Before you follow the often joyful, often sorrowful, and never easy journey of our ancestors, the history of the Göcseji Museum itself offers some fascinating stories worth discovering.
The collecting, cataloguing, and research work carried out at the Göcseji Museum – established in 1950 after many attempts – made it possible to present the lives of our predecessors in the exhibition you see today.
The Road to the Museum
More than 50 years before the museum was finally founded, written records already mention an initiative to establish a local ethnographic museum, although these early efforts were unsuccessful.
A few years later, a mammoth skeleton was discovered on Jánka Hill. Local experts began excavating the remains, but due to a lack of funding for preservation, the find had to be transferred to the Geological Institute. It was taken to Budapest, where it remains one of the country’s most remarkable prehistoric treasures.
This event inspired local archaeologists and advocates of science and culture. Gradually, they succeeded in creating exhibition spaces where various collections could be displayed. Eventually, the Göcseji Museum itself was established, providing a permanent home for the many artefacts that had been discovered and collected.
Hungarian-Style Display Cabinet
Local carpenters created furniture in a distinctly Hungarian style, decorated with traditional tulip motifs. One surviving example can be seen in the exhibition room presenting the history of the Göcseji Museum.
Around 1940, intellectuals from Zalaegerszeg initiated the establishment of a museum. Their collecting activities led to the creation of the Göcseji Collection. The display cases and exhibition cabinets used to house the collection were funded through public donations.
(Object description: Katalin Béres)
Our Curator’s Favourite: The Erika Typewriter
The typewriter displayed in our museum history exhibition was purchased by the Göcseji Museum in the early 1980s. The curator of this exhibition used it until the mid-1990s, when the institution transitioned to computers. Today, it has become a museum artefact itself.
In the 1980s, computers were still unknown in everyday museum work. Museum professionals wrote their studies on typewriters, prepared catalogue cards, and carried out administrative tasks using mechanical office equipment. One of the most popular portable office typewriters of the period was the Erika, manufactured in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
The brand was named after the granddaughter of Dresden typewriter manufacturer Bruno Naumann, and portable Erika typewriters had been produced since 1910. After 1945, the Seidel & Naumann factory became part of East Germany and was nationalised, but the Erika brand name remained in use. From 1979 onward, production was continued by Robotron, the largest East German electronics company.
The Erika 50 model was introduced in 1974 and became one of the most popular typewriters of its era. It was manufactured for 18 years, making it the longest-produced model in the Erika series. By the standards of its time, it was also considered exceptionally well designed.
(Katalin Béres)
