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| The History of the Deutsches Museum |
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In 1906 the museum celebrated the laying of the foundation-stone, and in 1925 the new building was inaugurated. The years after the opening of the new building number among the highlights in the history of the Deutsches Museum, one of the largest and most modern of its kind. The library was opened in 1932. The congress center remained a shell until 1935. Today, the congress center houses the "Forum der Technik". At the end of 1944, aircraft bombs damaged or destroyed 80% of the buildings and 20% of the exhibits.
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| The hall for shipping and aviation technology after the air-raid of July 21, 1944. | Return to the top of the page |
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The library was reopened as early as November 1945, and the congress center was patched up as well as was possible under the conditions prevailing at the time in January 1946. Income from the renting of the center was used to finance the rebuilding program. Temporary tenants included the Technical College, a post office, the UNRRA University for "Displaced Persons", and the German Patent Office. On October 25, 1947 the first special show after World War II took place: 50 Years of the Diesel Engine. May 7, 1948 saw the official reopening of the Deutsches Museum with a physics department open to the public. The exhibition area did not regain its prewar status until 1965. The Deutsches Museum now has two branch museums: the ”Flugwerft Schleissheim” (Schleissheim Hangar) since 1992 and the Deutsches Museum Bonn since 1995. The ”Deutsche Museum Verkehrszentrum” (German Transport Museum) opened in historic halls of the Munich exhibition site on the Theresienhöhe in the year 2003. These branch museums were necessary due to the dramatic developments taking place in technology and the natural sciences and to the resultant cramped conditions in the buildings of the parent museum.
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