The History of the Museum

The town of Anklam has had a local history museum since 1927. Various objects belonging to the life and work of Otto Lilienthal, among them a reconstruction of a glider from the year 1925, have been part of the museum since it's founding.

The preparation of an independent Lilienthal Museum has been in progress since 1980. In 1989 the "Museum im Steintor" became the new regional museum of history. After a construction period of two years the Otto Lilenthal Museum was opened in the building of the former local history museum.

To mark the occasion of '100 years of human flight' in the year 1991, the town took on the name of "Lilenthal-Stadt" (Lilienthal City). Exhibitions of all kinds of aerial sports were organized on the local airfield, and the town's theatre put on performances and premieres to celebrate the jubilee, among them the play 'Moderne Raubritter' (Modern Robber Barons) which Otto Lilienthal published in 1894. In 1996, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Lilienthal's death, the museum was expanded. An additional 300 sq. meters of space was provided for the exhibition of Lilienthal 's gliders.

In 1998 the museum celebrated the 150th birthday of Lilienthal with the conference "From Lilienthal to the Wrights" with lecturers from the United States (S. Short, G. Bradshaw) and Great Britain (T. Prentice).

The museum today is a modern technical museum and houses the world's largest collection of reconstruction of Lilienthal aircraft.

In 1996 the International Organization of Aeronautics FAI awarded the museum the title "FAI Recognized Museum".

In 1999 the museum was the first museum which in the former East Germany to be awarded the "European Museum of the Year Award" - Special Commendation" by the European Museum Forum.

The State Minister for Culture and Media of the Federal Republic of Germany awarded the museum the title "National Memorial" in 2001.

In 2011 the museum was invited, to tell the Lilienthal story at the conference "Soaring 100" in Nagd Head / Kitty Hawk (North Carolina).

The museum is listed as reference about Lilienthal in several websites about aviation history, e. g. "Wikipedia - the Free Encyclopedia.