. : Deutsches Museum: background
History
An ideal occasion for founding the museum comes in the summer of 1903: the general meeting of the Society of German Engineers in Munich.
Two months before, Oskar von Miller invites a small circle to a gathering at which there is spontaneous support, donations totalling 260,000 marks and the election by acclamation of a "Provisional Committee".
The constituent meeting follows in June 1903. Prince Ludwig agrees to act as patron. The City of Munich promises Coal Island as a site for the project. The Bavarian Academy donates its valuable collections.
Exhibits begin to arrive in Munich from Germany and abroad. To begin with, they are put on show in the old National Museum.
The ceremonial opening of the provisional exhibition at the old National Museum in Maximilianstrasse takes place on 12 November 1906, followed the next day by the laying of the foundation stone for the new building on the island - in the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria.
Taking the name of "German Museum for Masterpieces of Natural Science and Technology" is not meant as a narrow nationalistic view of science and technology, but on the contrary, invites the display of important exhibits from all countries. The name expresses the museum's claim to serve as a national institution of importance for the country as a whole.
The Deutsches Museum is at a peak in its history in the years following the opening of the new building. It is the largest and most modern museum of its kind and is copied internationally.
The structure and many didactic inventions at the museum are considered quite brilliant. One example of a world first is the projection planetarium. Visitors are also very impressed by the mine and the ship's decks to walk on, the life-size laboratories and the paintings. In comparison to the provisional collections, there are far more large-scale exhibits, such as the U1 submarine, the Dornier Wal flying boat and a number of other ships, locomotives and aircraft.
At the same time, the museum keeps up with the latest developments in science and technology. The first television broadcast can be seen in 1931.
Visitors come from all over the world to Museum Island, among them such prominent figures as Henry Ford, Robert Millikan and Niels Bohr.
Visitors come from all over the world to Museum Island, among them such prominent figures as Henry Ford, Robert Millikan and Niels Bohr.
The first task at the end of the war is to make the museum weatherproof, at least for the time being. Meanwhile, museum staff are needed day and night to protect the ruins from looters. They secure collection pieces and clear away the rubble. After that, they get to work on rebuilding. Companies linked to the museum provide workmen and materials.
The first building to be patched up as best as possible is the congress hall which is reopened in January 1946. Receipts from hiring out the rooms are to be used to finance the rebuilding of the museum. Temporary tenants include the bombed-out College of Technology, a large post office, the UNRRA University for Displaced Persons and a number of businesses. In 1949, the German Patent Office moves from Berlin to Munich and into premises on Museum Island.
By 1965, the process of post-war reconstruction is completed for the time being - sixty years after the museum was first begun. The updating of exhibits in line with scientific and technical change remains a crucial element in the museum's work.
Key events in the life of the museum include:
the display of the Apollo 8 space capsule in which astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders first orbited the moon in 1968. It is on show at the Deutsches Museum for several days in August 1969.
1970 sees the appointment of the first full-time director, Theo Stillger. He heads the museum until his sudden death in 1982.
In 1975, a preamble is added to the statutes of the Deutsches Museum, stating that the museum not only sets out to investigate the historical development of the natural sciences, technology and industry, but also to demonstrate their cultural significance. This change in the statutes is reflected in the publication of the museum's own magazine, Kultur & Technik (Culture & Technology), first produced in 1976.
In 1977, the Deutsches Museum takes over the presidency and management of the International Committee of Scientific and Technical Museums (ICOM).
In 1978, the museum celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding in 1903. The number of visitors reaches a record level this year of more than 1.5 million, which is twice as many as ten years before.
In 1983, Otto Mayr comes from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to take over at the Deutsches Museum.
The same year, a fire caused by arson does severe damage to the sections housing engines and navigation. The engines gallery remains closed until November 1985. The damage in the navigation section calls for a new concept for the exhibits which cannot be reopened to the public until November 1986.
In 1983, as a result of rebuilding work and the fire, the total display area extends over 34,140 sq m, less than ever before. The ambitious target of expanding this area to 55,000 sq m over the next ten years is achieved. The successive opening of the sections on informatics, microelectronics and telecommunications, astronomy and geodesy, completes conversion of the entire third floor.
In 1984, the new room for aeronautics and space travel is officially opened in the presence of Chancellor Kohl, Bavaria's premier Franz Joseph Strauss, the German minister of the interior Friedrich Zimmermann, and many others
In 1986, President Richard von Weizsäcker attends the annual general meeting of the Deutsches Museum. In the same year, the governments of the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany hand over to the Deutsches Museum an area of 12.7 hectares at the Oberschliessheim airfield with building rights for 99 years. This is the site of a new subdivision of the museum, the Flugwerft Schleißheim (Schliessheim Hangar), ceremonially opened on 12 September 1992.
In 1989, the administrative board of the Deutsches Museum agrees to the conversion of the congress hall into a Forum der Technik (Forum of Technology); planning and building permission is granted a year later. The Forum of Technology opens in November 1992. Since 2001 it is called Amazeum.
In 1989, the Science Centre in Bonn invites the Deutsches Museum to set up a permanent exhibition on the subject of science and technology since 1945, occupying 1,200 sq m of its premises. Three years later, an agreement is signed between the four partners involved, the City of Bonn, the Endowment Association for German Science, the State of North Rhine Westphalia and the Deutsches Museum. This new branch of the museum, the Deutsches Museum Bonn, opens on 3 November 1995.
On 23 May 1996, the Bavarian government announces that it is handing over to the Deutsches Museum the historic listed buildings of the exhibition site on Theresienhöhe in Munich for the creation of a transport museum, the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum (German only). Opening is scheduled for the year 2003.
This project has been worked by:
Tinna Rós
Laura
Karen Nótt
Anna
Selma Hrönn
Felix
Ása Ninna
Matthias
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