Michael Knock
Apr 24, 20204 min
Unique, techlogical museums.
The Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim is a technology museum in Sinsheim, Germany (about 25 minutes from Heidelberg and 1 hour south of Frankfurt). Opened in 1981, it is run by a registered association called "Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim e. V." which also runs the nearby Technik Museum Speyer.
The museum has more than 3,000 exhibits and an exhibition area of more than 50,000 m2 (540,000 sq ft), indoors and outdoors.
In addition to exhibitions, the museum also has a 22 m × 27 m (72 ft × 89 ft) IMAX 3D theatre.
It receives more than 1 million visitors per year and is the largest privately owned museum in Europe.
In 2003, Air France donated one of its retiring Concorde aircraft (F-BVFB) to the museum. With a Tupolev Tu-144[3] on display since 2001, it is the only place where both supersonic passenger aircraft are shown. Both are fully accessible by the public.
The museum's alliance acquired a Russian shuttle Buran in 2004 which opened as a walk-in exhibition at the Technikmuseum Speyer on October 3, 2008.
Sinsheim Museum also has the largest permanent Formula One collection in Europe along with Ferraris, motorcycles, land speed record holders and classic cars along with a large collection of military tanks, aircraft, and miscellaneous equipment.
British AEC Regent double decker bus
300 vintage cars
Mercedes and Maybach collection
"American Dream Cars" collection from the 1950s
40 race and sports cars
Formula-1 collection
"Blue flame" - American rocket-propelled ground vehicle once holding the world speed record.
200 motorcycles
27 locomotives
50 aircraft, including fighters from both world wars and the early jet era, passenger airliners
150 tractors
Steam engines and trucks
Mechanical organs
Several early jet fighters and other aircraft
Tanks, artillery and other military equipment.
Vintage Cars
There is a continuous exhibit of over 300 vintage cars from all eras. Everything is represented at the museum, from the beginnings of the automotive industry, with a Model T Ford of those first produced on the conveyor belt, presented by Mors Kettenwagen, through to the modern era such as the DeLorean DMC-12.
Most exhibition pieces are on loan from members of our funding association, are frequently driven, and are therefore often exchanged: the exhibition is in motion in the truest sense of the word!
Formula-1 and motorsport
Only a few kilometers away from Hockenheim-Circuit, the Technik Museum Sinsheim devotes an important place for racing cars in its exhibition hall. In addition to classics from Bugatti, Mercedes and many more, Sinsheim houses the largest permanent formula-1 exhibition in Europe next to a large collection of historical race cars.
Mercedes-Benz & Maybach Collections
One of the highlights of the vintage car exhibition at the museum is the collection of historical Mercedes automobiles. In addition to many other models, you can admire no less than 16 of the legendary Mercedes compressor-cars, among them specimen of the S, SS and SSK series from the 1920s and 1930s, all of them, in running order. Together with the Maybach-limousines they are representing the absolute top class of contemporary automobiles, as far as both, their quality and their price was concerned.
To be able to aquire a dream car of this kind you had to invest the equivalent of a family home in a first-class location. At the Technik Museum Sinsheim you can discover one of the most impressive collections of Mercedes-Benz cars in Germany.
From 1921 through 1941 Maybach was building automobiles with first-ranking technology worldwide. They were always among the best, but also the most expensive fast movers on four wheels. Their top model was the "Zeppelin" of which only about 200 specimen were built. But few people were in a position to own a Maybach automobile. In the course of their 20 years of production they produced no more than 1800 vehicles, with Maybach always providing only the engine and the chassis. The best coachbuilders competed for the honor of creating constantly new dream cars, based on a Maybach chassis. Sinsheim also has one of the largest Maybach collections worldwide!
Aircraft
If you want to get up close and personal with aircraft, the Technik Museum Sinsheim and Speyer (35kms away) are the right place for you. More than 60 aircraft and helicopters are awaiting you in the museum halls and on the open-air ground.
Besides the legendary supersonic aircraft Concorde and Tupolev TU-144, you can experience the legendary passenger aircraft Junkers Ju-52, military aircraft like the World War II fighter plane Messerschmitt Me-109 or unusual aircraft like the firefighting plane Canadair CL-215.
Today, in Speyer, visitors can view more than 70 airplanes and helicopters in the Liller Halle and in the open air grounds. In addition to the showpieces Boeing 747 and Antonov AN-22, further highlights are legends like the Junkers JU-52 or the planes of the most famous aerobatic squadrons of the world.
Access
The museum is easily reached by car and has a large car park. It also has a dedicated railway station as part of the local rail network.
Overall
All up, Sinsheim & Speyer, Auto & Technik Museums are well worth a visit - they are very much off the beaten track for foreign tourists (lots of domestic visits) but the effort in getting to them is repaid handsomely. Whilst they are great for automotive, aviation or mechanical enthusiasts, there is plenty here to interest others. They have well-priced Bistros onsite and they are both a great dayout.
To give you an idea of how little exposure they receive internationally, the 9th edition of Lonely Planet's Germany does not mention Sinsheim at all and gives 3 paragraphs to the Speyer Technik Museum.