The Deutsches Museum Bonn is the first museum for contemporary research and technology in Germany. It shows technical and scientific achievements, including many discoveries, which were awarded a Nobel prize. If you would like to know how an airbag works, see the Transrapid hoverrail, or learn about the methods of medical technology and brain research, then the Deutsches Museum Bonn is the place for you. Our motto is a discourse with science and technology, which emphasises the dialogue aspect. We discuss the processes by which research and inventions come about, as well as their consequences, and illustrate the interactions with politics, society, and the economy. The museum is not divided into technological sections; instead, five main themes or topics of discussion determine its structure: pure research (``Elementary Matters''), technologies in a divided Germany (``Icebreaking''), the ambivalence of research and technology (``Twixt Heaven and Hell''), multidisciplinary science (``Across Frontiers''), and applied research (``Tradition -- Vision''). The Deutsches Museum Bonn is housed at the Wissenschaftszentrum (congress centre) of the Stifterverband fur die Deutsche Wissenschaft (German Science Endowment Association). It was opened on 3 November 1995. The Deutsches Museum Bonn exhibits 100 outstanding examples of research and technology in Germany since 1945, divided into five main topics. The understandable explanatory texts provide information on how each object works, and the background to and significance of the discovery. The extensive German catalogue includes explanations by the inventors themselves. The museum has also taken a new departure with its media concept. The imparting of knowledge stands in the forefront. Information is provided in audio-visual or multimedia form. Interactive >>touch-screen computers<< give information about individual exhibits. Animations make complicated technical or scientific processes easy to understand.
``TechnikDialog'' (available only in German) is a dialogue between experts in various disciplines. For example, Artur Fischer, the inventor of the Fischer S wall plug, and Hans-Jurgen Warnecke, the president of the Fraunhofer Association, discuss inventions and creativity. ``TechnikDialog'' discussions can be heard as original recordings; printed transcripts are also available.
The video magazine ``TechnikThemen'' (available only in German) is a kind of current affairs programme which poses questions about the relations between research and society, politics, and the business world. It shows reports, historic film clips, interviews, opinions and attitudes towards technology ranging from conviction to anxiety.
Wissenschaft live The Deutsches Museum Bonn has a hot line to the world of research, so that visitors can experience science ``live''. Every two months the museum is linked by videophone to a research lab or technical installation of some sort. Each time, a different school takes an active part. Visitors to the museum can take part in a discussion with leading scientists -even if they happen to be orbiting the earth and the link-up is to the Mir space station.
Key Personnel
Dr. Peter Friess M.A. , born 5. June 1959. - Education: business-school (1975), master-Clockmaker (1981), Conservator for metal-Objects (1983), evening school for Abitur [university entrance qualification] (1981 - 1985) PhD in Art History [Art and Machine] (1992). - Stipendium: Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (1990), Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung (1991) - Appointments: Bavarian National Museum (1978 ú 1983), Smithsonian Institution Washington D.C. (1980 - 1981), Deutsches Museum (1984 - 1988), The J. Paul Getty Museum (1990 and 1991), Deutsches Musuem Bonn (since 1992).