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WTS Military Museum - Koblenz, Germany
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| 03-08-2011, 05:10 AM | #1 |
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WTS Military Museum - Koblenz, Germany
WTS Museum
aka the Bundeswehr’s Military Museum. WehrTechnische StudienSammlung (WTS) Mayener Strasse 85-87 56070 Koblenz Germany 0261.4001423 tel 0261.4001424 fax Email: WTS@bundeswehr.org www.bwb.org/organisation/wts/index or http://www.bwb.org/portal/a/bwb/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLNzKM9_QLAslB2B4B-pFw0aCUVH1fj_zcVH1v_QD9gtyIckdHRUUAKZCi3g!!/delta/base64xml/L3dJdyEvd0ZNQUFzQUMvNElVRS82XzIxX0lOUg!! Hours: open daily from 9:30am to 4:30 pm Closed on: RoseMonday and from December 24th to Jan 1st. Cost: 3 Euros per person. First: I want to thank forum member FDM68 for telling me about this really cool museum in another photo thread of mine. Without his heads up, I would have missed this gem of a museum! He also had a good idea of cobining this museum visit with going to see the Bridge of Remagen from WWII fame. More of that later. WTS is basically a very low key museum run by the Bundeswehr (the German Army). It was very hard to find and even then, the building is not marked as a museum. You really just have to be in the know – to find this place! Once inside… they want ALL your personal info: Passport, birthday, birth city. Then… you pay your three Euros (bring euro coins – there is a machine but that’s no guaranty it will work) because there is no cashier! There is no restaurant or even a gift shop either! Just an armed guard - who checks you into the museum and lets you go off and explore the place. EVERYTHING is real. There was probably three other people (inside the museum visiting) while I was there. The whole place has a simple charm to it. Just a lot of tanks, planes, weapons, guns, all in two large halls and five floors of military coolness. EVERYTHING is here. As son as you walk into the big hall – you can smell old oil and hydraulic and gear oil. You know the tanks are real – and recently run. I really enjoyed this place – in a basic way. Don’t go expecting much… and you will leave happy. This museum really reminded me of the “back door tour” of the Smithsonian’s Silver Hill (Md.) (a storage warehouse outside of Washington DC) or the US Army’s Aberdeen Ordinance Museum in Aberdeen, Md. The WTS museum is very basic… but really cool. Everything is cataloged and tagged. It’s not so much as a museum more as a big warehouse where you can look at past weapons and weapon systems. Everything from 1800’s to present day! Think if the WTS as the Germany’s version of the ATF… cataloging every weapon the Germans got their hands on! That is what this museum is all about. Give yourself about three hours to see everything. I did it in just two hours… and I was kind of rushing thru at the end. They will close the museum promptly at 4:30pm! One thing about Koblenz is that the Bundeswehr seem to own most of the city! There are so many Bundeswehr buildings here. First I went to the wrong WTS office. Then they gave me directions to the WTS Museum. But I could not find this place! I must have driven past the place fixe times. Then I saw their TS castle downtown… so I went onside there. Wrong place! But the armed guard there (very unusual for Germany!) gave me a nice brochure for the WTS Museum and more importantly it had an address (Mayener Strasse 85, Koblenz) I could input into my GPS (Navi).  It was simple once I had the (above) address. The WTS museum would make a great detour when going to visit the ‘Ring on ED… because the Ring is less than an hour away. Ok, onto my photos. Btw… I took over 1,200 photos of this museum. I have put about 400 or so online. So… if you want to see more just click the link at the end of this page. Dackel Clickable WTS Museum brochure:   This is the WRONG WTS building… but the guard there gave me the above brochure which led me to the real WTS Museum.  Pretty Koblenz… You would never know that there is a prison up in that Castle – but there is! Also the Bundeswehr has some more buildings (archives) up there! Ask me how I know that! lol  WTS Museum…  Looking from the museum into their parkplatz… and some of the other Bundeswehr buildings…  The museum’s front door…  Once you get inside the main display hall… you are greeted by a tank (Panzer) sliced in two halves!       They also had a display of quite a few panzer engines. Two were actually from American tanks!      There were so many tank here… I lost count!   Amoured VW…    KMW… currently in use by the Bundeswehr.  KMW = Krauss Maffei Wegmann     Bikes…          Field artillery…            Funny.   Turbines…    V2 rocket engine…         Ship engines…   Small U-boot…         Porsche designed (with Audi diesel motor) mini tank! Waffentraeger Weisel PT 05  NSU… atv…         This WWII truck was HUGE!!! The bottom of the doors were like 5ft tall!             