Technical Collections Dresden
The Technical Collections Dresden are the technology museum and science center of the state capital Dresden . In a former camera factory, children, young people and families will find plenty of opportunities to experiment and explore natural phenomena, the foundations of science and the latest technological advances. With permanent exhibitions on the history of photography and film, computers and other media technology, as well as special exhibitions on photographic art and current technology research, the Technical Collections encourage discussion of the technical foundations of the present. The special feature is the combination of technical and industrial history with science and current research. The technical collections are an adventure land, a public forum for technology research, a museum of the information society and a podium for photography and animated film in one. Cooperation with the TU Dresden , DRESDEN-concept and other partners from science and research play an important role .
history
The history of the museum begins in 1966 on 300 m² in Dresden's Neustadt district : Founded with the mission to make electronics accessible to a broader public at the time, the museum presented an ever-expanding range of topics in the following years. Information and media technology, scientific device engineering and photography were added. The museum changed its name several times: from 1966 to 1975 it was called the Dresden Polytechnic Museum, from 1975 to 1992 the Dresden Technical Museum, then the Dresden Technical Collections. It moved twice and took on numerous large collections, including those of the Museum of Photography, the office machine teaching collection of the TU Dresden and the estate of the Pentacon combine . Today it offers space for exhibitions, adventure workshops and events on more than 6,500 m² in the former industrial building of the Ernemann camera works .
Initially committed to general polytechnic education, the museum initially concentrated on popularizing Dresden's industries: computing technology, precision mechanics, device construction and optics. The teaching of scientific fundamentals and technical functions stood alongside the explanation of the interactions between science and business. Today, the Technical Collections encourage active engagement with the technical basics of the present - with exhibitions on the history of photography and film, computers and other media technology, as well as temporary exhibitions on photo art and current technology research.
The Ernemann building was the landmark of the Dresden camera industry and is one of the few monuments of industrial culture of the early 20th century of national importance in Dresden today. In 1898 the businessman Heinrich Ernemann built the factory on Schandauer Strasse. The building complex was continuously expanded until 1938. The Dresden architects Emil Högg and Richard Müller designed a functional new building in the functional style of the German Werkbund . It was built using reinforced concrete and was connected to the old factory building by a bridge. After the Second World War, VEB Pentacon made the Ernemann Tower a trademark of the GDR camera industry. With the liquidation of the company in 1990 the industrial use of the building ended and the state capital Dresden took over the monument.
Permanent exhibition
Information and communication technology
The permanent exhibition on information and communication technology shows the most important pieces from the museum's extensive collections. This includes in particular exhibits from entertainment and radio technology as well as office and computer technology.
In the Traces of Reality section , you can see a wide range of devices for storing and reproducing sounds. The focus is on the cities of Leipzig and Dresden, as places of development and production of mechanical musical instruments and electronic sound storage technology. Interactive listening stations deepen the impression. A functional recording studio with analog equipment is a museum object of the exhibition and can also be used for current sound productions .
In three thematically separate display depots, visitors experience a variety of objects up close. The largest European typewriter collection with more than 1,600 objects is just as freely accessible by prior arrangement as the historical radio and television receivers in the radio depot .
The office and computer technology Schaudepot is dedicated to the history of machine writing and computing from its beginnings in the 19th century to the massive spread of computers in private households at the end of the 20th century. Starting with the pioneering work of the South Tyrolean carpenter Peter Mitterhofer (1822–1893), the most important early evidence of mechanical office technology is on display. Dresden and the Eastern Ore Mountains have a long tradition of precision engineering and became a central location for computing electronics and data processing in the GDR after the Second World War . The exhibition features milestones in GDR computer technology alongside visionary small computers from American garage companies, the dimensions of large - scale computers can be experienced just as much as the idea of a personal computer that fits on your desk or even in your pocket.
View of the office and computing technology display depot of the Dresden Technical Collections
View of the office and computing technology display depot of the Dresden Technical Collections
Model of a sprocket -
computing unit
R 300 mainframe computer, control panel, 1969
K 1840 32-bit super mini computer, 1985
.JPG)
Cool X and microelectronics
Dresden had been the heart of microelectronics research in the GDR since the early 1960s . After 1990, the city developed in the midst of the newly founded high-tech cluster Silicon Saxony into an important micro and nanoelectronics location in Europe. The museum accompanies this development from the very beginning to the present day with two exhibition areas. The Tiny Giants exhibition focuses on the historical retrospective of the almost 60-year-old history, which has been shaped by a number of turning points. You can see the first chips industrially manufactured in Dresden, the GDR project megabit circuit in the field of tension between reinvention and own creativity, but also current products from Dresden that are now installed in devices around the world.
