Tools such as this wedge knife made of black siliceous rock bear witness to the Neanderthals’ outstanding skills in making adequate stone tools.

Two teams of oxen were pricked into the sandstone in an extremely simplified form. The depiction is one of the earliest proofs of wheel and wagon in Europe.

The 20- to 30-year-old woman buried here wore opulent bronze jewellery. The most spectacular is the bronze belt plate. Both the belt plate and the neck jewellery reveal ancient mends.

The oak door has been preserved until this day only due to the very moist layers. It is currently Germany’s oldest door.

The elaborately ornamented disks once embellished the horse of a very wealthy man. They were put in his grave along with other valuable possessions.

Philipp the Elder von Katzenelnbogen bought the bowl in 1433 on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It today counts as the oldest preserved example of Chinese porcelain imported to Europe.

The bust of King Henry IV with a veristic wax portraiture and contemporary clothing bears the chain and cross of the Order of the Holy Spirit which he headed as Grand Master.

The small box is a principle work of Baroque amber art and was commissioned by the Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg. It probably came to Kassel as a valuable present.

Before Landgrave Carl in 1715 commissioned the Rome-based sculptor Monnot with the work on the Marble Bath in Kassel, Monnot created portrait busts of the landgrave couple – as samples, so to speak.

The lidded vase is from around 1680, when the popularity of Kakiemon experienced its peak. It is painted in the style of traditional Japanese and Chinese brush painting.

In the countryside, there used to be many sheep whose wool was used to make yarn and fabrics. Prior to industrialisation, the wool was finished, dyed, spun and woven manually.

It took a lot of courage and skill to drive a penny-farthing with a saddle height of up to 1.65 metres, for it not rarely came to serious accidents.

Show me your garb and I know where you are from, whether you are married or not, and the occasion on which you are wearing it.

“Wandervögel” does not mean swarms of migratory birds in this case, but young men and women who turned their backs on the big city and the industrialised world to seek their well-being in nature.

In the small corner shop in Niederkaufungen, the village residents were able to buy not only food and luxury items but also basic consumables – all the way to nylon stockings.