Not to be confused with the Koninklijk Legermuseum/Musée Royal de l'Armée

Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History

The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History (or simply the Royal Military Museum (RRM) is a museum that occupies the two northernmost halls of the historic complex in...

 in Brussels.

The Koninklijk Nederlands Legermuseum (Royal Dutch Army Museum) is the national museum of the Dutch Army. It is currently based in the Armamentarium in Delft

Delft

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....

. In 2013 it is planned to merge it with the Militaire Luchtvaartmuseum (Military Aviation Museum), based on the former airbase at Soesterberg, where the new merged museum will be based and where its new stores were opened on 13 May 2009 by Jeroen Sikkel, Secretary General for Defence.

History

It originated in the private collection of Frederic Adolph Hoefer

Frederic Adolph Hoefer

Frederic Adolph Hoefer was a Dutch officer, militaria collector and archivist. He trained at the Koninklijke Militaire Academie and is notable for founding the Legermuseum and restoring Doorwerth Castle....

, who bought Doorwerth Castle

Doorwerth Castle

Doorwerth Castle is a medieval castle situated on the river Rhine near the city of Arnhem, Netherlands.-History:The original castle, probably wooden, is first mentioned in 1260 when it was besieged and burned to the ground, after which it was rebuilt in stone. In 1280 this second castle was again...

 to display it to the public. It was opened there on 5 August 1913 as the Nederlandsch Artillerie Museum (Dutch Artillery Museum) by Prince Henry. The Minister of War later renamed that museum the Dutch Army Museum Foundation (of which Hoefer remained chairman until his death). Shortly after the outbreak of World War II it was decided to move the museum from Doorwerth Castle to the Pesthuis in Leiden (the latter was then being rented by the Ministry of War from the Ministry of Justice), but the war delayed the restoration work and the museum only opened in its new location in 1956.

In 1959 the Foundation was also given the Armamentarium in Delft, with the minister of Defence opening a display there in 1986 in the presence of Prince Bernhard

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld , later Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, was prince consort of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and father of six children, including the current monarch Queen Beatrix....

. The museum was given its royal prefix in 1973. The museum as a whole was opened on its new Delft premises in 1989 by Beatrix of the Netherlands

Beatrix of the Netherlands

Beatrix is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands comprising the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba. She is the first daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. She studied law at Leiden University...

.

External links

Official page