The Barnim Panorama, owned by the municipality Wandlitz, was created in September 2013 by combining the Agrarmuseum Wandlitz and the visitor center of the Barnim Nature Park. It has the largest agricultural collection in Brandenburg and offers six themed rooms to give visitors an insight into the 200-year-old history of agriculture in Brandenburg. The museum in the quarter Wandlitz was built in 1955 and could only use provisional arrangements until 2013. Because of the growing demand for more exhibition space and better opportunities to present its collection, the quarter decided to construct a new building across the street from the original museum.
Founding of the museum
In 1955 the Heimatforscher (somebody researching his homeland, home town or region) and owner of the Meierhof Walter Blankenburg (1901–1984) from Wandlitz opened the so-called "Heimatstube". He and his wife Margot had been collecting various commonly used items from rural households with the help of other residents over the course of several years that could now be shown for the first time raising a lot of public interest. Over time and with public funding the "Heimatstube" was expanded into a museum by repurposing two barns, a stable, and a 5,381-square-foot (500m2) large auditorium gifted by the Free German Trade Union Federation was added to cope with the fast growing collection, now largely consisting of agricultural equipment and machinery. The museum staff was supported on an academic level by the Berlin State Museums.
In 1975 the museum was renamed to "Museum der agraren Produktivkräfte" (approximate translation: Museum of the Agricultural Workforce).
The sculpture, created by Walter Arnold, positioned in front of the multi-purpose building in the 1980s was a long-time loan to the museum from a museum in Berlin. The sculpture was given back to its original museum in Berlin in 2011.
Agricultural Museum Wandlitz (from 1990)
After the German reunification the museum would continue to exist with the financial support of the municipality Wandlitz and a newly founded booster club. In 1990 the state Brandenburg changed the museum's name to "Agrarmuseum Wandlitz" (Agricultural Museum Wandlitz). Throughout the following years its collection has become the biggest, historic agricultural collection in Brandenburg. Until spring 2013 the total exhibition space was about 21,571 square foot (2000m2) large. One of the most noticeable exhibits is the historic "Dampfpflug" (a plough working with a steam engine), which was situated outside the museum under a separate roof. Many functional tractors and other agricultural machinery from different eras can be seen at the museum. In other areas of the exhibition, traditional craft and the historic rural household are portrayed. The exhibits of the "Heimatstube" give special insight into the history of the village and its residents.
The museum once owned a farm in the village, where different kind of potatoes were grown.
The museum is financed only by the municipality Wandlitz.
New buildings and names
The museum had planned a new building which would replace the run-down architecture of the old one, and for a long time the museum could not build it, but in 2011 those plans were realized. In close proximity to the old museum, the municipality Wandlitz started the construction of a new complex of buildings, known as the Barnim Panorama, which would house the "Agrarmuseum Wandlitz" (Agricultural Museum Wandlitz), as well as the visitor center of the Barnim Nature Park.
A foundation stone ceremony for the Barnim Panorama was held during the annual museum festival on 15 May 2011. The new complex of buildings has the same appearance as the rest of the villages' stables, barns, and the main building, which is made from stone. The building also resembles a historic "Dreiseithof" (a square farm complex that has buildings on three of its sides). The neighboring landmarked school was integrated into the complex of buildings that form the Barnim Panorama, which is now the new headquarter of the Barnim Nature Park, and provides offices for the management of the museum.
The architects of "Reese Lubic Woehrlin" from Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg won the architectural design competition, and designed the new museum. In total the project cost an estimated 6.2 million €, including approximately 5 million € for the construction. The European Union and the state Brandenburg contributed with 3.7 million € in subsidies.