Otto Lilienthal Museum, Aviation museum in Anklam, Germany.
The Otto Lilienthal Museum occupies a former local history museum building on Ellbogenstrasse in Anklam. Its permanent exhibition shows reconstructions of every known Lilienthal flying machine, his aerodynamic test rigs, and the only surviving steam engine from Lilienthal's production, bought in Australia in 2004. A 300-square-metre hall extension opened in 1996.
The museum honors Otto Lilienthal, who conducted his gliding experiments in the 1890s and laid the foundations for modern flight science. His trials proved that humans could fly and inspired generations of aviation pioneers.
The museum's name honours Anklam's native son Otto Lilienthal, who made over 2,000 glider flights from 1891 until his fatal crash in 1896. Its collection includes the only surviving steam engine made by Lilienthal's own workshop, bought in Australia in 2004. Since 2018 it has held the estate of Paul Beylich, Lilienthal's close collaborator and probably the only witness of the Rhinow crash.
The museum is centrally located in Anklam and easy to reach, with enough space to explore the exhibits comfortably. Plan to spend one to two hours looking at the collection thoroughly.
The collection features reconstructions of flying apparatus that resemble giant bat wings, reflecting the earliest attempts to mimic human movement in flight. These detailed models show how Lilienthal learned from nature to design flying machines.
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