Le musée Otto Pankok

The Otto Pankok Museum in Gildehaus commemorates the painter, graphic artist and wood engraver Otto Pankok (1893-1966), who spent a summer in Gildehaus in 1936. What led him back then to the small village, can not be clearly established. In any case, his artistic work had aroused the annoyance of the National Socialists, who rejected his pictures as degenerate. As a result, he was constantly threatened by arbitrary controls and confiscations of his pictures by Nazi authorities.
Despite being banned from work, Pankok continued to paint, almost always on the run. In Gildehaus he created during extensive rambles through the village over 100 of his typical large-scale coal paintings, in which he reproduced the beauties of the village. The church, the two windmills, the mill mountain and the Gildehauser Venn (today a large nature reserve) were his favorite motifs.The Otto Pankok Museum is housed in the landmarked "Old Town Hall" of Gildehaus (built in 1656), an almost ideal place for the presentation of works of art. The high facade of the building with the imposing coat of arms of the county Bentheim was built from Gildehauser sandstone.
In the house Esselt, the retirement home of Otto Pankok and the current home of his daughter Eva, the extensive body of Pankok is kept. There is also the Pankok archive.

a museum about an artist who has spent some time in the tranquil Gildehaus and has influenced various artists there.