The Rhede Medicine and Pharmacy Museum was opened on July 2, 1993. It is located in a neo-baroque town house in the center of Rhede, which was built by Gertrud and Bernhard Harde in 1923.
The idea of founding a medical museum was born in the 1980s. Eight years were spent working towards the opening of the museum: In this time, the Harde House, which is a listed building, was renovated.
The “centerpiece” is the old Hirschapotheke pharmacy from Rhede, a donation from Carola Starting, whose descendants still run the Hirschapotheke pharmacy in Rhede today. The project was made possible thanks to financial support from the state, the European Community (now the EU), the museum office, the district of Borkens and the town of Rhede.
After almost thirty years of operation, the decision was made to comprehensively renovate the exhibition. The focus of the modernization efforts was the integration of digital media, the aesthetic revision of the presentation areas and the expansion of the exhibition to include the topic of nutrition. To this end, the Heimat- and Museumsverein cooperated with an external museum planner, a historian, the Westmünsterland Clinic, various pharmacists, doctors, midwives and dentists, as well as the University of Münster’s Institute of Nutrition. Yet, most of the renovation work was carried out by the voluntary members of the association themselves.
Planning for the modernization began in 2020. The museum closed in the fall of 2022 so that construction work could begin. Since its reopening on June 14, 2025, the museum has been open Tuesday to Sunday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.