House of magnificent machines

The Technik Museum is a unique technology museum in Speyer, Germany. Having more than 2,000 exhibits, the museum is an enjoyable historical experience of 150 years of German history and much more, writes Inder Raj Ahluwalia

The best way to describe it is to say it is ‘refreshingly different’. And indeed it is quite unique.

A brave new world with its head wistfully turned back to the past, it is an institution that offers an insight into the glory and nostalgia of automobile and aviation combustion that ruled the roads, seas and skies of generations past and present.

There is even a Russian spacecraft Buran inside the museum

You can sit in the cockpit and handle the joystick of planes that ruled the skies during the great wars; look through the conning tower of submarines; and hoist yourself aboard trains and delightful steam engines that romanticised rail tracks in bygone years.

The Technik Museum in Speyer is a multi-faceted institution that will take you by surprise, and floor you with its sheer weight and depth of items on display. More than a million annual visitors will vouch for this.

To say that the institution is of huge proportions in every sense of the word is to put things mildly. Awaiting one in a giant arena — an indoor area of 16, 000 sq metres, and 150, 000 sq metres of outdoor grounds — is a wide and varied range of exhibits that were the mainstay and pride of all fields of technological history. Big and small, plain looking and ornate, they’ve all played key roles in the last century.

One of the exhibits at the museum is U-9, a completely walk-in submarine of the German navy

The walk-in Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet in the museum is the world’s largest passenger aircraft and the only such exhibit in a museum worldwide

A visit to the museum is not only an enjoyable historical experience, but also a journey down the memory lane. It unfolds a world not easily seen these days, and enables you to walk through 150 years of German history. You get a chance to get ‘up-front and personal’ with an assortment of magnificent machines. The bulk of the exhibits comprises of a collection of old cars, train engines and coaches, aircraft, including the legendary Missishchmits, fire trucks, and engine parts, all in one giant hall, all neatly segmented and tastefully displayed. Making the visitor’s visit more fruitful is elaborate cataloguing of all items on display.

Outside, the show continues. Out in the open, carefully displayed in designated areas, or on ramps, is an assortment of trucks, aircraft, boats, submarines, ships, tanks, propellers, and other related accessories. The fascinating aspect is that the models displayed are the very machines that saw service during war and peace in the last few decades.

One could spend a whole day on the premises, seeing everything, admiring the old beauties, pottering around, entering and walking around the planes, ships and submarines, seeing their various sections and gadgetry, learning about their mechanisms, and listening to their fascinating stories.

All in all, it’s quite a collection of items on display. There’s a walk-in Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, the world’s largest passenger aircraft and the only such exhibit in a museum worldwide, perched regally on a giant steel ramp. There is the world’s largest propeller-driven aircraft — a gigantic walk-in, grim-looking Antonov 22. The museum has more than 70 other aircraft and helicopters, comprising a vast production range, 10 of them walk-in models. There are some 50 vintage cars from different epochs, sporting exquisite shapes and brilliant colours. Forty vintage fire engines and 20 locomotives are lined up for display. There is the U-9, a completely walk-in submarine of the German navy. And there is also a unique museum of technological models; a Navy museum; and the Wilhelmsbau.

Housing a large range of exhibits, the Wilhelmsbau is a ‘museum within a museum’. Displayed here are mechanical music instruments ranging from barrel organs, to close-sized calliope dance-organs; a doll exhibition comprising more than 25, 000 artistic models from various periods; fashion accessories, and varied items from the old days; and a memento collection from the 1950s, when Rock ’n’ Roll found its way around the world and created a sub-culture.

While history forms the backdrop, hi-tech makes its presence felt. One can take a trip into the past Egypt or climb Mount Everest! Two IMAX giant-screen movie theatres show spectacular films on the world’s largest screen, backed by a 22, 000 watt sound system.

The museum also offers playgrounds, computer-controlled driving and adventure simulators, jump-boat rides and a 54-metre-long giant slide exiting from the Jumbo Jet; a museum shop well-stocked with specialised literature; models, videos, DVDs and souvenirs; a hotel with caravan site; and complete catering services.

HOME