Object of the Month – April 2026

Voltmeter

This voltage measuring instrument – commonly referred to as a voltmeter – is used to measure electrical voltage and displays it in the unit volts. The example presented here is not only a technical measuring device, but also a rare testament to regional industrial history. It was manufactured by the Rostock-based company Tischbein & Schwiedeps, which had operated an electrical installation business in Eselföter Straße since 1892 and contributed to the early electrification of Mecklenburg.

The voltmeter was installed in a transformer station built in 1922, the small substation building in Bahnhofstraße 1a in Wittenburg. The building was designed by the government architect Werner Cords from Parchim and still exists today as a listed monument. As early as 1926, Cords presented this functional utility building in a specialist article in the Deutsche Bauzeitung.

With the decommissioning of the substation in 1960, its technical use came to an end – but not the story of the voltmeter. The switchboard was removed, the device taken out, and it began an unusual “second life”: a neighbouring boy incorporated it into his imaginative childhood world, turning it into part of a ship’s bridge in his playroom.

In 2024, he donated this piece of Mecklenburg’s technical history – which had travelled far in his imagination – to our museum.

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