The initial core of the museum was a collection of Transylvanian ethnographic objects gathered in Munich by Lore Connerth-Seraphin at the beginning of the 1950s.

After moving into the nursing home for the elderly in the Horneck Castle, Gundelsheim, she donated the now extensive collection to the society "Johann Honterus".

In 1997, the inner courtyard of the castle was roofed and made available for the museum as a central space.

In 1998, the Transylvanian Museum staged a retrospective exhibition of the painter Edith Soterius von Sachsenheim and bought 50 of her works.

In 1999, this collection was also exhibited in Munich at the Haus des Deutschen Ostens.