It was established in 1900 and inaugurated in 1905, when Haguenau was a German town and part of Alsace-Lorraine.

The museum was founded by the mayor, Xavier Nessel, who was also a keen amateur archaeologist.

Apart from artefacts relating to the history of the town, including its Jewish community, the museum owns a rich collection of archaeological finds from the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Gallo-Roman period.

It also displays a number of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque artworks from religious and secular buildings from the town and its surroundings; in many cases, those buildings themselves (such as Frederick Barbarossa's castle in Haguenau) have long disappeared.

[5][6] The ethnographic and folk art collections relating to Alsace were moved to the Musée alsacien nearby in 1972.