Otto-Lilienthal-Museum Anklam

Every Airbus you photograph at the fence stands on a foundation laid by a man from Western Pomerania. From 1891, Otto Lilienthal jumped from hills with gliders he had built himself and flew – not by chance, not just once, but again and again. He measured how a curved wing generates lift, wrote it down and made it available to everyone. In his hometown of Anklam stands the museum that tells this story: small, highly concentrated and a true place of pilgrimage for aviation fans.

A museum for the first aviator

Most aviation museums tell the story of flight from the middle: powered aircraft, world wars, the jet age. The Otto-Lilienthal-Museum starts at the beginning – and mostly stays there. It sees itself as a technical personal museum, that is, a house that tells the history of technology along the life of one person. At the center are Otto Lilienthal and his brother Gustav, with whom he worked together all his life.

The roots reach far back. As early as 1927, the Anklam local history museum showed exhibits on Lilienthal, including a replica of his Normalsegelapparat. In 1980 the decision was made for a Lilienthal museum of its own, and in 1991 it opened in the former local history museum building on Ellbogenstraße – right on time for the anniversary “100 Years of Human Flight.” For the 100th anniversary of his death in 1996, an exhibition hall of about 300 m² was added. The operator is the Hanseatic City of Anklam.

The awards show that such a small house is noticed nationally: in 1999 it received a special commendation at the European Museum of the Year Award and was recognized as a museum by the world air sports federation FAI. In 2001, the German federal government included it in its Blue Book (Blaubuch) of nationally significant cultural institutions in eastern Germany.

Who was Otto Lilienthal?

Lilienthal was born in Anklam on May 23, 1848. According to the museum, his birth house stood in front of the west portal of St. Nicholas’ Church, where he was baptized. After school in Anklam and technical training, he studied mechanical engineering at the Berlin Trade Academy (Gewerbeakademie). In 1883 he founded his own machine factory in Berlin, which built steam engines, among other things – the money from it later financed his flight experiments.

Lilienthal’s real contribution was the method. Together with Gustav, he spent years measuring which forces act on differently shaped wings, and in 1889 he published the book “Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation” (Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst). From 1891 he tested his findings in practice: first at a sand pit near Derwitz west of Potsdam, later in Berlin-Steglitz, at the specially piled-up Fliegeberg in Lichterfelde and in the Rhinow Hills near Stölln, where he managed flights of about 250 meters. How many flights he made in total is not exactly known; estimates run to at least 2,000.

On August 9, 1896, Lilienthal crashed at the Gollenberg near Stölln from a height of about 15 meters and died the next day in Berlin. His principle “from jump to flight” lived on: the Wright brothers initially worked with his measurement tables and explicitly acknowledged his work. About a decade after his first glider flights, they achieved powered flight in 1903 – the story is in the article on the Wright brothers and the first powered flight. You’ll find a detailed biography in the magazine article on Otto Lilienthal.

The exhibition: six themed rooms

The permanent exhibition is divided into several areas, each taking a different look at flying. The following overview summarizes them based on the museum’s information. The area names are the museum’s own titles.

MenschenFlug: gliders at full size

Here you stand in front of the flying machines with which everything began. Most of the reconstructions come from the Lilienthal reconstructor Stefan Nitsch. They show how varied Lilienthal’s designs were: sometimes with one wing, sometimes with two, sometimes with movable wings. What connects them all is the construction of fabric over a light frame and the curved wing shape reminiscent of bats.

According to the museum, nine designs are documented photographically, plus designs for which only plans exist. Some important milestones:

The Normalsegelapparat deserves a closer look. Lilienthal’s factory built it in series from 1894, which is why it is often called the first aircraft factory in the world. According to the museum, nine buyers are known by name. Original parts of them are now in London, Moscow, Munich and Washington – among others in the Deutsches Museum and the National Air and Space Museum. Anklam instead shows you the complete series as replicas.

The steam engine from Lilienthal’s factory

A genuine original is the steam engine in the LebensWege area. It comes from Lilienthal’s Berlin factory and is the only known surviving example. The museum found it in Australia and acquired it in 2004. For aviation fans it is more than an industrial object: with machines like this, Lilienthal earned the money that went into gliders, measuring apparatus and the Fliegeberg.

The same area covers the brothers’ other projects. Gustav and Otto Lilienthal were also involved in social reform ideas, building and toys. Their share in the Anker stone building sets is well known, and early originals of them are on show in the exhibition.

Die Sekunde der Wahrheit: early photography

Why do we know so precisely how Lilienthal flew? Because photographers were there. Ottomar Anschütz was a pioneer of instantaneous photography and captured motion in fractions of a second – a technique without which the famous pictures of Lilienthal in flight would not exist. The museum shows photographs and equipment by Anschütz, including the Goertz-Anschütz camera.

For spotters, it is a nice moment of self-recognition: the question of the right shutter speed for an aircraft in motion already occupied the photographers of the 1890s. Note that this part of the exhibition is not accessible without steps, according to the museum.

Collection, archive and library

Behind the exhibition lies a serious research institution. The Lilienthal archive collects all available documents on his life and work, as originals or copies, and is searchable online. You can also use the library and archive on site by arrangement. Over eleven years, the museum digitized Lilienthal’s papers, including holdings abroad; the project was completed in 2014.

In 2018, the papers of Paul Beylich were added. The mechanic was one of Lilienthal’s closest collaborators and possibly the only eyewitness of the crash near Stölln. The archive is complemented by an aviation library with about 6,000 volumes and a model collection on early aircraft history.

