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20 years of Miniatur Wunderland

Exactly 20 years ago today, Miniatur Wunderland opened its doors to visitors for the first time at 12:00 noon. If we had known back then that one day we would actually be operating the largest model railroad in the world, we probably wouldn't have been quite so nervous on that Thursday morning on August 16, 2001.

Vorschaubild news 20 geburtstag

Together with the mayor of Hamburg at the time, Ortwin Runde, we opened the first three Wunderland worlds (Knuffingen, Austria, Central Germany). Who could have guessed that this would be the beginning of an incomparable fairy tale? What we have been able to experience in the past 20 years fills us with great gratitude and pride.

Around 20 million visitors from all parts of the world have now explored the exhibition, which took almost a million hours of work to create. Three times in a row, Miniatur Wunderland has been voted Germany's most popular attraction by visitors from abroad. We have been awarded six world records by Guinness World Records and have also occupied the top position on TripAdvisor for many years.

We would have loved to celebrate this special birthday and milestone with you all. But since we can only let a fraction of the actual visitors into the exhibition because of Covid-19, and every day is a source of disappointment due to a Wunderland that has been completely booked up for weeks, we have taken the precaution of canceling the big anniversary celebration. Even though we had imagined a different day - with a great party until late into the night - the joy about this anniversary is still enormous! Therefore, we celebrate at least virtually on all our channels with great videos and pictures from 20 years of Wunderland.

Pictures from 20 wonderful years of Miniatur Wunderland

2000 20001 umbau
Before beautiful model building landscapes could be created here in 2001, the attic had to undergo months of core renovation.
 2000 2001 team
Fully motivated, the first model building team was ready in 2000. Surely no one would have dreamed at that time what great things would come out of the Wunderland.
 2001 eroeffnung bm
A historic day: Miniatur Wunderland opens on August 16, 2001.
 20021127eroeffnung hamburg
Ole von Beust, former First Mayor of Hamburg, was also present at the grand opening in Hamburg in 2002.
 20031208eroeffnung amerika
In the America section, 99,000 hours were spent working on and building the many details and scenic features before it was then opened on December 8, 2003.
 2004 skandi bau2
After the opening of the first sections, the construction of Scandinavia continued in 2004. The absolute highlight is the 30,000 l real water pool.
 2005 weltrekord
The world record attempt in 2005 included a section of 725.37 m in the old Elbe tunnel and a train with the length of 110.5 m.
 2006 umbau schweiz2
In 2006, the conversion to the new Schweiz section got off to a spectacular start with a ceiling breakthrough.
 2007 besucherin
The 4,000,000 visitor was commemorated by the construction of a jetty complete with sailing yacht on a small dreamy island in the Baltic-North-Sea at Wunderland.
 20071112 schweiz eroeffnung2
In November 2007 DJ BoBo opened the new Switzerland section with us. Of course, his grandiose stage show could not be missed and was placed there with more than 20,000 little mini-fans.
 20080930 geteiltestadt
"The Divided City" is a special exhibition about the German division. In several dioramas, the history of German division can be experienced using the example of a street corner in the middle of Berlin.
 20100103 wetten dass
On January 3, 2010, Miniatur Wunderland was the scene of an exciting outdoor bet on "Wetten dass...?" on Saturday.
 2010 baustelle flughafen
On the photo, you can only roughly guess that airplanes will take off and land here when it opens in May 2001.
 2011 flughafen bau
The impressive airport is certainly not only the highlight of the Wunderland for all aviation and technology fans. 52 different aircrafts (from A380 to Cessna) take off and land here.
 2011 gerrit airport
The technically most fascinating section shows the realistic flight operations of an international airport on 150 m². 4,000,000 euros were invested in the realization of this dream of our technicians, which took almost six years.
 2011 toystory race jamesmay
In May 2011, there was the big train race between James May and Miniatur Wunderland in England.
 20121114grundsteinlegung elbphi
On November 14, the ceremony of laying the foundation stone, attended by the Senator for Culture Professor Barbara Kisseler and the General Director of the first Elbphilharmonie Christoph Lieben-Seutter, marked the start of the miniature mammoth project in Wunderland.
 20130413 igs
In mid-April 2013, the "smallest garden in the world" has been installed on the occasion of the international garden show in Hamburg.
 20130509gleisnagel italienbau
On May 9, 2013, the track nail was laid for the new Italy construction section. "La Dolce Vita" on 190 m² was then finally opened on September 28, 2016.
 20130829 10 mio besucher
At the end of August 2013, we finally welcomed our 10 millionth guest. Fabulous!
 20131113 elphieroeffnung
3 years before the opening of the "real" Elbphilharmonie, the miniature concert hall in our Hamburg section opened with a brilliant kick-off concert.
 20131206 hochwasser
On December 6, 2013, Wunderland posted with this image, "The violent storm surge is over. We hope you made it through the night okay! In Miniatur Wunderland, for example, the cellars were full. For this, the miniature AIDA finally came to cast off."
 2014 wm
In Brazil, Germany won its 4th world championship title.
 20141229 olympia2
Miniatur Wunderland was also on fire for the Olympics and supported the event with various activities.
 20151111 helenefischer
On November 11, 2015, Helene Fischer opened her benefit concert at Miniatur Wunderland and has since been collecting donations for the "Ein Herz für Kinder" campaign.
 20160928 italien eroeffnung
On September 28, 2016, there was the grand opening ceremony for the new Italy section. Hamburg's former First Mayor Olaf Scholz opened the section with the envoys of the Republic of Italy.
 20161202 15mio
On December 2, 2016, we cracked the 15 million visitor mark.
 2017021000000 starts landungen
On February 1, 2017, a new record occurred: one million aircraft movements at Knuffingen Airport.
 20180221 venedig eroeffnung
On February 21, 2018, our smallest (partial) section Venice was opened on 9 m² of model space.
 2018 otto buehne 3
In 2018, Otto Waalkes moved into the Hamburg section with his new stage show.
 2019 weltrekord
The connection of 315 additional meters of track in Italy extended the Wunderland track network to a record-breaking 15,715 meters in August 2019.
 20191022 gruppenbild suedamerika
We build with South Americans in South America South America: on 200 - 220 m² the spectacular section from the Amazon over the Andes, to Rio and up to Antarctica is created.
 20200630 kirmes eroeffnung
On June 30, 2020 we opened our new spectacular and colorful funfair.
 20200715 bruecke
After 14 years, it was finally the day. The 25-meter-long pedestrian bridge was lifted 40 meters above the Miniatur Wunderland's reservoir. Afterwards, it was attached to the opposite granary at a height of about 16 meters. The starting signal for the future of Miniatur Wunderland.
 2021 weltrekord 2
Great jubilation and relief at the new world record.