Since August 1999 the biggest seaworthy model ship of the world, the “Bremen IV”, can be admired at the Technik Museum Speyer. The original had its first voyage in 1929 and subsequently navigated the North-Atlantic-Route for many years. In 1941 the 51,735 gross ton ship with an overall length of 286 meters and room for 2,231 passengers was lost in a fire.

The exhibit is a true-to-detail 1:25 scale model. For more than 15 years, from 1947 through 1962, the two constructors Günter Bos and Günter Buse were labouring to turn their dream into reality. The work created by them is highly remarkable in every respect. The fully navigable little sister of the “Bremen IV“ is 12 meters long, 1,78 meters wide, 3,53 meters high and weighs 10 tons.

Its propulsion are two Mercedes diesel engines with 38 hp each. In November of 1997 it was included into the Guinness Book of Records as biggest seaworthy model ship. In the course of the more than four decades that have passed since her completion, the little “Bremen IV“ has travelled the whole world. On her arrival in Speyer she was launched one more time for a voyage on the Rhine (see picture on top). Thereafter she found her last anchorage, for the time being, in the Liller Halle of the Technik Museum Speyer.