Gersthofen balloon museum

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The balloon in art, on the top floor of the water tower

The Balloon Museum Gersthofen in Gersthofen in Augsburg is the oldest balloon museum in the world and is one of the major German art museums in pure by local authorities.

Initially set up in the former Gersthof water tower , a new building was added in 2003. The new building and the water tower were connected by a basement. Together with the attached city library, the balloon museum forms a lively cultural center in Gersthofen.

location

The museum is located opposite the Gersthofen town hall and the “City Center” shopping center.

history

The museum was set up in 1985 on five floors and with around 150 m² of exhibition space in the former Gersthofer water tower built in 1906. The aeronautics collection of the Augsburg balloonist Alfred Eckert forms its basis.

In 2003 the museum was expanded to include a further four exhibition levels to approx. 1,200 m² with a new building.

Exhibition themes

The gondola of Baron Joseph Maximilian Freiherr von Lütgendorf's balloon (Germany's first attempt at launching a balloon in 1786)
Auguste Piccard's pressure capsule (altitude record 1931)
  • The beginnings of ballooning in Germany
  • Technology, balloon production and balloon sport
  • The balloon in the service of science and the military
  • Records and disasters
  • The "air ball" conquers the world
  • Alfred Eckert aeronautical collection

One of the particularly noteworthy exhibits in the museum is a replica of the gas balloon prototype with which Joseph Maximilian Freiherr von Lütgendorf tried unsuccessfully in 1786 to become the first German balloonist to conquer the skies from Augsburg and Gersthofen. The new building of the museum is built around this balloon with its ornate ship-shaped Renaissance gondola.

The spherical pressure capsule of the balloon with which Auguste Piccard successfully set his stratospheric altitude record (15,785 m) from Augsburg in 1931 is exhibited on the first floor .

Museum balloon

The museum balloon (2008)

The museum balloon D-ODMA is operated by the Freiballonverein Augsburg eV .

See also

Web links

Commons : Ballonmuseum Gersthofen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. With gas and hot air to sky-high spheres . February 25, 2013 ( vdk.de ).

Coordinates: 48 ° 25 ′ 32.9 ″  N , 10 ° 52 ′ 32.5 ″  E