The Computeum, One Of The Biggest Computer Museums In Germany

QWERTZ Everywhere

I cannot say in words how perfect the venue for our Hackaday Munich party was. Not only was there a gigantic collection of vintage video games just around the corner, there was also a freaking warehouse full of mainframes, tubes, transistors, and some of the old retrocomputers you may have used in the 80s and 90s.

It’s called the Computeum, and without a doubt it is one of the most complete computer museums in Germany. There are fantastic computer museums in the states, but these don’t hold a candle to the pure amount of big iron and silicon found at the Computeum.

ACI-90, a machine that executes Pascal P-code *directly*, without an interpreter
ACI-90, a machine that executes Pascal P-code *directly*, without an interpreter

The Computeum isn’t so much a museum as it is a warehouse loaded to the gills with crates filled with old computers. Open one crate, and you’ll find some Timex Sinclairs, all peripherals included. Open another crate and you’ll see a VT-220 and an ADM terminal. It’s crazy, and the only person who knows what’s in all these boxes is the tour guide, [Hans Franke].

Plain 'ol Commodore PET. [Hans] has serial no. 1 at home.
Plain ‘ol Commodore PET. [Hans] has serial no. 1 at home.
The Computeum is a personal project for [Hans]. For years now, he’s been collecting computer oddities, and he’s a completest. There’s an Commodore SX-64, a pretty common machine you can pick up on ebay for about $100. What’s interesting about [Hans]’ machine? It’s orange. This is a rebadge of the SX-64 for some company in Europe doing industrial work.

A Dietz 600
A Dietz 600

Being from Germany, [Hans] is of course a little more interested in the German and other European manufacturers. You won’t find an IBM System/360 here – that’s a kilometer away at the Deutsches Museum. You will find a few German IBM System/370 and /390 compatible systems from Germany, Czech, and countries even further east.

Gallery of a few interesting pieces below, along with a video of the unofficial tour [Hans] gave during the party.

Oh, the Computeum is looking for a space to put all this gear on display. Yes, a warehouse filled with about 200 pallets and a bunch of mainframes on the floor is now the extent of the museum. If you know of anyway to help, drop [Hans] an email or leave a note in the comments. If there’s ever a crowdfunding campaign, we’ll put sure to put a post up.

I shot a short tour of the warehouse with [Hans] before the gigantic group tour, but my microphone crapped out. [Thomas Barth] took the group tour with a few dozen other Hackaday fans. Here’s that video. Some of it is in English:

9 thoughts on “The Computeum, One Of The Biggest Computer Museums In Germany

  1. Wasn’t in Munich they had a bunch of Crays and Cybers running inside a warehouse in a military camp?
    You could login and play around with the systems… Maybe it would be an interesting place to put the collection?

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