Dr. Otto Eugen Mayer (1888 - 1981)

Dr. O.E. Mayer, born in 1888 at Aachen, was archaeologist. As a descendant of Jewish ancestry, he had to flee the end of the thirties from Germany. He found refuge in Belgium and worked as an editor at the East Belgian daily newspaper "Grenz-Echo. From the 50s he undertook with Dr. Michel Kohnemann and Leo Kever numerous excavations in the region of Raeren. In 1963, Dr. Mayer became the first curator of the newly opened Potterymuseum Raeren. He lived with his wife in the castle. His collection, which he himself had restored, along with that of Dr. Kohnemann builded the basic components of the museum collections. Dr. Mayer remained loyal to old age and moved only in 1980 by age and illness to Eupen.

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High visit

Many distinguished guests attended the course of the Pottery Museum the last thirty years, so in 1980 the Belgian Queen Fabiola and 1999, the Belgian Princess Astrid.

Royal visit in 1980: Dr. M. Kohnemann, Queen Fabiola of Belgium, Dr. O.E. Mayer

Royal visit in 1999: Mayor B. Fagnoul, Dr. M. Kohnemann,
Princess Astrid of Belgium, culktural alderman I. Mennicken-Dujardin

Royal visit in 2016: Bürgermeister H.D. Laschet, R. Mennicken,
Königin Mathilde von Belgien, Erbprinzessin Sophie von und zu Liechtenstein,
Frau Daniela Schadt (Deutschland), Frau Katharina Schneider-Ammann (Schweiz),
Kulturministerin der DG Frau I. Weykmans

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Dr. Michel Kohnemann (1918 - 2002)

Dr. Michel Kohnemann is the real father of the Pottery Museum Raeren. Formed as an germanic philologist, he devoted himself to early family history and research on historic place names in Raeren. In the postwar years, his interest developed in Raeren pottery. For excavation trenches, he kept finding sherds and old kilns, which he and Dr. O. E Mayer excavated. As a cultural and educational alderman of the municipality of Raeren he succeeded in 1960 to buy the castle for the community Raeren, to realize there his great dream: the Pottery Museum Raeren. Until his death he was active in the research on Raeren pottery. Many important publications on this subject come from his pen.

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Helmut Rehker (1917-1994)

Since 1980 Helmut Rehker conducted jointly with Dr. Michel Kohnemann as volunteer the Pottery Museum Raeren. He was born 1917 in Siegburg. Since the war he was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable ceramic collector. Helmut Rehker was General Manager of Industry and Commerce Chamber in Cologne and from 1965 member of the Cologne city council. He was a man who loved art and especially the ceramics and promoted it, wherever he could. After his retirement in 1980 he bequeathed his valuable collection of Rhenish stoneware with more than 200 individual pieces zo the community of Raeren . These collection still forms an important part of our exhibition.