Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Historical and Industrial Museum – Iron Museum, housed in an 18th century building in Reichshoffen, was born out of the need to preserve local Gallo-Roman archaeological discoveries. Initially the residence of the baili (1759), then the presbytery (1819), it was abandoned in 1972 before being transformed into a museum in 1993. Its collections cover the history of the city, from prehistory to modern times, with a focus on Gallo-Roman craftsmanship and medieval remains.

The museum devotes a large part to the iron and steel industry of the Vosges du Nord, impulsed in 1684 by John II Dietrich with the purchase of the forges of Jaegerthal. The De Dietrich family, anobligated in the 18th century, developed an industrial empire (high furnaces, railway equipment, decorative cast iron) marked by technical innovations and crises (war of 1870, nationalizations). The Reichshoffen, Niederbronn and Mouterhouse factories illustrate this epic, now partially preserved.

Archaeological collections reveal an intense Gallo-Roman occupation, with an artisanal quarter, blast furnaces and necropolises (like the cemetery of 200 urns discovered in 1860). The Middle Ages is evoked through charters (1232, 1286) and models of fortifications, while the Thirty Years' War (1632-1633) is documented by cannonballs and stories of Swedish sieges. The Gallo-Roman religion, centered on Mercury, is illustrated by steles and bas-reliefs.

The Dietrich Vocational School (1921-2007), created to train workers, testifies to the company's social commitment. The museum, labeled Musée de France, relies on local excavations, industrial archives and models to tell 2,000 years of history, from the Bronze Age to the TGV era, to the dramas of conflict and economic change.

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