Origins and Formation of the German Museum of Outstanding Achievements in Natural Science and Technology

Abstract

The German Museum of Outstanding Achievements in Natural Science and Technology in Munich was founded in 1903. For three years its founder electrical engineer Oskar von Miller collected an extensive collection of historical and technical exhibits, and in 1906 the museum was opened to the public. The German Museum in Munich demonstrated for the first time that not only artists, but also technicians created masterpieces, not only philosophers, but also inventors had ingenious ideas, not only medieval objects, but also modern technology is a relic. O. von Miller formulated the most important motives and goals of the museum as follows: documentation of the role of technology for the development of society and culture; the implementation of an educational function in the presentation of technology, the achievement of a national status. The didactic principles of organizing exhibitions in the museum served to popularize natural science laws, to visually demonstrate the functional application of technical inventions. The presentation of technical objects was qualitatively different from the exhibition principles of other technical museums. Demonstration of old technologies and historical machines in action was already the norm in museum work. O. von Miller set the task of the museum to explain the technology of manufacturing technical products, such as watches, fabrics, and so on, for which fragments of workshops and factories were reproduced in exhibitions. For the first time in a technical museum, in addition to the traditional chronological display of technical inventions, the principle of operation of machines and apparatus was explained by means of experiments conducted with exhibits by visitors and museum staff. This function was extremely new for the technical museum and was nevertheless carried out mainly by the public, mainly students and young people.