The National Technical Museum in Prague has opened the exhibition The Hainz Family Saga, which marks 190 years since the founding of the clockmaking firm Hainz and is open until 28 March 2027.
The National Technical Museum in Prague has opened the exhibition The Hainz Family Saga for the 190th anniversary of the founding of the oldest Czech clockmaking firm, Hainz. The exhibition was presented on 13 October 2026 by the museum's director Karel Ksandr and the curator David Hamr. It is open to the public until 28 March 2027.[1][2]
Focus of the exhibition
According to Hamr, the exhibition is not conceived technically but, to a certain extent, genealogically, and shows the continuity of the family business and its resilience. Ksandr said that presenting the family is part of the museum's programme on successful firms that survived the Nazi occupation and the communist regime and continue to operate after restitutions; earlier it was the company Koh-i-noor Hardtmuth. Mariana Nesnídalová, a representative of the seventh generation of the family, took part in the exhibition, lent some exhibits and donated to the museum a present-day gear train of a tower clock.[1][2]
History of the firm
The firm was founded in 1836 by Ludvík Hainz. In the 1880s its production concentrated on tower clocks. As the clockmaker of the capital he took part in saving the mechanism of the Prague Astronomical Clock, which was threatened with extinction in the 1860s; after repair the clock was started on New Year's Day 1866, and the firm has looked after it since then, except for the years 1948 to 1989, when it was nationalised. Today the seventh generation of the family looks after tower clocks, including the astronomical clock. The firm's production is based in Lysá nad Labem.[1][2]
The exhibition includes a model of the astronomical clock and a mechanism from the tower of the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště, which comes from the museum's collections from 1891 and remained in the palace until its reconstruction in the 1950s. According to Hamr, two of the family's successors, both named Ludvík, paid for their work with imprisonment after 1948.[1][2]
Related articles: Hainz, Karel Ksandr, Mariana Nesnídalová, National Museum
Chronology
- — The National Technical Museum in Prague opened the exhibition Saga of the Hainz Family, marking 190 years since the founding of the oldest Czech clockmaking firm Hainz. ČTK / České noviny Pražská Drbna
Sources
- ČTK / České noviny — 13 October 2026
- Pražská Drbna — 13 October 2026