Photo: Deutsches Museum
Aerospace Documentation
Over 13,000 files, binders and printed volumes document the global development of civil and military aviation and space travel from its beginnings up to around 1995. The main focus is on documentation relating to individual aircraft.
Zeppelin LZ-129 „Hindenburg“ Gerippe im Bau. Signatur: LR 01999. Photo: Deutsches Museum
All Key Aspects of Aviation
The aerospace documentation represents a mixed collection comprising primary and secondary sources of diverse provenances. From the 1970s onwards, these materials were assembled according to documentation principles within a dedicated classification system. In the process, the original context of creation of the individual sub-holdings was frequently lost.
With a total extent of nearly one linear kilometre, the collection covers all essential aspects of aviation, with a particular focus on the technical and photographic documentation of individual aircraft. In conjunction with other holdings in the Archive, it illustrates Germany's prominent role in research, development, and design during the first decades of powered flight. The collection is largely indexed by keyword; the provisional finding aid for the holding can be consulted in the Archive's reading room.
The core of the holding consists of various deposits of historic records from Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, alongside the private 'Avicentra Archive'. In addition, the holding includes further collections—such as portions of the personal papers of commercial artists Hans and Botho von Römer—as well as elements of corporate archives.
Subject Areas
Photo: Deutsches Museum
Photo: Deutsches Museum
- Scientific principles and the early days of human flight (winged flight, etc.)
- Balloons (research balloons, recreational ballooning)
- Airships (Zeppelins, military use)
- Land and seaplanes of all kinds (including Dornier)
- Helicopters and vertical take-off aircraft
- Propulsion systems (propellers, aircraft engines, jet engines, rocket engines)
- Avionics and safety equipment (radio, autopilots, ejection seats)
- Manufacturers A–Z
- Research (ranging from materials and consumables to experimental aircraft)
- Civil aviation (airlines, airports, navigation, flight safety)
- Recreational aviation
- Aviation associations and organisations
- Unmanned guided missiles (cruise missiles, drones, glide bombs)
- Dropped weapons (bombs)
- Rockets (research rockets, space launch vehicles, rocket-propelled weapons)
- Manned spaceflight (particularly the Mercury missions and the Apollo moon landings)
- Unmanned spaceflight (satellites, space stations, space probes)
Types of Documents
Photo: Deutsches Museum
- Articles from aviation magazines (often containing technical specifications and diagrams)
- Manuals (primarily operating instructions, maintenance manuals, spare parts lists)
- Company publications (catalogues, technical specifications)
- Photographs (some of which are historical)
- Hand-drawn sketches (mainly more recent three-view drawings / three-view illustrations)
- Model-making plans
- Publications in the form of small private print runs (‘grey literature’)
- Typescripts of essays
- Original documents: parts of the Junkers company archives (press archive and patent documents up to 1945, post-war developments such as the Sänger space glider project) and Messerschmitt (primarily patent and administrative files and documents relating to post-war developments, such as the cabin roller) as well as scattered individual documents of various origins (often in the form of copies)
Liesel Bach auf Dietrich-Gobiet DP II „Bussard". Signatur: LR Pers. Photo: Deutsches Museum
Prominent Figures in the Aerospace Industry
The ‘Personalities’ series contains biographical material on around 7,000 men and women associated with the aerospace industry, in particular inventors, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs and pilots (including many factory and test pilots). The documents consist mainly of newspaper cuttings and magazine articles, but may also include photographs, manuscript essays or fragments from estates and collections.