Tour of the City

After almost five years of construction, the Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit (State Museum for Technology and Work) was officially opened in the presence of the premier of Baden-Württemberg, Lothar Späth. The enormous, elongated, white building, made distinctive by the spectacular, angular ramps which visitors gain access to the exhibits, was designed by the Berlin architect Prof. Ingeborg Kuhler. The State Museum for Technology and Work is not only remarkable for its unique architectonic exterior, but also for its experimental, unconventional exhibition programme and design. The visitor is led through 16 stages, structured chronologically and starting at the top of the building, which display and narrate the technological and social changes of the last two and a half centuries. In 1992 it was awarded the European Museum of the Year Prize for innovation and creativity.

Some of the exhibits on display are working models and the visitor is given a demonstration as to how these function. Some have been reconstructed from scratch, others have been translocated in their entirety, such as a weaving mill, a paper mill and a Porsche manufacturing unit. The museum provides a unique chance to see fully functioning machines and manufacturing processes as well as quality control and safety procedures. The visitor is aided on his "journey" through two and a half centuries by relevant contemporary images and quotes which flesh out the historical situation.

There are many guest lectures, film evenings, matinees and special exhibitions, of which the exhibition "Körperwelten. Einblicke in den menschlichen Körper" (Insights into the Realm of the Body) in 1998 deserves special mentioning, with over 750,000 visitors in just four months and thus the most successful exhibition in all of Germany.

Address: 
Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim 
Museumsstraße 1 
68165 Mannheim 
Tel.: 0621 4298-9 
Fax: 0621 4298-754 
lta@lta-mannheim.de 
 www.landesmuseum-mannheim.de