From the Swiss Army…           Enigma code machine…  It just goes on and on...   Grease gun botton row – center.  Museum’s entrance.  Target practice?   One last look at the Museum’s entrance.  After spending the afternoon at WTS Museum… I decided to take FDM68’s advice and go drive up along the Rhine (river) and go see that famous of all German bridges: The Bridge of Remagen. The bridge is no longer there. It was crucial in allowing the US forces to spearhead deep into Germany after the invasion. Hitler had given order to blow up the bridge. But it remained standing a few days after US forces had crossed the Rhine. Then it fell into the river. Today there is only the ends of the bridge bases that remain. http://maps.google.de/maps?q=http://www.bruecke-remagen.de/index_en.htm&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-ContextMenu&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GGLL_de&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=de&tab=wl In the village of Remagen is a Peace Museum has been made from one of the bridge’s base supports. The Museum is open from March 7th until November 15th. The museum is actually someone’s house! When I visited the museum it was closed. But it is still cool to look around the outside and look at the war memorials. Remagen is only a 35 minute drive from the WTS Museum.  http://www.bruecke-remagen.de/index_en.htm Address: 53424 Remagen am Rhein Some old archived photos of the Remagen Bridge…    And after it fell…     And now for my photos…   This is what is left standing. Today it is a museum and memorial to what happened here all those years ago.  And the other “base” on the opposite side.            Museum hours…    You can also walk up behind the Museum up this hill and see what is really left of the bridge…    From Remagen I had one last little detour. A friend of mine told me that close to Remagen is the town of Winningen, where August Horch was born and died. Today it is a small pension. I thought it would make a nice side, side trip. August Horch Haus Fährstraße 19 56333 Winningen Tel. und Fax 02606 2284 info@horchpension.de http://www.horchpension.de/Hausansicht/hausansicht.html    I think Horch’s grave is inside this arch – the city’s cemetery.  And for dinner I found a nice restaurant just a few steps from the Horch Haus.    The End. Many more photos here à http://s764.photobucket.com/albums/xx283/Dackelone/WTS%20Museum%20-%20WehrTechnische%20StudienSammlung/ |
| 08-15-2015, 02:36 PM | #2 |
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Here are some links to some other awesome military museums.
Deutsches Museum - Flugwerft Schleissheim http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showt...6#post18423626 We show you the Belgium Royal Military Museum in Brussels... http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1072285 Technik Museum Sinsheim 2013 (250+ Pixx!!!) http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=835078 Stammheim Military Museum - near Schweinfurt, Germany... http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=498500 Brazzeltag Speyer Technik Museum Pictorial (sister museum to Sinsheim and only 25 minutes away) http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=986019
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| 09-06-2015, 03:50 PM | #3 |
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Remagen Bridge...
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| 10-21-2015, 03:41 PM | #4 |
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I can't get enough of the WWII Nazi stuff, it's just endless fascination for me. These tours are great!
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| 10-21-2015, 03:57 PM | #5 | |
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Quote:
IF you guys know of any cool museums in Germany... please feel free to let me know of them. I'm always up for a new adventure/museum. Dackel
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| 05-21-2016, 05:02 PM | #6 |
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one cool ass museum...
IF you've ever been to Aberdeen ordinance Museum in Aberdeen, MD - you'll love this museum. This is a no frills, military warehouse of the "good stuff". Soon as you walk in your nose is greeted by the smell of transmission/hydraulic oil! This place is one part museum, one part ATF gun cataloging warehouse. I loved it. The Museum is hard as hell to find - so don't give up. Even with the address, I made three drive by's before I figured it out. Its just before one of the German Army's entrances - to their Army Base in the city.
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| 12-04-2016, 09:16 AM | #7 |
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A fresh "bump" for a cool military museum. I loved this place! As soon as you walked into the "panzer" hall.. you were greeted with the distinct smell of gasoline and gear oil!
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