The Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum in Bremerhaven

The Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum (Maritime Museum of Germany) in Bremerhaven is located on the Weser river banks. It is a major tourist attraction of the city. The most important piece in its exhibition probably is the conserved cog ship of 1380 that was found in Bremen in 1962. It is meanwhile available for visitors to be seen in open, unobstructed view (see photo above, the cog below the figureheads).
The museum building holds a fine and large collection of items focusing on naval technology development, naval history of Germany, models, flags, paintings and a mini U-boat for two people, built in 1944/45 (see photo below).
In the museum harbour there are several vessels on display, of which the restaurant ship SEUTE DEERN may be the best-known.
From the museum cafeteria on the highest floor you have a magnificent view on the Weser river estuary.

There is more information (in German only) on the and in Wikipedia articles about the and the .

When I visited the museum in October 2001 photography was allowed and I took pictures of some items on exhibition. Unfortunately, many display cases had a poor glass with high reflection. It was very difficult to get a clear view and taking photographs.

If you click on a photo in the pages of the cog ship or the ship models you will get that photo in high resolution. Viewing the high resolution photos: If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox, press F11 to minimize navigation bars and have a larger screen with the photos. The high resolution photos are about 12 megapixel. So they are about 5 - 15 times larger than your 0.8 - 2 megapixel computer screen. Most browsers by default downsize the pictures to screen size, so you cannot see all the details of the photos. To see the original resolution move the mouse over the pictures and click on the magnifying lens.

Here are pictures of
the conserved Bremen cog of 1380,
the cog ship model that is placed at the stern of the original ship,
the figurehead of the of the Imperial German Navy of 1869,

and models of
the first passenger ship with the name BREMEN of 1858,
the coastal defense ship BEOWULF of 1892,
the large cruiser FUERST BISMARCK of 1900,
the battleship SCHARNHORST of 1939 and
the fifth passenger ship with the name BREMEN of 1939.

The models clearly show the rapid development in naval technology. There are many more models on display in the museum. I especially liked the models of steamers, as I had rarely found pleasant models of steamers (other than of sailing ships).