Let There Be Light! at the Gardener and Hacker Museum: Experience the History of Technology in Bamberg
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When Light Tells the Story Anew
The cabinet exhibition Let There Be Light! at the Gardener and Hacker Museum Bamberg focuses on the early electrification of a Bamberg gardening house. In the summer and autumn of 2026, a rare chapter of technical and cultural history will open here: original lamps, wiring, light switches, and fuse boxes from the period around 1908/10 make the daily life of a family in transition to modernity visible. ([bamberg.info](https://www.bamberg.info/veranstaltungen/ausstellung_es_wurde_licht-838279/))
An Exhibition about Technology, Everyday Life, and New Beginnings
Thomas Kauer, son of a Bamberg gardening family and a trained electrical installer, set up the system around 1908/10 and used it for years, repairing and improving it without completely replacing the original installation. This continuity makes the presentation an extraordinary testament to domestic electricity supply at the beginning of the 20th century. ([bamberg.info](https://www.bamberg.info/veranstaltungen/ausstellung_es_wurde_licht-838279/))
The exhibition thus tells not only of a technical advancement but also of a changed exhibition atmosphere of living itself: light became calculable, spaces became usable for longer, and the daily rhythm shifted. In the historic gardener house, this development can be experienced immediately because the museum preserves house, yard, and garden as a coherent living space. ([gaertner-und-haecker-museum.byseum.de](https://gaertner-und-haecker-museum.byseum.de/de/das-museum/die-dauerausstellung?utm_source=openai))
An Authentic Place in the Heart of the Gardener City
The Gardener and Hacker Museum is located at Mittelstraße 34 in Bamberg, in a typical gardener house from 1767. The house, the yard, and the garden illustrate the work and living worlds of Bamberg gardeners and hackers, making the museum a specialized and open-air museum with particular historical depth. ([bamberg.info](https://www.bamberg.info/veranstaltungen/ausstellung_es_wurde_licht-838279/))
The place also offers a strong historical resonance on a museum level: The permanent exhibition addresses the cultural history of urban vegetable growing, urban gardening, and the connection between earning, craft, and everyday culture. The new cabinet exhibition adds this perspective with the history of electrification in the domestic space. ([gaertner-und-haecker-museum.byseum.de](https://gaertner-und-haecker-museum.byseum.de/de/das-museum/die-dauerausstellung?utm_source=openai))
What Visitors Can Expect
Original technical relics will be on display, which in their material presence are much more than museum objects: they bear traces of use, tell of adaptation and a careful handling of innovation. This creates an aesthetic experience that makes the history of technology not abstract but physically and spatially perceptible. ([bamberg.info](https://www.bamberg.info/veranstaltungen/ausstellung_es_wurde_licht-838279/))
The exhibition will be on view from July 24 to November 8, 2026; the museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The visit is included in the regular museum admission. ([bamberg.info](https://www.bamberg.info/veranstaltungen/ausstellung_es_wurde_licht-838279/))
Conclusion
Let There Be Light! is a small exhibition with a big impact: it connects the history of technology, everyday culture, and museum experience in a dense view of early modernity in Bamberg. Anyone interested in historical living culture, electrification, and the cultural history of the gardener city should experience this cabinet exhibition live. ([bamberg.info](https://www.bamberg.info/veranstaltungen/ausstellung_es_wurde_licht-838279/))
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- Website: https://gaertner-und-haecker-museum.byseum.de/de/home
