Museum Buildings, 1929-1939.
The original Ersatz Museum opened in 1929 and occupied a group of buildings vacated in 1926 by a small German owned company, F. W. Wallenberg, established on the site in 1899, who manufactured brands of beer. There is a story that they became famous locally for producing a very popular and cheap wheat beer, marketed under the label Ersaztium during the First World War. Due to its popularity the company itself became colloquially known under this title and it is believed that Joseph Jacobovski subsequently named his establishment after this when he took over their old building. Ersatz itself is a German word and means imitation or copy and many German products produced under the austerity of WW1 were given the the title 'ersatz'. Jacobovski may have enjoyed the irony of running his institution that was often accused of fakery' under this name.
Although he bought the entire building outright, probably to secure extra income, he rented out the front rooms that faced onto the street and we know the second floor was occupied a high class tailors during the 1930's. The museum itself occupied the rear of No.12 and the breweries outbuildings where their beers had been brewed.

Museum front and rear
Left - Strasburgher, mid 1930s, looking north to Tomasin Street. The access to the museum was through the archway under No. 12. which led into a narrow courtyard and alleyway.
Right - The rear of No.12 with the museum courtyard and alleyway - circa. 1933

Museum pre-1935, showing the museum galleries.
The rear offices of No. 12 and the outbuildings were re-conditioned to house the museum. In the outer buildings seen here along the right were the galleries, the largest known as the 'main hall' and several smaller gallery rooms led from these. The ground floor rear of No. 12 (seen here to the right of the archway) was used as office space, storage and housed the research rooms. In 1934 part of the second floor was taken over by the museum to create more space for the growing collection. Finally in 1935 the outer galleries were modernised to increase the exhibition space.

Museum Site

This street plan is based on a pre-1926 map of the area that showed the site marking the property owned by the brewery, as no plan from the 1930's now exists denoting the actual museum. However we can assume that this reflects the buildings that Jacobovski took over and converted in 1928. Outlined is what we believe is the area the museum itself occupied, several of the offices to the rear of No.12 and the connected group of buildings from the old brewery that became the main galleries. The main entrance was from the courtyard. Next door was Jacobovski's apartments Much of this block was destroyed in 1939 and the whole area was rebuilt after the war.

The alleyway looking away from the museum towards Stiezan - late 1930's

This is post marked Grudiadz 22/8/38. There is no indication that this postcard was published by the museum itself and may just be a local town view as it only has the printers name, However it is interesting as it shows the courtyard after the original brewery buildings had been re-built (on the right hand side).

 

Main door to the Ersatz Museum situated in the courtyard.

Display cabinets inside the museum, circa 1934, exhibiting various animal anatomical artifacts. There remains extraordinarily few photographs of the interior of the museum. Those taken by the Ersatz itself were mostly destroyed in the bombing and visitors, as with most similar institutions, were probably discouraged from taking their own.

This photograph has hand written inscription on the reverse that simply notes 'Muzeum Ersatz - Lipiec. (July) 1937'. What part of the building it portrays is not clear. The overall image, with the side table and lamp is more stately than the utilitarian display cabinets shown above. Some have suggested that it may in fact be part of Jacobovskis own apartments, however on closer inspection one can see all the objects are labelled, therefore leading us to believe they are part of the rooms in No. 12.

---