Penguin Museum Cuxhaven
Penguins on sale – museum closes
The museum claims to have the world’s largest collection of penguin figurines. photo
© Sina Schuldt/dpa
The collection includes more than 26,000 penguins. The tailcoat wearers are now looking for a new home.
Penguin cuddly toys, penguin ties, penguin mugs: Birgit Berends and Stefan Kirchhoff have been collecting penguins for 30 years and have been running the museum since 2009. They find it difficult to separate themselves from those wearing tailcoats. But there is no other way.
“We still work on the side and it just eats us up. We haven’t had a weekend for 15 years. We haven’t had a chance to take a serious vacation for 15 years,” said Berends. “This doesn’t work anymore.”
The collection includes more than 26,000 penguins, Berends said. Only a fraction are in the museum; most of the penguins are at home with the couple and in a specially rented warehouse. “The collection will never be completely dismantled, but it will be massively reduced in size so that things will look normal again at home,” says Berends. Some pieces she will never part with. “For example, there’s a cookie jar here that won’t leave our house. It’s totally tacky, but my heart is attached to it.”
The museum is still open until November 2nd. On November 9th, those interested can get hold of the last tailcoats at the “Penguin Sale”. If you can’t make it to the museum that day, you can find what you’re looking for in the online shop.
According to the two operators, more than 55,000 people have visited the donation-financed museum since it opened. Through the “Penguinfreunde Cuxhaven” association, the museum’s profits were regularly donated to animal welfare associations and institutions. The penguin collection has made it into the Guinness Book of Records four times, most recently three years ago.
Penguin Museum Cuxhaven