Deutsches Museum

Established in 1903, the Deutsches Museum (officially Deutsches Museum von Meisterwerken der Naturwissenschaft und Technik, or German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology) is among the world's oldest museums of science and technology and, with a total exhibition space of 66,000 square m², one of the largest. In addition to the main building in Munich, the Deutsches Museum has three other branch museums: the Flugwerft Schleißheim (aviation museum) in Oberschleißheim; the Verkehrszentrum (transport museum) in Munich and the Deutsches Museum Bonn.

A few months before the 1903 meeting of the Society of German Engineers, Oskar von Miller gathered together a small group who supported his desire to found a science and technology museum. In June 1903, Prince Ludwig agreed to act as patron of the museum and the city of Munich donated Coal Island as a site for the project. In addition, exhibits began to arrive from Munich, Germany, and abroad including collections from the Bavarian Academy. As no dedicated museum building existed, the exhibits were displayed in the National Museum. On 12 November 1906, the temporary exhibits at the National Museum were ceremonially opened to the public and on November 13 the foundation stone was laid for the permanent museum. The new museum was officially opened to the public by Oskar von Miller on 2 May 1925.

The Deutsches Museum possesses over 100 000 objects from the fields of science and technology. The collections are not restricted to any specialized range of topics: they include objects from mining to atomic physics, from the Altamira cave to a magnified model of a human cell. They extend from the Stone Age to the present time. About a quarter of the objects are on exhibition – in the main museum on the island in the river, at the transport museum on the Theresienhöhe, in the hangar at Schleißheim airfield, and in the Deutsches Museum Bonn. These illustrate important developments in science and technology, right down to current research.

Among the particular highlights are the first motorized aircraft built by the Wright brothers, the U1 submarine, the first program-controlled computer (Conrad Zuse’s Z3), and Diesel’s original engine on the island; the first motorcar by Karl Benz in the transport museum; the Douglas DC3 at Schleißheim; and the first Fischer wall plug in Bonn.