Deutsches Museum
125,000 objects across 50 fields of science and technology — all on a former coal island in the Isar.
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The world's largest science and technology museum, founded in 1903 by Oskar von Miller, sits on Museumsinsel — a river island that was a medieval wood-rafting depot before the city donated it for the museum. With 1.5 million visitors a year it remains Munich's biggest museum, and its halls once doubled as a concert venue for Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Elton John.
What to look for
- The island itself: Museumsinsel was called Kohleninsel (coal island) until 1903, and you can see the Isar wrapping around it on approach.
- The breadth of the collection: 50 distinct scientific and technical fields represented across a single building.
Plan for more than one session — 125,000 objects means any single visit only scratches the surface.
Deutsches Museum is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Munich, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Munich pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Munich
- Allianz ArenaThe world's first stadium with a full color-changing exterior — 75,000 seats wrapped in inflated ETFE plastic panels that can change color across the entire facade.
- Nymphenburg PalaceAt 632 metres across, this Baroque summer palace is wider than Versailles — and it started as a birth announcement.
- Alte PinakothekThe gallery that taught Europe how to build a museum — then filled it with five centuries of Old Masters.
- FrauenkircheThe twin towers top out at just over 98 meters — Munich caps the entire city at 99 m, so nothing can overtake them on the skyline.
- Englischer GartenA Massachusetts-born American Loyalist, fleeing Britain after the Revolution, drew up plans for what became one of the world's largest urban parks.
- GlyptothekThe museum a Bavarian king built so he could give Munich its own ancient Athens — using the real thing.