Hang gliders and a war kite

A collection you might not expect in a pioneer museum: since 1999, the museum has been gathering hang gliders, that is, the aircraft with which hang glider pilots took up Lilienthal’s principle again from the 1960s and 1970s. The collection now comprises more than 150 aircraft, including the taken-over collection of G. Burghardt; a catalog is available online. In the LuftSchiff – FlugZeug area, the museum also shows an original war kite, System Sacconey, with which people were once pulled into the air on a rope.

The connection is logical: a hang glider pilot launches on foot like Lilienthal, hangs under the wing and steers by shifting weight. If you are interested in modern foot-launched flying, the article on the glider pilot license offers an introduction to unpowered flight today.

The Aeronauticon at the airfield

About three kilometers south of the town lies Anklam airfield (ICAO EDCA), and right next to it the museum’s Aeronauticon. It is a museum-education nature and adventure park with a nature and technology trail in German and Polish, a playground with flying machines, a BMX and skate track and a training building. According to the museum, the outdoor grounds are freely accessible and open during the day. You may sit in historic aircraft of the museum for a trial; the museum does not say which types are currently there.

The airfield itself is an airfield for general traffic with a 1,000-meter asphalt runway 09/27 and a parallel grass strip. It was built in the 1930s as a military airfield, and in East German times it served as a base for agricultural aviation. Today a flight school and air sports clubs fly here; there are no scheduled or charter flights. So expect motor gliders, microlights and light aircraft – no jets.

For school classes and children’s groups, the museum offers age-appropriate programs at the Aeronauticon, which you register for by phone or email. If you are traveling with your own kids, the combination of the exhibition in town and the playground at the airfield is ideal – you’ll find more ideas in Plane spotting with kids.

IKAREUM: the new museum in St. Nicholas’ Church

The next big step lies in the middle of the old town. St. Nicholas’ Church (Nikolaikirche), Lilienthal’s baptismal church, was a ruin for a long time; since 1994, initiatives have worked to save it. Today it is being converted into the “IKAREUM – Lilienthal Flight Museum,” the Hanseatic City’s big future project. The Otto-Lilienthal-Museum will move there. The design comes from the firm heneghan peng architects, and beier+wellach design the exhibition.

The conversion is proceeding in stages. On December 17, 2022, the first construction phase opened with the pilot exhibition “Lilienthal LAB,” and in summer 2025 the entrance building was finished according to the museum. The project page gives no date for the opening of the entire museum. According to the museum, the church is currently closed to visitors because of the construction work, and the new exhibition can be explored digitally for the time being. Whether the tower climb or guided tours are possible on your date is best clarified with the museum in advance.

Planning your visit: hours, admission, getting there

Opening hours change with the season. According to the museum (as of October 2026):

According to the museum, admission is 4.50 euros, reduced 3.50 euros. With the combination ticket, you also visit the Museum im Steintor, which shows the town’s history. An audio guide runs for free over the museum’s Wi-Fi on your own smartphone, and rental devices are available for a fee at the desk. During school holidays, extended opening hours are possible on request.

Photography between fabric and wood

The gliders are rewarding subjects, but different from jets. They are covered in light-colored fabric, often set up in front of light walls, and have fine details like bracing wires, spars and harnesses. A few practical tips: expose slightly under so the covering doesn’t blow out, and fix the white balance when daylight and hall light mix. For the structure of the wings, a view from below is worthwhile – exactly how the spectators saw Lilienthal at the Fliegeberg.

How to get your pictures into shape later is shown in Editing aircraft photos. And if the weather in Western Pomerania doesn’t cooperate, the museum is the right choice anyway: you’ll find more ideas for gray days in Plane spotting in bad weather.

Lilienthal sites beyond Anklam

Anklam is the birthplace; Lilienthal flew elsewhere. If you want to follow his traces further, you’ll find several memorial sites in Brandenburg and Berlin: the Fliegeberg in Lichterfelde, laid out as a memorial since 1932, the monument at the Teltow Canal, a monument at the airfield near Derwitz and the Lilienthal-Centrum in Stölln near the Gollenberg, where he crashed.

For an aviation tour of the northeast, other museums are good additions. The Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin covers aviation up to the present, the Military History Museum in Berlin-Gatow shows large aircraft at a former airfield – all the photography tips there are in the spot guide to the Luftwaffenmuseum Gatow. Further south lies the Flugplatzmuseum Cottbus. Anyone who wants to follow gliding from Lilienthal to today sooner or later ends up at the German Gliding Museum on the Wasserkuppe.

If you also want to see airliners after Anklam, Rostock-Laage Airport is the nearest larger airport in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; for dense scheduled traffic, the way leads to Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER). Our overview of aviation museums in Germany offers a look at more houses.

Conclusion

The Otto-Lilienthal-Museum is not a hangar full of jets but a lesson in how flying became possible in the first place. The glider replicas make tangible how little material Lilienthal got by with and how systematically he proceeded: measure, build, jump, improve. The archive and the hang glider collection show that his idea lives on today.

For spotters, Anklam is therefore a kind of place of origin. Anyone who has been here sees the same basic idea in the curved profile of a modern wing and in the foot launch of a hang glider pilot. And when the IKAREUM in St. Nicholas’ Church is finished, the story gets a new frame – a good reason to drop by more often.