The Cool X exhibition, sponsored by the top cluster “Cool Silicon”, is an expedition into the regional laboratories and fablabs . It shows that energy efficiency that works on a small scale can have a major impact and what every individual can contribute to it. The question of why energy efficiency is playing an increasingly central role in our digital world in particular is being discussed, as is the current technical and social solution approaches that come from Dresden. Interactive exhibits explain the prototypes to the scientists and engineers. In the cultural-historical context, the exhibition asks the question: Do we have the technology that we need and do we need the technology that we have? Hardware and software developers, commercial enterprises and scientific institutions shape the profile of the region around Dresden as a research and production location for high technology . This network is made visible in the exhibition.
Adventure land mathematics
The Adventure Land Mathematics Dresden is an interactive exhibition and includes over 100 exhibits from many sub-areas of mathematics that invite you to puzzle, be amazed and think independently. The exhibits are mostly in-house developments.
- history
In September 2008, the Mathematics Adventure Land was created as a cooperation project between the Dresden Technical Collections and the Dresden University of Technology . The scientific directors are the mathematics professors Andrea Hoffkamp , Andreas Thom and Bernhard Ganter .
Inspired by the Mathematikum in Gießen, which was set up and directed by Albrecht Beutelspacher , the founding directors Volker Nollau (†) and Bernhard Ganter developed and implemented an independent concept of "hands-on mathematics".
The Saxon State Ministry for Culture financially supported the development, and at the beginning of 2011 the exhibition was expanded to currently 1,000 m². In 2012 it took third place in the competition for the “Saxon State Prize for Design”.
- concept
The aim of the exhibition is to inspire young and old alike for mathematics without being instructive. It encourages visitors to actively and independently go on a discovery tour through the fields of mathematics. The spectrum ranges from exhibits on music ("Tonkreisel"), archeology (" Seriation ") or a walk-in "knot" to classic puzzles and puzzles.
"Epsilon - adventure land for little ones"
This separate part of the exhibition is aimed specifically at preschool children aged 3 to 8 years. The hands-on stations introduce young visitors to an understanding of numbers, shapes, quantities and structures in a playful way.
Mobile adventure land
Schools and educational institutions are given the opportunity to borrow mathematical “hands-on exhibits” specially developed for this purpose.
Events and projects
The “Mathematics in Conversation” format has been running since 2017, in which guest speakers regularly present popular science lectures on mathematical questions from the natural sciences and society and invite them to participate in a discourse with their audience.
Wellenreiter - The opto-acoustic experimental field
The wave rider exhibition is part of the various offers of the technical collections, the aim of which is to arouse curiosity, enthusiasm and understanding for scientific phenomena and questions in the visitor. Over 50 interactive hands-on stations show astonishing aspects of sound and light waves. Visitors learn in a playful way what properties these waves have and what differences. You can see sounds, play soccer with light or create sounds by moving. The exhibition also offers a hands-on area for children between the ages of 3 and 8. In an old shipwreck, young visitors can explore optical and acoustic phenomena in a stylized underwater world.
Animation film
In Dresden- Gorbitz , the DEFA studio for animated films produced around 2000 films for cinema, television and advertising from 1955 to 1990 . The permanent exhibition "Animation made in Dresden - The DEFA Studio for Animated Films" presents the history of this largest German animation film studio using around 400 characters and props, some of which are based on film sets, drawing foils, photos, documents, film clips and technical devices that were created after the "Liquidation" of the studio could be saved. Silhouette figures in light boxes present a special feature of the studio: the silhouette film. In addition, the basic animation film techniques ( drawing , figure , flat figure and silhouette animation ) as well as the making of puppets and films are explained. The exhibits illustrate the way the Dresden studio employees work. A separate area is devoted to the indispensable role of sound in DEFA animation films. The permanent exhibition was designed by the Dresden-based German Institute for Animated Film (DIAF) e. V. Among other things, the association manages the artistic estate of the dissolved DEFA animation studio in Dresden, the archive is located in the technical collections.
