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The "Schauhaus" is a listed building located at König-Wilhelm-Platz 12 in Friedrichshafen. It is situated in the heart of Zeppelindorf, a residential area in Friedrichshafen that remains popular today. At the same time, it is an important part of the Zeppelin Museum. Built as part of the Zeppelindorf workers' settlement, which was established in 1914 near the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH factory, this was where the workers and their families lived. Here, they shaped their daily lives, celebrated festivals, put down roots, and left their personal marks.

As one of the houses that, for some families, served as a home for generations, the Schauhaus also bears these traces. It invites visitors to explore its rooms and reflect on the different aspects of the workers' family lives and memories through time. At the same time, it is a key part of the cultural offerings in Zeppelindorf.

"Memory is life: it is always borne by living groups and is therefore constantly evolving [...]."

What the French historian Pierre Nora observed about memorial sites and their memory in 1998 also applies to the Schauhaus of the Zeppelin Museum: the history that has left its mark on this neighborhood since the founding days of the Zeppelin industry enters into a lively dialogue with the local community, the people who continue to anchor their memories in Zeppelindorf today.

To mark its 100th anniversary, the Zeppelin Wohlfahrt GmbH and the Zeppelin Museum made the Schauhaus in the Zeppelin village accessible to visitors as a museum house in 2013. From 1914 to 2009, it was continuously inhabited by members of the same family. As a result, it underwent few structural changes and the original condition of the building was restored, taking into account the preservation of historical monuments. For example, the original color scheme of the living rooms, as envisaged by architects Paul Bonatz and Friedrich Eugen Scholer when designing the interior in 1914, was restored. As a result of the restoration, the living rooms are now presented to visitors largely in their original state.

Everyday life in the early days of the Zeppelin industry