German Museum, Munich Deutsches Museum

The Deutsches Museum's Kerschensteiner College provides courses on the history of technology and related topics for teachers and instructional staff from industry.

The extensive study collection in the Deutsches Museum includes historical scientific instruments, machines and models. Access is by appointment only and is restricted to bona fide researchers in the relevant fields.

The German Museum boasts several special collections and well-endowed archives relating to the history of science and technology. Of the latter the air and space travel archive is particularly interesting and comprehensive (information: tel. 2179220).

Pride of place in the German Museum courtyard is taken by a Dornier Do 31 transport aircraft, the prototype of a vertical take-off design developed for military purposes. Also in the courtyard are a number of the highly efficient type of water-driven turbines used in hydro-electric power generation.

Affiliated to the German Museum is a film and photographic library with a collection of some 40,000 negatives.

The mining exhibits in the German Museum include:Minerals, crystals and rocks, seams and mineral deposits:Natural gas, oil:Prospecting and extraction, drilling at depth, oil refining, pipelines and other transport systems, storage, energy use, petrochemicals, environmental problems.Mining:Shaft-drilling, transport underground, ore extraction, pit surveying, safety, salt-mining, processing, coke and briquette production.Open-cast mining:Extraction methods; lignite mining.Metalworking:Crude iron and steel, blast furnaces, the Bessemer converter, electric steel furnaces, forging, rolling, drawing, casting and moulding, bell founding, cutting.

The technology exhibits in the German Museum include:Machine tools:Development of machine tools from a reconstruction of a fourth millennium B.C. bow-drill to original 19th century transmission lathes, drilling and milling equipment, CNC-driven machines and a model of the computer-controlled factory of the future.Powered machinery:Various muscle power machines, windmills, water-mills, steam engines, steam turbines, water-driven turbines, Otto engines, diesel engines, engine parts, rotary-piston engines, gas turbines, jet-propulsion engines.Electrical power technology:Development of DC, AC and three-phase current technology, static converters, power stations, energy distribution, high-tension systems. Daily demonstrations (11am, 2pm, and 4pm) include experiments with high-tension AC current and simulated lightning strikes.Hydraulic engineering:Urban water-management, river regulation, canal construction, harbors (e.g. Hamburg), coastal protection.Road and bridge construction:Development of road-building illustrated by models (section of a Germanic plank roadway ca. 180 B.C.; different types of bridge construction in timber, stone, iron, steel and concrete).Technical toys:Building, construction and experimental science sets.

The car exhibits in the German Museum include:Coaches, bicycles:Six coaches, among them a Berlin and a mailcoach, handcarts etc., three-wheelers, history of the bicycle (Baron Karl von Drais' 1817 velocipede, early bicycles, penny-farthings, sprung-wheeled bicycles, military folding bikes, racing bikes).Motor vehicles:Pre-1900 motor cars including an 1885 Daimler and Maybach and 1886 Benz automobile, 1881 Serpollet steam car, electric cars, classic automobiles, touring cars such as the 1914 Audi, racing cars (e.g. a 1936 16-cylinder Auto Union), utility vehicles (1935 Magirus turntable-ladder), motor-assisted bicycles, motor-cycles, motor scooters, automobile technology (chassis design, propulsion, bodywork, crash-testing, aerodynamics and prototypes), vehicle production (BMW robot assembly line); films on various aspects of automobile history.One of the primary displays is a Porsche 959 chassis. Only 200 of the cars were ever made, with 10 extra chassis which were donated to various museums.

The railroad exhibits in the German Museum include:History of rail transport, operating systems, track laying (with educational film), signals and safety systems, steam engines including a Puffing Billy (1814) and Bavarian express locomotive S 3/6 (1912). Electric trains, among them the world's first electric powered locomotive built by Siemens in 1879, diesel locomotives including e.g. the V 140 (1935), mountain railroads (rack, cableway and cable-car railroads); 40sq.m/430sq.ft model railroad lay-out (demonstrations throughout the day).Tunnelling:Rock-drilling machinery, shoring, sections of tunnels (Simplon Tunnel, Munich Underground tunnel).

The shipping exhibits in the German Museum include:Sailing ships, steam and motor vessels, boats, warships, submarines, navigation and diving techniques.

