Since its inception, Rüdersdorf has lived from limestone mining. Today, visitors can experience history and culture up close in the museum park. As early as 1990, monument conservationists, volunteers and activists campaigned for the preservation and renovation of the old industrial monuments and their accessibility.
Over the years, a park landscape with unique buildings has emerged on the northern edge of the active open-cast mine, reflecting the community's long mining tradition.
The historical charm of this setting fascinates young and old alike. The museum park has become not only a location for science and history, but also a popular place for events of all kinds.
The cradle of the building materials industry lies in what has always made Rüdersdorf so special as a small town in Brandenburg: a freak of nature. Around 800 years ago, a gentle hill made of limestone stood out in the otherwise flat landscape. The stone was quarried and used as building stone. In the 16th century, Rüdersdorf began producing quicklime and, from 1885, cement.
The Rüdersdorf Museum Park is the only historical limestone and mining site in the world that has been preserved in this diversity. Under the leadership of Mining Minister Anton von Heinitz, a later founding member of the Freiberg Mining Academy, famous architects such as Schinkel, Tick and Schlaetzer worked here.
Berlin grew and needed more and more building materials from Rüdersdorf. Many innovations in mining and raw material processing originated here. On a historical tour through the museum park, visitors can marvel at the former transport and production facilities. Or they can borrow a handcart or a go-kart to go on a discovery tour on their own.
The museum park is an industrial heritage site with a very special charm. Here, visitors can marvel at monuments and at the same time experience active limestone mining within sight. Between the rope pulley pillars and the impressive trucks in the quarry, you can almost hear the squeaking of the old wagons. It is not for nothing that the shaft furnace battery, which can be seen from far away, and the nearby old chemical plant area with their dilapidated charm are often the backdrop for filming, documentaries and Hollywood movies.
