Collections

The collections preserve the material heritage of the »camera city of Dresden«. The current holdings were acquired in 1966 from the Polytechnisches Museum Dresden and the Museum für Photographie Dresden, and in 1992 the collection of equipment from the large VEB Pentacon factory was added as a significant addition. Since 1993, the Dresden Technology Collections have expanded and supplemented the collections.

Around 4000 cameras, 550 film cameras and more than 1000 individual objects are kept in the depots. They reflect the more than 100-year history of the former center of the European camera industry, which began in the 1860s with the manufacture of photochemical products and reached its first peak around 1900 with the large companies Richard Hüttig AG, Heinrich Ernemann AG and Emil Wünsche AG. The »Zeiss Ikon AG« from 1926 also made the location famous worldwide. Production on an industrial scale ended in 1991 with the liquidation of VEB Pentacon Dresden.

The photo and cinema technology collection not only preserves the once well-known brands and cameras of the major manufacturers, such as the Ermanox, Exakta, Contax – and all model variants of the legendary Praktica SLR camera. The diverse products of small and medium-sized manufacturers in and around Dresden have also been preserved.

Leipzig and Dresden played a historically significant role in the development and production of mechanical musical instruments and electronic sound storage and broadcasting technology. The Technology Collections therefore have a wide range of devices for storing and reproducing sounds in their collections. In addition to self-playing pianos, music boxes, needle-tone and tape recorders, the focus is on historical radio and television receivers. Starting with the first technical attempts at electronic voice and image transmission through to the fusion into »multimedia technology«, the most important devices from 100 years of radio and television can be found.

In our collections online you will find tours of Radio Mende and the  Sachsenwerk Niedersedlitz

Dresden has been the center of microelectronics research in the GDR since the early 1960s. After 1990, the city developed into an important European location for this industry as the heart of the »Silicon Saxony« high-tech cluster. Our museum follows this development from the very beginning to the present day. The collection includes both the first microchips »Made in Dresden« and those manufactured in the following decades, as well as important special technological equipment for their production. The estate of microelectronics pioneer Prof. Dr. Werner Hartmann (1912 –1988) is also available for research. This collection, which is outstanding in Germany due to its size, represents more than 60 years of component development in the digital age and also includes current devices in which semiconductor products from Dresden can be found.

In our online collections you will find a tour of the history of microelectronics in Dresden.

In particular, the Dresden-based X-ray equipment manufacturer Koch & Sterzel AG (VEB Transformatoren- und Röntgenwerk since 1948) established a tradition of medical technology for diagnostics and therapy in the Saxon state capital at the beginning of the 20th century. However, central companies and the research center of the GDR trademark association MLW (Medizin-, Labor- und Wägetechnik) were later also located in Dresden, Radebeul and Freital. The collection mainly comprises X-ray and high-frequency therapy devices of Dresden provenance, as well as evidence of the early wellness movement such as »Höhensonne«, »Massagegerät« and »Heim-Solarium«. Many of the surviving devices, be they pacemakers, clinical monitors or diagnostic aids, contain know-how from Dresden.

The first voluntary fire departments in Germany were founded in Saxony, Saarland and Baden in the middle of the 19th century. In Dresden, one of the oldest and most diverse collections on the history of the fire department and fire protection spans the historical arc from the leather fire bucket and the steam-powered fire engine of the past to the prototype of a fire-fighting robot in the 21st century. In cooperation with the fire and disaster control office of the state capital, the Technology Collections preserve extinguishing and rescue equipment, as well as fire protection and alarm technology from the respective eras. The collection also includes numerous models of fire-fighting vehicles and equipment.