The scientific exhibits in the German Museum include:First Floor:Ehrensaal:Hall of Fame honoring leading German inventors, engineers and entrepreneurs (paintings, busts, reliefs etc.).Brander-Raum:Scientific instruments used by G. F. Brander (1713-83) who was one of the founders of the Kurbayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Academy of Sciences). Specially noteworthy is an azimuth quadrant made in 1761.Fraunhofer-Raum:Collection of scientific instruments belonging to Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826), Georg von Reichenbach (1772-1826) and Joseph Liebherr (1767-1840), in particular a prism spectroscope, heliometer and astronomical universal theodolite.New energy technology:The nature of energy, main energy sources, energy from uranium, energy saving, renewable energy sources (wind energy, the tides, geothermal energy, biomass).Physics:Different branches of physics, history of mechanics, forces, freely falling bodies, Galileo Room, mass, liquids, gases, oscillation, heat and cold, measurement of temperature, electro-static, magneto-static, electric currents, X-rays, gas discharge, electro-magnetism, optics.There are several pieces of apparatus of great interest including Otto von Guericke's Magdeburg hemispheres (1663), the first opthalmoscope, made by Helmholtz in 1851, valves produced by C. F. Röntgen (1896), and equipment used by Heinrich Hertz in his 1889 experiments in electro-magnetism.Chemistry:Alchemy, 18th century laboratory from Lavoisier's time, 19th century laboratory of J. von Liebig (1803-1873), matter, atoms, molecules, chemical reactions, chemical analysis, chemical synthesis, biochemistry, history of pharmacy (reconstruction of the pharmacy at the St Emmeran Monastery in Regensburg, ca. 1800).Industrial chemistry:Chemistry and energy, chemistry and health, chemical processes and methods, chemistry and nutrition, artificial coloring, man-made fibers, the study of carbons, various experimental set-ups, synthetic materials.Atomic, nuclear and experimental physics:Models of atoms, quantum theory, quantum mechanics, protons, neutrons, electrons, nuclear physics.Ground floor and basement:Welding and soldering:Soldering, pressure-, electron beam, thermite, gas-arc and other forms of welding, welding robots.Measurement of time:Sundials, water-clocks, hour-glasses and mechanical clocks (clockmaker's workshop), electrical clocks (also quartz clocks).Weights and measures:Development of measures and measuring apparatus for length, volume and mass; weighing scales.

The Deutsches Museum has an extensive collection of brass and woodwind, string and plucked string instruments, reed-pipes, organs, upright and grand pianos, harpsichords, spinets, virginals, electric organs, dulcimers, Aeolian harps, musical boxes.

On the German Museum's second floor are Neolithic tools and a copy of the prehistoric painting found in the Altamira cave near Santander in northern Spain.

The ceramics and glass exhibits in the German Museum include:Ceramics:Ceramics in antiquity, Greek and Roman ceramics, ceramics in technology, manufacturing processes, glazing and decoration, preparation of raw materials, design.Drying and firing, brick-making, ceramic workshop.Glass-making:Crude glass, hollow, sheet and special glass, glass manufacture and processing, glass-blowing.

The textiles exhibits in the German Museum include:Development from craft to industrial production; the spindle, loom, spinning-wheel, spinning and weaving machines.

The printing exhibits in the German Museum include:Paper:Japanese paper manufacture, hand-made paper, the paper industry, watermarks, documents, paper machines.Writing and printing:Development of writing, writing implements and machines, relief printing, gravure printing, flat-bed printing, book-binding, offset printing, photosetting, photo-reproduction.

The photography exhibits in the German Museum include:Early years of photography (e.g. 1839 daguerreotype camera, 1894 "Bosco" automatic camera), photo-technology in the 20th century, motion pictures, cine-projection, photochemistry.

On the German Museum's third floor are exhibits on agricultural technology.Agriculture, indoor activities (milking machines; various hand-driven machines; threshing machines; comparative models of farms ca. 1800 and 1960) and outdoor (machines for working land; sowing and harvesting; technological improvements over the centuries; tractors; models), milk processing (19th century Alpine hut with cheese-making equipment; development of butter and cheese manufacture, model dairy), milling (techniques of flour production, mortars, grinders, hand mills, 18th century corn mill, models; 18th century oil mill), sugar production (history of sugar-cane and sugar-beet extraction with geographical focus on e.g. the Caribbean; models of the first sugar-beet factory and a modern factory for comparison; various types of equipment).

