Dresden Transport Museum

Housed in the Johanneum, which was built in the 16th century as the royal mews Verkehrsmuseum Dresden was set up by the East German Republic in the 1950s with the intention of developing a dedicated science museum for the newly set up states. When the two German states reunited, the museum had to reconfigure itself. In the early 2010s the museum pursued a course of reorientation, moving away from a purely technical museum to one which talks about social topics. The motoring exhibition was also reinvented following the new guidelines. It has moved away from its traditional position into one of the side halls. The new permanent exhibition, titled “Vorfahrt” (Right of Way) was opened in 2015, featuring the history of road traffic in Eastern Germany. Cars made in the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and from the USA and France are being shown to illustrate “what influence new developments in transport had on people”.