Since its founding, the museum has collected objects from the broad area of folk culture. The collection explores a variety of aspects of life among the upper classes of rural society in the 18th and 19th centuries.

It is shaped by the initial holdings that were acquired at the turn of the twentieth century against the backdrop of a rapidly changing everyday culture due to industrialization.

The main areas of the collection include examples of the interiors of farmers’ homes (Bauernstuben), rustic furniture, richly decorated household goods, - mostly made of wood, metal, glass, and ceramics, - as well as Religious Folk Art from the Roman Catholic regions of southern Germany and popular decorations for the wall.