 Museum Entrance (2011) | |
  Location in Lower Saxony | |
| Established | 1983; 42 years ago (1983) |
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| Location | Munster,Germany |
| Coordinates | 52°59′13″N10°06′38″E / 52.98694°N 10.11056°E /52.98694; 10.11056 |
| Type | Military Museum |
| Visitors | 113,796 (2015) |
| Director | Ralf Raths |
| Website | www |
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TheGerman Tank Museum (German:Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster (DPM))[1] is an armoured fighting vehicle museum inMunster, Germany,[Note 1] the location of theMunster Training Area camp. Its main aim is the documentation of the history of German armoured troops since 1917.
It originated in 1983 from the instructional collection of thePanzertruppenschule, theBundeswehr (German Army) school for training officers and NCOs of German armoured units. It is now a museum open to the public, jointly run by the municipality of Munster and theLehrsammlung der Panzertruppen und Heeresaufklärungstruppe am Ausbildungszentrum Munster (teaching collections of the armoured combat troops).
The museum site covers an area of over 9,000 square metres (97,000 sq ft). including 7,500 square metres (81,000 sq ft) of exhibition halls. In 2003 the museum opened a new building for special displays, a museum shop and a cafeteria.
The museum displays tanks, military vehicles, weapons, small arms, uniforms, medals, decorations and military equipment fromWorld War I to the present day. The heart of the exhibition is a collection of about 40Bundeswehr and former East German (Nationale Volksarmee) tanks as well as 40 German tanks and otherWehrmacht vehicles from theSecond World War. In addition there are tanks from the SovietRed Army, theBritish Army and theUnited States Army from the Second World War, as well as other modern tanks such as the IsraeliMerkava. There is also one Swedish tank, the Stridsvagn m/21-29, a modified GermanLK II. Most of the vehicles are in working order, with restoration work ongoing to render all examples functional. The restoration staff of the museum do extensive research on every vehicle in order to return it to its original configuration and paint scheme. The large collection of armoured vehicles includes some rare or unique types. For example, the museum has a replica of anA7V GermanFirst World War tank, the only example of its type in (continental) Europe, with the only other being atThe Tank Museum. Also, there is an armoured police vehicle from theWeimar Republic era, theDaimler DZVR 21. In addition it has one of only two existingSturmpanzer VI as well as a prototype version of theJagdpanzer IV. From the post-war era there is a range ofBundeswehr prototypes, including aLeopard 1,Kanonenjagdpanzer tank destroyer andMBT-70, the abortive US-German design. The interior of aLeopard 1 tank, situated outside, can be entered via a flight of steps and a ladder in the turret.
By its own account the museum does not just want to show tanks as an exhibit of history of technology. With the ongoing reforms it wants to put them in a scientific-historical context. Tanks as technical objects are seen as starting points for broader historical contexts, which the museum wants to the tell of his exhibits in many historical perspectives: asSocial,Economic,Political andCultural History. As an actor in modern military history the museum still includes the old perspectives of the museum: operational history and political history still have their place in the Tank Museum.[2]
TheElemente des Krieges ("Elements of War"), thematically groups smaller exhibits into four areas or "paths":
Further special exhibits are thedeath mask ofErwin Rommel and his tunic, which was thought to be an original for a long time. The fake uniform is now exhibited with an explanation of how the forgery was discovered and why a museum has to examine its exhibits time and again.
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