Top Sights for Children at the Deutsches Museum
Germany's Largest Science and Technology Museum Offers Lots for Kids
The main building of the enormous Deutsches Museum is located on an island in the Isar River, close to Munich's city center. The Deutsches Museum is actually a group of 4 different museums: the main museum, the Deutsches Museum Transport Center, the Schleissheim Airfield, and the Deutsches Museum Bonn.
While most of the exhibits are visually appealing to kids, several areas offer the added bonus of hands-on activity. Here are some highlights that families will not want to miss.
Children's Center at the Deutsches Museum
No doubt, the main attraction for kids in the Deutsches Museum is the Kinderreich (Kids Kingdom), a hands-on children's area in the basement under the air and space exhibition hall. Children can play water games, climb on and in a real fire engine, bang on drums in the instrument room, and build a house with giant Lego blocks. The Kinderreich is appropriate for children from 3-8, accompanied by an adult.
Bridge-Building Exhibit
The centerpiece of this large hall devoted to bridge construction is a glass-floored suspension bridge that children will enjoy running up and down. Water machines with levers, cranks and buttons demonstrate the weight and power of water and the ways in which water can be controlled to harness energy.
A video shows the spectacular collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940.
Informatics and Microelectronics
While some of the mathematical concepts behind the displays may be over kids' heads (and maybe those of their parents too), there are lots of activities to keep little hands busy in this area of the Deutsches Museum. The various timepieces and early adding machines offer plenty of dials, levers, buttons and wheels to manipulate.
In the upstairs room, visitors can play chess against a computer, find their way out of a computer-generated labyrinth, and try to outsmart a computer in a game of rock-paper-scissors.
Astronomy
The sun and planet systems exhibition, located on the fifth floor of the main Deutsches Museum, is full of fascinating displays--many interactive--that help kids understand the basic concepts of the formation of the solar system as well as the affects of the sun on the earth.
The Deutsches Museum Planetarium, on the sixth floor, offers 4 daily shows and is appropriate for children from 6 years old and up. There is an additional fee of 2 Euros per person; tickets can be purchased at the ticket desk in the main entrance.
Model Train Show at the Deutsches Museum
The museum's impressive model train display covers 425 square feet (39.5 square meters) and features 22 model trains running simultaneously through an intricately-designed and life-like landscape. With the use of tiny cameras, a wall projector displays the trains close-up as they race through tunnels and over bridges.
The train show lasts 20 minutes and takes place 3 times a day, a 11:00am, 2:00pm and 4:00pm. The demonstration is popular and usually crowded, so it is best to arrive 15 minutes before showtime.
Main Building of the Deutsches Museum
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