The Institute for Shipping and Marine History is situated atop the steep banks of the River Elbe, looking out onto the ships entering and leaving the harbour. Since 2007, Peter Tamm's extensive collection - the largest private collection of shipping and marine history in the world - is presented here on Hamburg's Elbchaussee.

A maritime collection in a league of its own
Many shipping companies can find models of their own ships here. In addition to models made of ivory, amber and silver, there is a collection of bone ships unique in both quantity and quality; some of the most exquisite rarities in model ship construction. A large selection of weapons illustrates the developments in this area. The oldest items include a 3,000-year-old bronze sword from Persia, swords from Roman and Viking times, and there is also information about the history of hand guns between the 16th century and today. A large collection of uniforms of great historical significance, the majority of which date back to the time of imperial Germany, reveals what was worn by members of the naval forces all over the world. Other sections of the collection feature flags, medals and decorations, autographs, certificates, ships' logs, postcards, menus, bequests from seafarers, nautical equipment, souvenirs of all kinds, more than one million photos and over 2,000 films from the beginnings of film-making right up to today. The library contains around 120,000 books.

The collection of exhibits is regularly being expanded and currently holds more than 5,000 paintings, watercolours and drawings dating from 1570 to today. It also features more than 1,000 model ships, including a Greek trireme, Viking ships, frigates from the Hanseatic era and Brandenburg, Hamburg convoy ships, historical sailing boats from around the world, warships, models of merchant navy ships from across the globe and deep-sea and inshore fishing boats. Approximately 23,000 small models on a scale of 1:1,250 make up a large proportion of the collection, making it very easy to compare the various types of ships and gain a general overview of the development of warships and merchant navy ships from different countries and different eras.
» www.internationales-maritimes-museum-hamburg.de

A selection of other military museums in Germany.