Visit the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany

The Deutsches Museum opens its gates in 1925. The library and the Congress Hall where added three years later. In World War II, the building was seriously damaged but thanks to the museulogist assiduous work only 20% of the exhibited objects were ruined. Presently, the library consists of 700,000 volumes and also the technical drawing collection is quite considerable.

On the 8th floors of the huge maze like building we can progress according to categories. The 55 permanent exhibitions occupy 55,000 square meters and the path 17 kilometers in length goes among the total of 17,000 objects. As this is a rather serious walking tour it’s advice to reduce the program to a limited number of individual fields of interest. Those who want to examine everything in detail can even spend two or three days here.

In the first room, we can make ourselves familiar with water power stations and the building of dams and bridges. Large scale models represent the famous bridges of the world from ancient wooden constructions to the present day high tech bridges. Everyone can try Leonardo’s with the water lifter.

Though everyone is fascinated by different things the most popular and most attractive is the hall representing the history of ships where originals and models are both presented. All this is supplemented by pictures, dioramas and functioning models. We can see the ancestral history of shipping, boats and rafts to prepare us as well as famous medieval sailboats. Here are the ships of great explorers and travelers and commercial sailboats too.

We can also go down inside one of the sailboats to feel the significance of the poor limited circumstances in which sailors had to spend months. We can also visit a luxury ship originating from the beginning of the last century. The deck chairs of the cabins and sunbathing deck are original. Only the screaming of the seagulls is not. We can have a look into the captain’s cabin as well and we can get familiar with a navigation apparatus. Those interested can visit the engine room and have a look at the huge screws and anchors and the tools necessary for repairing them.

An excerpt from the big Book of Sailing reads as follows. In the ship building workshop a pleasant picture greets the visitor. All ready from afar his nose could sense the strange but not all bad mixture of the aromas of water, several kinds of wood and tar. The pulsating music of the tools and the table like cacophony of carpenters, plungers, role player, sail makers and painters are part of these tense atmosphere.

Along side the steaming tar cauldrons masters and assistants steering about among the highly stock piles of boards here and there serious face surveyors emerge with papers in their hands on which one of the scientific members of the admiralty had drawn the plans of the ship in built. Large scale models of several famous sailboats are also exhibited. Besides passenger and commercial ships, we can also see war ships and their armament. We can even press ourselves into a genuine World War II submarine.

The house of the history of aviation is no less interesting. The exhibition starts with the German Zeppelin airships where we can see the model of the Montgolfier brothers’ balloon in a real hot air balloon of today. Further, there are fighter planes, helicopters, ultra light planes and rescuer planes and there’s also the plane of the famous German war pilot, the Red Baron.

Leonardo da Vinci planned a predecessor of the hand lighter but centuries past until the real working one could be born. We can try to find our way among the countless instruments of an airplane cockpit. We can sit and fasten our seatbelts in a giant plane and besides civilian aeronautic devices we can also become acquainted with military flying. It’s too much to list all the topics but one another example are the several kinds of musical instruments. The whole of chemistry shows the evolution of science from medieval alchemy to modern medical science. In the furnish laboratory, wax figures are working. The textile industry is developed from manual labor to computer controlled factories. The optical industry and photography have also undergone stunning changes.

The history of the measurement of time is very interesting from sundials and water meters up to atomic clocks. Here we can see church clocks, wall and table clocks as well as watches. In the hall of astronomy, planet models and films help us to find our way in the universe. We get an overall view of the development of science and technology and can even find the planetarium and observatory in the tower building. We can see a sample of Altamira Cave and the tools of prehistoric and ancient ages. From old timer cars to the vehicle space travel and research there are countless things of interest to see. Raw materials, metal processing, the engines, agricultural implements, even the results of archeology are introduced.