The first permanent exhibition on DEFA animated films opened in 2001 . This was made possible by federal funding of 250,000 DM as part of the so-called “lighthouse” program, two thirds of which went to the show. In agreement with the technical collections, an old factory hall could be converted into an exhibition room and the technical basis for the permanent exhibition was created. After 15 years, the exhibition was fundamentally redesigned and reopened on December 21, 2016 .
The permanent and current DIAF special exhibitions have been accompanied by the monthly short film program "ANIMANIA" in the museum cinema since the beginning of 2017 .
Special exhibitions
The Dresden Technical Collections present regularly changing photographic exhibitions. Against the background of the history of the Ernemann building, these thematize the tension between the photographic image and the processes and techniques of its creation. In addition to historical positions of artistic photography in Dresden and the region, current photo art with an expanded regional reference is shown. A regular component of the program are exhibitions with the results of the Dresden photography grant, which was advertised in cooperation with the Stiftung Kunst & Kultur der Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden.
Educational offers and events
Technical theater and experience workshop
The Dresden Technical Collections have an extensive range of educational and mediation opportunities for groups of children, school classes, families and interested adults. In addition to thematic tours, physical laws, mathematical principles and social developments are conveyed in workshops. In the research workshops, visitors are invited to experiment, tinker and try things out for themselves. In the technical theaters, great scientists of the past have their say "for themselves" and B. how electricity was researched, how one learned to use fire or how Adam Ries calculated on the lines and with the numbers. In workshops on image techniques, the focus is on old methods of analog photography.
DLR_School_Lab
In 2013 the DLR_School_Lab TU Dresden (DSL) was opened as a school laboratory in the Technical Collections Dresden. It is a joint project of the TU Dresden , the German Aerospace Center DLR and the state capital Dresden . Under the motto "Out of school - into the laboratory", schoolchildren can carry out exciting experiments from the natural sciences and technology on the subjects of energy and mobility. The test contents are varied and interdisciplinary. For example, it is important to find suitable materials for aircraft turbines, to test alternative production methods for hydrogen or to build small but powerful supercapacitors. Photonic technologies, traffic control and lightweight system construction are further TU research focuses that can be found in the offer. In addition to the workshops for school classes, the DSL organizes numerous other events for interested schoolchildren in cooperation with the Technical Collections and the state capital of Dresden. Further training for teachers and student teachers are also on the program. The DSL also supports individual schoolchildren (teams) in competitions, internships or scientific projects / work.
Web links
- Internet presence of the Technical Collections Dresden
- Internet presence of the Erlebnisland Mathematik
- DLR School Lab in the TSD
- Cool X - The exhibition
- Friends of the Technical Collections Dresden
- Förderverein Erlebnisland Mathematik
State art collections : Galerie Neue Meister | Old Masters Picture Gallery | Green vault | Decorative Arts Museum | Art gallery in the Lipsius building | Kupferstichkabinett Dresden (with Josef Hegenbarth Archive ) | Mathematical-Physical Salon | Coin Cabinet | Museum of Saxon Folk Art (with puppet theater collection ) | Museum of Ethnology Dresden | Porcelain collection | Armory (with Türckischer Cammer ) | Sculpture collection
Senckenberg Natural History Collections : Museum of Mineralogy and Geology | Zoological Museum
City museums : Carl-Maria-von-Weber-Museum | Kraszewski Museum | Kügelgenhaus - Museum of the Dresden Romanticism | Kunsthaus | Leonhardi Museum | Palitzsch Museum | Schiller house | City Museum | Municipal Gallery | Technical collections
Other : SLUB Book Museum | German Hygiene Museum | Railway Museum | Erich Kästner Museum | Telecommunication Museum Dresden | Fortress | Football Museum | Bautzner Strasse Memorial | Münchner Platz Memorial | Hofmühle | Smallholder Museum Reitzendorf | KraftWerk - Dresden Energy Museum | Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr | Panometer | Police Museum | Collections and art holdings of the TU Dresden | Pillnitz Castle Museum | School Museum | Tram Museum | Transport Museum | Windbergbahnmuseum | GDR Museum Time Travel (Radebeul)
Former: Concrete Timeline | Bicycle Museum | Körner Museum | Collotype workshop museum | Doll Museum | Schilling Museum | Sparkasse Museum | State Museum for Prehistory
Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 31 ″ N , 13 ° 47 ′ 52 ″ E