Deutsches Technikmuseum

This afternoon, after my Berliner Unterwelten tour of the flak tower in Humboldtshainpark (more on that later) I went to the Deutsches Technikmuseum close to Gleisdreieck U-bahn station. As you would expect, this museum is all about Technik, which means engines and machines as well as consumer goods and lots of history lessons, even some demonstrations of product manufacturing, like suitcases.
On this google earth image you clearly see the plane on top of one part of the museum, which is of course one of the eyecatchers of the museum on the outside. Many more eyecatchers inside as well.
The two oddly-shaped buildings south of the plane are part of the museum as well, they used to be parking space for train locomotives, and the disks you see right next to those buildings were rotating platforms which were used to "pick" a locomotive and put it in the railway system. You can see those from ground level on the first picture. There is a lot of other stuff outside as well, you can see a water tower (the ball-shaped object, which actually stands on a tall structure) and even a proper Dutch windmill (not on the picture)

The museum itself is awesome. Really. If you visit berlin, go there. In the morning, as you can easily spend a whole day there (there is a restaurant as well). I went there at about 3:30 pm and the museum closed at 5:30, so I had to rush some parts which is a shame.
The museum is separated in several areas, some of them interesting but not that impressive like a part with all kinds of fabrics, their industrial uses and a nice collection of old looms (some of them using a rudimentary form of programming with punched cards - actually, looms were the first "programmed" machines). Other areas deal with photography and video (the photography section having some cool 3D stuff as well, like a holographic laser-generated 3D face) or telecommunication. The most interesting areas however, were those about trains, aviation and shipping.

The train exhibition contained loads of very detailed scale models of trains and bridges and stations, and a lot of real deal locomotives (mainly steam) and train carriages. Check out the picture on the left, which is a "Preußische S 10" (the website of the museum has a detailed pdf list of all its locomotives) which dates back to 1911. Sure knew how to make impressive stuff then, as the thing weighs 51 tonnes empty and is 21 metres long.

A little while later I met this BEAST. It doesn't even fit on the picture. 24 metres long, 1817 kW of power (2430 bhp), max speed of 150 km/hour. The last one was actually in use until 1975.
Yeah, the picture doesn't do it justice, it is very impressive in real life.
Not all impressive and cool however, part of the exhibition was dedicated to the role of the Deutsche Bahn in the deportation of the jews, with a wooden transport carriage like the one used for jews on display as well.

Anyway, this place is a walhalla for train buffs, and might very well turn you into one :-)

I then moved to the new part of the museum, the part with the airplane on top. That area has been tailor-built (is that a real English expression?) for the collection of ships and airplanes, as the objects often span several floors and in this way offer a very immersing experience. Ship engines, detailed maquettes and even complete ships on display, next to navigation equipment, antique naval weapons, a video on the U-Boot war, old whale hunting harpoons and loads of other stuff. On the two floors above that airplanes and parts of airplanes are standing and hanging all around, from replicas of the very first one-person gliders over WW1 double-decker planes over WW2 fighter planes and V-bombs, early jet-engine planes up to a whole lufthansa transport airplane.

After all, a very interesting visit, and for only 4.5 euro a real bargain as well. There is a special kids area as well, and it's not all about looking alone: there are several objects where you can try things yourself. It can be interesting to just walk through in a couple of hours but also for those wanting more in-depth information as there are lots of computer monitors offering extensive information.