Shoe stories

Behind every pair of shoes there is a person and his/her story. Shoes tell stories of personal, historical, political and athletic events which influenced individual lives or contemporary history.

Celebrities from past and present, from film and TV, from politics or athletics grace the exhibition "Schuhtick", for example: Ötzi, Philipp Melanchthon, Marie Antoinette, Sissi, Audrey Hepburn and Madonna.

A lady's handbag on a cardinal's foot

Clemens August Cardinal von Galen (1878 - 1946) was known as the "Lion of Münster" for his critical stance towards the Nazi regime. Red leather shoes were an essential part of the Cardinal's official attire.

However, leather - and especially red leather - was nearly impossible to find in the deprivation of the post-war period. In order to insure that the cardinal had his full regalia, a woman donated her red leather handbag that she managed to save during the Second World War. A cobbler from Ahlen then converted the precious piece into leather for the cardinal's shoes.

"Follow me if you can", wrote the German long-distance runner Uta Pippig on her running shoes. This athlete from the former GDR (born in 1965) won the Boston Marathon three times in a row in the mid-1990s. No woman had ever achieved that before.