Dioramas in the Deutsches Museum

Cipher unit on the Eastern Front in 1941

Two men from a cipher unit are encrypting a message using an Enigma: One enters plaintext, letter by letter. The other notes down the ciphertext letters that light up on the Enigma’s lamp panel.
A radio operator is ready and waiting in the radio car to send the message in Morse code, while a fellow soldier uses a pedal generator to power the radio and the Enigma.

This diorama can be found in the Image Script Codes exhibition on Level 2.

Müngsten Bridge

The main work on the arch assembly shown in the diorama took place in the stormy winter months of 1896 and 1897.

The Müngsten Bridge is the largest truss arch bridge in Europe. It was one of the prestige projects of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who always tried to outdo France: That's why it is ten meters wider than Gustave Eiffel's Garabit Viaduct (1884), which served as a model. However, in 2023 they are both on track for shared World Heritage status, along with four similar structures in Portugal and Italy.

Diorama, scale 1:100
Year of construction: 1996
Manufacturer:Birmann Modellbau, Nürnberg und Werkstätten des Deutschen Museums
Donation: MAN AG, München
Inv.-Nr. 1996-0463

This diorama can be found in the Bridges and Hydraulic Engineering exhibition on Level 0.

Oberried military construction site

Sheet pile walls allow concrete to be poured in the middle of the river.

In Oberried an der Günz, Swabia, in 1994 and 1995
an old weir from 1899 was replaced by a new system.
The construction status is shown in the summer of 1995 during flooding:
The first weir field and the diversion have already been completed.
Sheet pile walls secure the construction site and make this possible
Concreting the additional weir fields in the dry.
Meanwhile, parts of the old system are still in operation.

This diorama can be found in the Bridges and Hydraulic Engineering exhibition on Level 0.

Glockner-Kaprun upper stage under construction

View of the Moosersperre as it was constructed in 1953

The Mooser lock (front) and the Drosser lock (rear)
form the Mooserboden reservoir in the Kaprun Valley in Austria.
The Glockner-Kaprun power plant group includes several such barrages. There were already plans for this in the 1920s,
However, they were not realized due to the economic crisis.
After Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany in 1938, work began under National Socialist leadership.
The background was the high energy requirements of the armaments industry. Thousands of forced laborers were used, many of whom died. Due to a lack of building materials, work was stopped in 1944.
With financial support from the USA from the Marshall Plan
Construction work resumed in 1948.
The working and living conditions in the high mountains were harsh.
The enormous dimensions of the project gave rise to a myth
which was glorified in the press, literature and film. Kaprun became one for the young Republic of Austria
identity-creating project and symbol of reconstruction after the Second World War.

This diorama can be found in the Bridges and Hydraulic Engineering exhibition on Level 0.

Studio photography around 1960

Soon after the introduction of photograhy, studios offering portrait photography were opened in the cities. As artificial lighting was not yet available, photographers had to rely on natural light. Glazed wall and roof sections facing north were ideal.

This diorama can be found in the Photography and Film exhibition on level 2.

First operation under anesthesia

On October 16, 1846, the first operation under general anesthesia was performed at the Massachusetts Hospital in Boston. The dentist William Thomas Green Morton anesthetized the patient with ether using a device he had developed. This day went down in medical history as “Ether Day”.

This diorama can be found in the Health exhibit on Level 3.

North Pole expedition by Amundsen with Dornier “WAL” flying boat (1925)

Led by the polar explorer Roald Amundsen, six men set off for the North Pole in two Dornier WAL flying boats on May 21, 1925. They had to make an emergency landing in the ice 250 km from their destination. For four weeks, the men made one of the WALs airworthy again and drove a runway into the pack ice. The take-off - and thus the rescue - was successful! On June 18, 1925, they reached their starting point on Spitsbergen.

This diorama can be found in the Historical Aviation exhibition on level 1.

Unterwössen gliding school (around 1960)

The diorama shows the Unterwössen gliding school in the Chiemgau Alps. Gliders have been able to complete their training there since 1954. As gliders do not have their own propulsion, they need help to get into the air. Winch launching and aerotowing are among the most frequently used launching methods in Germany. The diorama shows both methods.

This diorama can be found in the Historical Aviation exhibition on level 1.

Test stand VII at the Peenemünde military testing facility

Peenemünde on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom: hidden among the pine trees was Test Stand VII, where scientists led by Wernher von Braun carried out rocket tests with the A4, later “V2”, terror weapon from 1938 to 1945. After the war, the rocket engineers glorified the terror weapon forge as the “cradle of space travel”. The historical camouflage patterns are therefore missing on buildings and vehicles in the diorama.

This diorama can be found in the Historical Aviation exhibition on level 1.

Always the same or always different? Monoculture or crop rotation?

The three dioramas show different forms of growing crops and explain their advantages and disadvantages.

Three-field economy
The three-field economy has shaped European agriculture since the early Middle Ages. Winter grain, summer grain and fallow land alternated in three fields. This maintained the fertility of the soil, protected the plants from diseases and pests and increased crop yields. The fallow land was used as pasture for cattle. It was not until the 18th century that potatoes, sugar beets and fodder crops replaced the fallow land - this was the beginning of the modern crop rotation economy.

Monoculture
Be it corn fields in the USA, rice terraces in Vietnam or asparagus fields in Germany: In monocultures, only a single crop species grows year after year. This makes care and harvesting easier, but continuous cultivation can seriously disrupt the ecological balance. The nutrients in the soil decrease, the same planting offers the best conditions for pathogens, weeds and pests, and biodiversity suffers. In order to secure yields, pesticides and fertilizers are used.
 

This diorama can be found in the Agriculture and Food exhibition on level 3.

Fertile community: agroforestry culture

Agroforestry
The forests of Central Europe used to be used as pasture or for fattening pigs. Elsewhere, trees in the fields were a common sight. They marked boundaries, protected against erosion or provided fruit. These traditional agroforestry systems became less important from the 19th century onwards. Today, forests are being brought back to the fields all over the world. In modern systems, arable plants share space with valuable wood such as wild cherry or fast-growing trees to produce energy. There is enough space between the rows of trees for agricultural machinery.

This diorama can be found in the Agriculture and Food exhibition on level 3.

Geometry in the Pharaonic Kingdom

Egyptian surveyors stretch a rope with twelve knots to stake out a right angle – according to Pythagoras. Every year, the Nile flooded the fields. To ensure that the taxes for the pharaoh were correct, Egypt's surveyors had to constantly remeasure the fields. The Egyptians thus became early masters of geometry.

This diorama can be found in the Mathematics exhibition on Level 2.