The German Blade Museum Solingen (DKM) has a lot to celebrate in 2024: 650 years of the city of Solingen, 120 years of the DKM's collection history, 70 years of the DKM, 70 years of the "Friends of the German Blade Museum" association. 

For this anniversary year, the DKM is planning a new exhibition area showing what has made the city of blades great and famous: "ME FECIT SOLINGEN. Blades : City : History". 

The exhibition sheds light on blade production in Solingen in the early modern period and traces its background and development from the heyday of the 17th century to the present day. The exhibition will answer the questions of why Solingen in particular became a city of blades, what was so special about the local production methods and blades and how urban society and production were mutually dependent. 

ME FECIT SOLINGEN. Klingen : Stadt : Geschichte

Client: Deutsches Klingenmuseum Solingen

Year: 2024

Museums and exhibitions

The DKM's outstanding collection of Solingen blades from the early modern period forms the centrepiece of the exhibition. Interactive (analogue and digital) stations invite visitors to move and participate and make connections comprehensible in an entertaining way.  

Depictions of Solingen's landscape show which location factors favoured Solingen's development into a city of blades.

How were blades actually made? And by whom? This is explained in the next room.

But how were Solingen swords, rapiers and epees actually used for fencing? You can try it out for yourself in the interactive fencing simulator. 

The exhibition also shows the other fields in which swords were used: the law, hunting, the representation of the nobility and, in a separate room, war.