War, Destruction, Reconstruction
Major damage to buildings and exhibits.
Towards the end of the Second World War, the museum was badly hit during bombing raids. 80 percent of the buildings and 20 percent of the exhibits were damaged or destroyed. The first task after the end of the war was to provisionally weatherproof the museum. In addition, the museum staff had to protect the ruins from looters day and night. They secured the collection objects and cleared debris. Then they worked on the reconstruction. Companies associated with the museum provided fitters and materials.
The first building to be provisionally restored was the Congress Hall, which opened in January 1946. The income from renting out the rooms was to finance the reconstruction. Temporary tenants included the bombed-out Technische Universität, a large post office, the UNRRA University (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration University) for Displaced Persons and a number of companies.
On 25 October 1947, a first special exhibition opened: “50 Jahre Dieselmotor” - 50 years of the diesel engine. The official reopening of the Deutsches Museum followed on 7 May 1948, initially with only one department open to visitors: the physics exhibition. Year after year, exhibition after exhibition, the museum expanded, but it was not until 1965 that the exhibition space returned to its pre-war level.