Museum für Kommunikation Hamburg

The Museum of Communication in Hamburg ( 1966-1995 " Postal Museum at Stephansplatz " ) was a museum for Telecommunications and Posts in Hamburg, which was closed on 19 October 2009 for visitors and then dissolved.

The museum was located in the former post office building on Stephansplatz ( input Gorch- Fock-Wall ), which is named after the Postmaster General Heinrich von Stephan. The listed building was built as the main post office, post and telegraph office building in 1883 and is in its representative design also reflects the new regulated by Stephan Post ratios.

The museum dedicated to the history of mainly original post, in particular the German postal history as well as in respect of Northern Germany (→ Napoleonic Post in Northern Germany and North German Confederation ) and the postal history of Hamburg. Later, the communication history was made ​​more than 4 centuries, which is the representation of the entire development of transmission in the postal and telecommunications to the present, in the center. Starting from Hamburg, the largest German seaport, formed the special requirements, coastal and sea on message delivery, a special focus.

The museum was part of the Museum Foundation Post and Telecommunications and showed, in addition to the permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions.

History

The museum was established in 1937 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the death of Heinrich von Stephan. And went to the " Postal History Collection" back. This was originally issued in separate rooms of the post office on Dovenhof. During the war the collection was outsourced to Ahrensburg, until she moved to the present building in 1949. 1966, the telecommunications part was reorganized and the Museum has now received officially the name Postal Museum. For the 50th anniversary in 1987 the Postal Museum was opened by merging the Museum housed until 1984 for Hamburg History telecommunications historical collection, with a new concept. Below also historical marine radio equipment and workstations for the museum could be secured and then its maritime focus be expanded.

In 1995 the museum was separated from the now privatized and newly established Deutsche Post AG and Deutsche Telekom AG, renamed ( so to 1999) and in the Museum of Post and Communications and with the museums in Berlin, Frankfurt and Nuremberg in the Museum Foundation Post telecommunications transferred. The building of the old post office building was sold for DM 50 million to a private investor and rented the museum area. Between 1995 and 1999 the permanent exhibition was revised and the areas for temporary exhibitions increased, so that a total of 1,400 square meters were available.

The number of visitors increased, however, from 8,000 (1995) to 50,000 visitors in 2003 and consequently registered the highest growth of all the museums in Hamburg. Among the visitors there was also a high proportion of children who chose in 2006 the first children's museum test, the house next to the Museum of Ethnology Hamburg 's most popular museum.

Exhibits

The exhibition was organized according to the communication paths to country and over water and through the air. Focus of the Hamburg Museum were the ways of communication on the high seas. It showed the history of communications and its increasing speed from Hamburg messengers to the satellite phone. A car of the Wadden Post, a lip- capsule of the space probe Voyager, a pneumatic tube system ( pneumatic tube in Hamburg ), a part of the first transatlantic cable, a 1582 from Hamburg mailed by ship letters, telegrams from the RMS Titanic or the mobile phone Vertu Signature Gold from 18 -karat yellow gold were among the numerous exhibits.

On a number of objects, the visitors could even join and tools of communication of several eras, such as trying to write with the quill, the use of telex machines or modern internet jobs themselves.

The museum also hosted post- historical tours on one of the last remaining post barges that were for mailing to the ships in the port of Hamburg until 1945 in use. The museum is a diorama showed the scene of such a message transfer on a seagoing vessel.

Closure

On 7 July 2009, the role of the museum in mid-2010 was the Board of Trustees of the Museum Foundation provided and decided to close to the public from October 18, 2009. The reason for this, the intentions of the owner of the old post office building were called to build a hospital there. According Museum Foundation was the merger with another Hamburg Museum not possible because am not enough money available for the establishment of the museum in a different location. The building of the main post office in 2007 had again changed hands. The original lease in force until 2023 the museum was part of the owner now terminated. Less the number of visitors that have been increased in recent years, but saving measures at Deutsche Post and Deutsche Telekom as a carrier of the Museum Foundation are considered reasons for the closure.

Since the postal reform the closure of the museum several times a week, including a move to the museum ship Cap San Diego. 2004, a reduction of the budget of 1.4 to 1.2 million euros and the dismantling of a job was done.

The exhibits of the museum, including valuable evidence of the history of Hamburg, were deposited in the accounts of the Foundation.