The inaugural exhibition of the Draiflessen Collection focussed on the life and work of Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer and their significance beyond the ‘today’. The two brothers, who were born and grew up in Mettingen as members of an entrepreneurial family that had been active in the textile trade since the seventeenth century, started their own business – C&A Brenninkmeijer – in the Dutch city of Sneek in 1841. From then on they divided their time between Sneek and Mettingen, where they passed away and are interred. At the centre of the exhibition were the biographies of the two founding fathers in an interplay between historical circumstances and personal leitmotifs – their values, which they derived directly from their Catholic faith. The thematic areas of childhood, the commercial system of the Tüötten, industrialisation, the evolution of the fabric shop to the department store, as well as developments in fashion and styles brought the context of the nineteenth century to life. For the exhibition, objects from the collection were supplemented by numerous loans from various museums and private collections.