The museum was founded on July 9, 1925, when the decision was made to create the Central Museum of the Republic of Germans in the Volga Region. In the early years of its existence, a unique collection of clothing and household items from the German and Ukrainian population of the republic was gathered, as well as ancient manuscripts and materials on the history of foreign colonies, ethnography, and archaeology. The initiator of its creation and the first director of the museum was Georg Heinrichovich Dinges, a professor at Saratov University, known as a talented linguist and ethnographer. The museum conducted active scientific research. However, in August 1941, after the liquidation of the Republic of Germans in the Volga Region, the museum was closed, and most of its exhibits were distributed to various organizations, leading to their loss.

After the end of World War II, the museum resumed its work, but as a city local history museum. The most significant period was in the mid-1960s when, under the leadership of the new director Evdokiya Alexandrovna Bozhenko, the museum began to develop based on local history work. However, it was only in the early 1990s that it was able to fully return to classical museum activities, as it had been in the 1920s. During this time, the museum moved for the seventh time to a new spacious building, marking a new stage in its development. In the mid-1990s, under the direction of S.I. Spiridonova, active work began on the professional revival of the museum.