Museum Day on May 19: Many technology museums with free admission

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On International Museum Day, this time on Whit Sunday, May 19, you can visit many museums with free admission. Some museums have gone to great lengths to offer special things on this day, such as special guided tours or spectacular activities for children. As many museums are open at the same time, you only have to expect crowds in those museums that are always well attended anyway. Smaller museums in particular, which are run by associations or private individuals, benefit from this date, as it creates many opportunities to attract people interested in their topics. Around 7100 museums are active in Germany. During the coronavirus pandemic, many of them have also developed digital formats that allow visitors to take a look at the exhibits online.

Many technology museums are taking part

A number of museums around the world take part in Museum Day on May 18 - in Germany and Switzerland, however, on the corresponding Sunday. This year, the international umbrella organization for Museum Day, the ICOM (International Council of Museums), is focusing on museums for education and research. Accordingly, we would also like to provide an overview of some technically-oriented exhibitions and their events on Museum Day. Unfortunately, the list is not complete, as not all of them publish their planned activities online or in press releases. The website museumstag.de provides an overview of interesting local activities.

German Mining Museum Bochum

The mining museum has not yet announced any special activities on its website, but was active last year with a special program.

German Museum of Technology Berlin

At the German Museum of Technology in Berlin, you can experience an all-round tour of everything to do with technology: from aircraft construction to chemistry and computer science. You can also conduct your own experiments. Adults and children can visit the museum's permanent and special exhibitions, take part in a guided tour and take part in various workshops and activities. No registration is required. More information can be found on the museum's website.

Heinz Nixdorf Museum Forum Paderborn

At the HNF, visitors can learn about the history of information and communication technology. On this day, according to the website, there are special guided tours into the world of tubes and computers, codes and ciphers, numbers and machines, data storage and an overview of the history of the computer. However, you must register for the guided tours.

Magdeburg Museum of Technology

The Magdeburg Museum of Technology runs various historical machines, such as a steam engine from 1862. There are short family-friendly tours several times a day. Registration is not required. The highlight is the demonstration of an over 100-year-old indoor crane. The Friends of the Museum of Technology use virtual reality to bring an object, the suction gas engine, to life. The dates for the demonstrations can already be found on the museum's website.

German Museum Munich

According to the announcement, there will be two 90-minute short tours at the Deutsches Museum in Munich for each of the five thematic units: Work and Everyday Life, Body and Mind, System City, System Earth, Space and Time. The special exhibitions "METAVERSE - Phenomenal Digital?" and "Futur II - Mobility 2050 in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region - How we will have made it" are also open.

Technoseum Mannheim

On Museum Day, the Technoseum will be focusing on both old and future-oriented technologies. Among other things, there will be a science show about wind turbines, you can see high-tech prosthetic hands in action, experience holograms and try out an AV1 school avatar. There is also a Carrera track with a bicycle drive and a large model train set on display and you can get to grips with historical media technology at an experiment table. More information about the museum can be found on its website.

DB Museum

Activities are planned for Museum Day at both locations, in Nuremberg and Koblenz, including three guided tours in Nuremberg. Information can be found on the museums' websites.

Oldenburg Computer Museum

You can experience the nostalgia of old computers, at least some of which still work, in Oldenburg. The website does not announce any special events, but the museum is listed as a participant.

Digital visit

Some museums also offer events that can be visited online. Not all of them only run on this day.

Dresden Technical Collections

The museum offers an action-packed rally through the world of mathematics. Young people from the age of 15 and adults can find out which problems have not even been solved by the best mathematicians! Also interesting: In the camera museum, you can view the progress of the photography industry online.

Michaelstein Monastery

Michaelstein Monastery focuses on musical instruments and has a virtual display of Caus' mechanical music machine, which is also shown on the monastery's YouTube channel. A compilation of other mechanical instruments and a chronological outline of the history of music can also be seen there.

Biotopia Lab Max Planck Society

The Biotopia Lab features YouTube videos on scientific topics. In these videos, scientists from various research areas of the Max Planck Society talk about their work and use simple demonstrations to show what they find particularly fascinating about their field of research and what they have already discovered.

Würth Museum for Screws and Threads

A museum for lovers of screws and threads? There is one. And even as a virtual 360-degree tour. You can learn a lot about how screws and threads have developed and all sorts of things about the techniques used to join parts together and the tricks that had to be and still have to be overcome.

Lauf Industrial Museum

The industrial museum offers a 360-degree tour of its grounds and exhibition rooms, some of which are set to music.

Cloth and Technology Textile Museum Neumünster

A virtual tour with explanations about the technology of textile production.

LWL-Museum Zeche Zollern

The museum takes visitors on a journey back to a time when the machine hall was still loud and bustling. Several floors can be explored in 3D.

Zeiss Museum of Optics

Silke Schmidt, the director of the museum, takes visitors on a 3D tour of the most important of the 1000 exhibits in the world of optics.

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