MM Park France

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MM Park France
MM Park France.jpg
View of the entrance to the museum
Data
place La Wantzenau , Alsace , France Coordinates: 48 ° 39 ′ 57.1 ″  N , 7 ° 48 ′ 30.9 ″  EWorld icon
Art
opening 1st March 2017
management
Eric Kauffmann
Website

The MM Park France ( Musée Militaire Park France ) is a military museum and activity park in La Wantzenau , Alsace , France , with an exhibition focus on World War II . The museum contains the vehicle, weapons and uniforms collection of the founder and conductor Eric Kauffmann, which is one of the largest in Europe, as well as the thematic collection Sussex in 1944 by Dominique Soulier, the earlier you in the Musée Pays de la Zorn in Hochfelden was .

History of the museum

opening

MM Park France opened on March 1st, 2017, more than seven years after Eric Kauffmann started project planning. He had acquired the existing building in 2010 to bring together his father's collection, who also made the original vehicles available for use in film productions, in one place. Eric Kauffmann traveled a lot, for business and pleasure, to bring back a historic Soviet tank from Russia, for example. After a total start-up time of around 20 years, the MM Parc France was realized and the collection opened to the public.

Floor plan

At 7000 square meters, MM Park France is one of the largest military museums in Europe. There are two large exhibition halls with vehicles, an amusement park and a restaurant on the ground floor. Upstairs are the weapons and uniforms displays and the Sussex 1944 Collection room . Other rooms, such as the “Salle Koenig”, are available that can be rented for business or private events.

Exhibitions

vehicles

Submarine tower with lookout (reconstructed)
Air force flight operations boat at a replica berth
View of the vehicle hall
Pistol stinger
Railroad trolley with camouflage paint
Russian T-34/85 tank recovered from the Neva .

The museum has more than 120 vehicles and equipment, a training aircraft, a reconstructed submarine tower and a flight operations boat of the Air Force of the Third Reich of 20 meters in length, which can be viewed in the "Basin of the base of the Kriegsmarine" (replica). The museum has its own restoration workshops with three employees.

The allocation by country refers to the use, not to the place of manufacture.

Belgium
  • Latil M2TL6 (commercial vehicle)
German Empire
France
Great Britain
Italy
Canada
USSR
United States of America

Uniforms

The museum shows more than 500 thematically arranged uniforms (originals) from France (before 1940 and 1941 to 1945), Germany, Bulgaria, the United States of America, Great Britain and the USSR. In addition to military uniforms, paramilitary clothing (sports, youth groups, etc.) is also shown.

weapons

The weapons collection includes more than 500 rifles, pistols, machine guns and submachine guns of the armies of France, Germany, Bulgaria, the United States of America, Great Britain and the USSR, displayed in display cases.

Photos and postcards

The museum owns an extensive collection of photos and postcards from the region around La Wantzenau , which date from the beginning of the 20th century. The exhibition of these contemporary documents is under construction.

Showroom Sussex 1944

Ring from Sussex member Pierre Verges (“Le Teyrac”) with a container for a cyanide capsule

The Sussex 1944 collection is dedicated to the 140 men and women - British, Americans, French - who took part in Operation Sussex and shows on the subjects of “Occupation”, “Mobilization”, “Instruction”, “Training”, “ Missions ”,“ Escadrille ”( Squadron ),“ Liberation ”,“ End of Missions ”and“ DGER ”( War Intelligence Service: Direction Générale des Etudes et Recherches ) more than 500 rare documents, photos and objects, including one-off pieces. The collection is owned by Dominique Soulier, son of Georges Soulier, a former Sussex member who parachuted on June 2, 1944 during the VIS mission in Nantes. He had been sent to France shortly before Operation Overlord (June 6, 1944) and was in charge of transmitting information from Blois to London about the movements of the German army in the Loire .

Showroom Simeon II

From left to right:
Eric Kauffmann and Simeon Borissow Sakskoburggotski with his wife Doña Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela at the inauguration of the Salle Siméon II
Bulgarian uniforms in the Salle Siméon II

On July 4, 2017, the exhibition hall with Bulgarian weapons and uniforms was inaugurated as Salle Siméon II in the presence of Simeon II (Simeon Sakskoburggotski) and his wife. On this occasion, Simeon Sakskoburggotski presented Eric Kauffmann with an order from his grandfather, Tsar Ferdinand I , as an exhibit.

movie theater

The museum has a small cinema that shows short reports on the Second World War.

Special exhibitions

MM Park France also offers space for special exhibitions related to World War II.

In 2017 there are two exhibitions:

  • The Resistance in France with a special focus on Alsace.
  • The deportation of Jews in Alsace during the Second World War.

Area for activities

The museum includes a small, covered activity park with a climbing course and two flight simulators.

  • Part of the climbing course

  • Part of the climbing course

  • Flight simulators

links

Association de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine Historique Militaire

MM Park France can be seen in conjunction with the French Association de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine Historique Militaire (ASPHM), the association that manages Eric Kauffmann's collection.

MM Bulgaria

In Bulgaria there is the military museum MM Bulgaria, analogous to MM Park France. It is located 12 km south of Varna , has an area of ​​300 m² and is open from June 1st to August 31st.

bibliography

  • Dominique Soulier: Le Plan Sussex: Opération ultra-secrète tripartite américano-franco-britannique, 1943–1944 , Éditions Ronald Hirlé (2009), ISBN 978-2914729772 .
  • Dominique Soulier: Le Plan Sussex, guerre secrète en France occupée , Histoire et Collections (2013), ISBN 978-2-35250-311-8 .

Web links

Commons : MM Park France  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Caroline Moreau: Ouverture du MM Park dédié à la seconde guerre mondiale à la Wantzenau , France 3 Grand Est, February 28, 2017; Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  2. ^ A b Philippe Wendling and Hervé Kielwasser: Un musée prêt à débarquer à La Wantzenau , www.lalsace.fr, 8 May 2015; Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  3. ↑ PHOTOS - Un Alsacien ouvre son musée sur la Seconde Guerre mondiale , France Bleu, March 1, 2017; Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  4. ↑ Boats of this type were the only watercraft operated by Air Force personnel during World War II. They also sailed under the flag and with the badge of the Air Force.
  5. ^ Fritz Hahn: Infantry weapons, pioneer weapons, artillery weapons, powder, explosives and warfare agents . Bernard & Graefe, 1986, ISBN 978-3-7637-5830-2 , p. 193.
  6. ^ Mk, abbreviation for Mark.
  7. ^ Corinne Fugler: Le Plan Sussex, un réseau de résistants hors du commun , www.francebleu.com, May 8, 2013; Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  8. ^ Official website of the MM Park in Bulgaria ; Retrieved June 20, 2017.