, UBS Kulturstiftung, Walter und Verena Spühl-Stiftung, Vontobel-Stiftung
Thanks to the → Circle of Friends of the Museum Henry Dunant
Thanks to the members of the → Matronage and Patronage Committee
Annual Report
The Museum Henry Dunant and the Bernisches Historisches Museum together were the first museums in Switzerland to develop a museum-specific digital form for the annual report. Vivid and entertaining insights into the museum world, rich in exciting background information, pictures, graphics and films make reading the annual report a pleasure...