Science Center Spectrum
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The Science Center Spectrum is a hands-on museum run by the German Museum of Technology Berlin . It is located on its eastern site at Möckernstrasse 26, Berlin-Kreuzberg. Before the war, the listed building, built in 1874, was the administration building of the Anhalter Güterbahnhof. The Spectrum is the first science center to be established in Germany after the Second World War. The number of exhibits is around 150, spread over 1,400 m² of exhibition space.
history
Several sources played a role in the construction of the spectrum. The founding director Günther Gottmann supplemented the plans previously worked out by the Berlin cultural administration with the help of experts with a department in which visitors could experiment for themselves. Since there were corresponding models in Germany and not even in Europe at that time, an excursion to the Exploratorium in San Francisco was necessary. This science center was founded by the physicist and educator Frank Oppenheimer in 1970. The excursion took place in February 1982. Immediately afterwards, the construction of hands-on experiments began, because it was necessary to gain experience with construction and public operation by the opening of the museum in December 1983. The first six experiments were shown together with objects of kinetic art in the exhibition rooms of the friends' association in the house of Urania . The opening of this exhibition took place on December 14, 1982.
At the opening of the museum in Trebbiner Strasse on December 14, 1983, 40 experiments could be presented to touch. This exhibition area was named Versuchsfeld . The exhibition area was 400 m². The test field was doubled in 1985, both in terms of the number of exhibits and the exhibition space.
When in 1987 an administration building of the former Anhalter Güterbahnhof used for offices by expedition companies was offered to the museum, the director decided to relocate the test field there because of the positive response from visitors. That meant an expansion by three times both in area and in the number of exhibits. On December 14, 1990, the exhibition called "Spectrum" was opened.
The exhibition extends over four floors to more than 1400 m². The number of experiments was around 250. They were mounted on simple tables or wooden structures. The focus was on the function of the experiment. Due to the renewal of the exhibition with funds from the Lottostiftung Berlin and the European Fund for Regional Development (ERDF), the Spectrum was closed from the beginning of 2012 to August 2013. During this time, the exhibition was modernized, a new design was introduced and the instructions were bilingual in German and English.
The number of visitors has averaged around 200,000 a year since the beginning.
The Spectrum has a forerunner in Berlin, the experimental hall of the earlier Urania, which existed from 1888 to the 1920s.
Head of the Spectrum
1982-2004: Otto Lührs
since 2005: Christian Neuert
The areas
Visual perception, acoustics, mechanics, electricity, optics, hall of mirrors, radioactivity, communications technology, etc.
Special exhibits
Foucault pendulum
In the interior of the listed building, an atrium breaks through all floors. It houses a Foucault pendulum with a pendulum length of 17 meters. Gradually the pendulum turns, showing the rotation of the earth.
Witch house
The exhibit belongs to the field of visual perception. You sit on a bench in a replica of a house that is being turned.
Cloud chamber
In the cloud chamber there are traces of the kind known from aircraft contrails. The cause is the natural ionizing radiation , which can come from the ground as well as from the atmosphere. The short, thick tracks are produced by α-rays, the long, thin tracks are produced by β-rays.
Rotography
This is an exhibit of kinetic art. Various arrangements of light-emitting diodes (LED) are mounted on rotating disks. They are controlled by electronics and thus generate a variety of colored patterns that the visitor can largely change using rotary knobs.
literature
- Heinz Ohff: With lift and thrust and electronics, art and technology in the transport museum . In: Der Tagesspiegel . December 31, 1982
- Otto Lührs: The test field in the Museum of Transport and Technology . In: Physik und Didaktik Heft 3 1986, Bayerischer Schulbuch Verlag, ISSN 0340-8515
- Lilo Berg: Then the Senate sent me to San Francisco . In: Berliner Zeitung , December 14, 2007
- Otto Lührs: Technology Museum and Science Center - a look into the structure . In: Museumsjournal 1/2008, pp. 16-17. ISSN 0933-0593
- Christian Neuert / Stefanie Klein: amazement - laughter - experimentation. Science Center Spectrum . In: Deutsches Technikmuseum 4/2008, pp. 6-7.
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 53 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 46 ″ E