The communications exhibits in the German Museum include:Micro-electronics:History of solid-state technology and integrated circuits; technical crystal production; chip manufacture; logic chips and memory chips; micro-electronics applications, micro-electronics and computer sciences.Computing and automation:Mathematical instruments, calculators, cryptographic devices, punched card machines, mechanical differential analysers, analog computers, early computers, working reconstruction of the "Zuse Z3" (one of the world's first program-controlled computers, made by Konrad Zuse in 1941), modern mainframe computer ("Cray-1"). Tele-communications:The physics and technology of telecommunications; cable transmission; radio engineering; telephone exchanges; radio and television broadcasting; terminals; remote control technology.

The museum houses a significant collection of German aircraft dating from the 1890s to the present. There are interesting interactive displays demonstrating principles of flight and also demonstrating manufacturing technology.Not to be missed are a very innovative display of an Airbus 300 shown in cut-away sections to reveal construction and inner workings.Visitors can enter a war-time Ju-52 tri-motor airliner and see examples of most of the early German jet and rocket powered military aircraft.One gallery is devoted to early aviation up to and including World War I.Early Aviation Hall on the first floor of the German Museum displays:Natural flight, balloons and airships, kites, early flight technology up to 1918, flight mechanics, aerodynamics.Mementos and memorabilia of Otto Lilienthal.Modern Aviation Hall on the first floor displays:Post-First World War development of propeller-driven civil and military aircraft (Junkers F 13, 1919, Messerschmidt Bf 109 E, 1938, Junkers Ju 52/3m, 1932), piston engines and propellers (BMW radial engines, large Pratt and Whitney engines).Modern Aviation Hall on the ground floor displays:Jet and turbo-prop engines, turbo-jet and other aircraft (the rocket-propelled Messerschmidt Me 163, 1941, Messerschmidt Me 262, 1944, Lockheed F 104 "Starfighter", HFB 320 Hansa Jet, details of the Airbus A 300), helicopters (including MBB BO 105, Sikorsky S-55; rotor construction), gliders (Vampyre and sf 24 Phoenix, etc.), various test planes (e.g. Rochelt-Solair), light aircraft, full-sized model of Spacelab.Modern Aviation Hall on the first mezzanine floor dispalys:Flight control and navigation systems, panel instruments and automatic pilot, demonstration models (model airport), flight safety and airfields, cockpit of a commercial aircraft.Modern Aviation Hall second mezzanine floor displays:Aeronautical medicine, emergency rescue and safety equipment (oxygen apparatus, protective clothing, ejector seat, emergency shute, life-raft), development of model plane construction.Modern Aviation Hall on the second floor displays:Introductory feature "Space and space travel", development of rocket and space technology, aggregates and rocket propulsion, models of carrier rockets including A4 rockets (V2; the world's earliest large-scale rocket), manned spaceflight (dioramas of the 1971 moon-landing, reconstruction of the Mercury capsule), satellites and probes (receiving station for weather satellite pictures, prototypes of the Helios space probe built in 1974), space technology, planetary exploration.

The unique "Forum der Technik" was set up in 1992/93 in the former conference center of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. This quite unparalleled and outstandingly successful venture in technological entertainment and education was made possible by enlisting the support of well-known companies such as Siemens, BMW, Rohde & Schwarz, Dyckerhoff & Widmann, Zeiss and others.The twin centerpieces of the hyper-modern experiment in bringing science to the masses are a big, multi-functional IMAX projection room (330sq.m./3,550sq.ft large-screen cinema; 30,000 watt six-channel digital sound system) and a Space Theatre (with Carl Zeiss Model VII planetarium and laser show).Additional facilities - including a 2,000sq.m/21,500sq.ft exhibition area, five lecture-halls and 13 seminar rooms - cater for a variety of other activities.

On the grounds of the German Museum the following attractions can be found:A Dutch windmill from Wiesedermeer (East Friesland), built in 1866;"Theodor Heuss", a lifeboat which went into service in 1957. (On display in the grounds of the Deutsches Museum since 1987, it is a great favorite with the public);Mitropa restaurant car, built in 1928. (Serves refreshments in summer).