Thuringia: Weapons Museum: Görlitz couple 500,000. Visitors since 2008

Suhl (dpa/th) - An elderly couple from Görlitz was 500,000 on Thursday.

Thuringia: Weapons Museum: Görlitz couple 500,000. Visitors since 2008

Suhl (dpa/th) - An elderly couple from Görlitz was 500,000 on Thursday. Visitors have been welcomed to the Weapons Museum in Suhl since it opened in June 2008. The couple, who are on vacation in Thuringia, were completely surprised when they were greeted with flowers and given a special tour by museum director Peter Arfmann with free admission, said Ingrid Pabst, spokeswoman for the city of Suhl.

The museum was reopened 14 years ago after a two-year renovation period. Covering an area of ​​1100 square meters on three floors, it shows the history of Suhl as a weapons town. The focus has been on handgun manufacture since the year 1500. In total, more than 460 weapons and numerous other exhibits can be seen in the museum.

In Suhl, among other things, lavishly decorated luxury weapons for hunting that were ordered by aristocratic houses were manufactured. The Suhl masters were famous for their skill with the weapon. "Magnificently engraved guns inlaid with gold and precious stones ended up in the treasuries of numerous royal houses, for example in London and Dresden," it said.

From 1800 onwards, the increasing industrialization led from manual to factory production of military weapons. Hunting guns and components for the East German variant of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, the Wieger, were still being built in the GDR era. Gunsmiths are still based in Suhl today, mainly developing and manufacturing hunting and sports guns as well as weapons for the police and military.