Ballonmuseum Gersthofen, Aviation museum in Gersthofen, Germany.
The Balloon Museum Gersthofen is an aviation museum spread across nine levels using a historic water tower and modern building. The collection displays objects showing how balloon technology developed and how people learned to control flight through different periods.
The museum originated from the collection of Augsburg balloonist Alfred Eckert and opened in 1985 as the world's first balloon museum. It preserves records of major achievements in human flight and documents how this form of travel developed over time.
The gondola on show is a replica of the gas-balloon prototype with which Baron Joseph Maximilian von Lütgendorf tried in 1786 to become the first German balloonist, launching from Augsburg and Gersthofen without success. Its carved, ship-shaped Renaissance gondola is so large that the museum's 2003 extension was built around it.
The museum faces the Stadthalle Gersthofen and the "City Center" shopping mall. The water tower and the 2003 extension are linked by a shared lower level, and the adjacent town library shares the building. The new wing was built around the replica gas balloon and its boat-shaped gondola, so visitors pass it on several levels.
The spherical pressure capsule of Auguste Piccard's balloon hangs on the first floor; from Augsburg in 1931 he reached 15,785 metres. The museum building was constructed around the replica of Lütgendorf's 1786 gas balloon and its boat-shaped Renaissance gondola.
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