ABSTRACT
German railways were born on 7 December 1835 when the first steam train departed from Nuremberg on a six-kilometre journey to the neighbouring town of Fürth. This marked the start of developments that would catapult Germany into the industrial age within a few decades. The ‘Royal Bavarian Railway Museum’ – the first public museum in the world dealing with the railways, their technology and history – opened its doors just 65 years later, on 1 October 1899. Including its postal section, which opened in 1902, the Museum of Transportation, as it became known, has been one of the most famous museums in Germany since its inception.
