State Museum for Work and Technology, Mannheim

The State Museum of Technology and Work ("Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit") is a German museum in Mannheim in the state of Baden-Württemberg, with displays covering the industrialisation of south-western Germany.

The museum building was designed by the Berlin architect, Ingeborg Kuhler. Its planning and construction period lasted from 1982 to 1990.

The permanent exhibition

Visitors who walk through the building from top to bottom will experience a journey in time from the beginning of the industrial revolution in the state of Baden-Württemberg to the present day.

Stands portraying the technical, social and political changes since the 18th century include those on clocks, paper manufacture and weaving. There are displays of living and working premises as well as machinery from the fields of industry, transport and the office. These displays enable the visitor to gain a graphic understanding of the far-reaching changes in living and working conditions right up to the present.

The "Elementa" workshop complements, in an interesting way, the themes and exhibits of technological, economic and social history shown to date. It is not limited to covering basic scientific principles, but also shows the technical inventions which resulted from various scientific experiments.

The collections may be viewed over the [http://www.bam-portal.de "BAM-Portal"] , Germany's common portal for libraries, archives and museums.

Special exhibitions (a selection)

* Body World (Körperwelten) (the first to appear in Europe in 1997/98)
* Jules Verne: Technology and Fiction (1999/2000)
* Mythos Turn of the Century: human beings, nature and machines in photos 1800 - 1900 - 2000 (2000/01)
* The Brain and Thinking: the cosmos in the head (2001/02)
* All the Time in the World (2002/03)
* Dance and the Banana: Trade and cultural objects (2003/04)
* E-Guitar: Electric guitars, musicians, history, culture (2004)
* Love of Cars (2004/05)
* Understanding Einstein (2005/06)
* View into the Invisible: sub-atomic particles, microsystems and parasites (2006/07)
* Space Adventure:Break out into the universe (2006/07)
* Mannheim on Wheels. Mobility from 1607 - 2007 (2007/08)
* Power music (2008)

The building

The building is decorated in white. Viewed from outside. the individual floors look like an inclined plain. Behind this is the concept of a "working" museum. That means the building should act as an invitation to wander in a downwards-running "space-time spiral" through the social and industrial history of the German South-West.

The main part of the building comprises a steel skeleton, compound construction with concreted double-T supports and beams that, in spite of heavy loads and long spans, guarantee the required load-carrying ability and rigidity.

Originally a section wing was planned, but due to increasing financial constraints on public funding this was unable to be carried out.

Literature

*Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst in Baden-Württemberg: "Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim". Karlsruhe 1986
*Thomas Schmid: Das Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim-Architekturhistorische Untersuchung, Dissertation Univ. Heidelberg 1992, ISBN 3-89349-439-1
*Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim: "Rundgang". Mannheim 1992
*Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim (Hg.): "Ausstellungskatalog". Mannheim 2001, ISBN 3-9804930-6-7

External links

* [http://www.landesmuseum-mannheim.de Homepage of the museum]
* [http://www.elementa-mannheim.de/willkommen.htm "Elementa"]
* [http://www.raumfahrt-ausstellung.de/konzept/ Space Adventure exhibition]
* [http://www.mannheim-auf-achse.de Mannheim on Wheels exhibition]
* [http://www.macht-musik.de Power Music exhibition]