The complex restoration and reconstruction of the historical old town lets today's visitors to Gdañsk forget for a moment the devastating consequences of World War II for this old trading and Hanseatic city. Indeed, the rebuilt houses with their beautiful facades show just a small moment in the development of these buildings over the centuries. Numerous conversions and extensions to the interior rooms and house fronts, caused by the changing functions of the individual rooms and the respective tastes of the time, remain hidden from the modern visitor.

The exhibition has made it its task to show this varied development of Gdansk town houses from the Middle Ages until the end of the 19th century. The most important development stages of the town house in Gdansk are shown and explained by means of mainly unknown photos and construction drawings, and are shown in depth using selected individual subjects such as the fittings and the so-called "Danziger Diele" (Gdansk hall).

A large part of the material on show is based on the unpublished dissertation of the architect Otto Rollenhagen (1886-1951), held in the Herder Institute. This work, produced between 1910 and 1914, on Gdansk town houses has been listed and evaluated as part of a German-Polish collaborative project, as in spite of its age it is still up to date and represents a valuable resource regarding the former architecture of Gdansk.

In June 2008, the dissertation was presented with all of its image materials in a bilingual publication.