The museum was founded on 28 June 1903, at a meeting of the Association of German Engineers (VDI) as an initiative of Oskar von Miller.

For a period of time the museum was also used to host pop and rock concerts including The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Elton John.

[2] The main site of the Deutsches Museum is a small island in the Isar river, which had been used for rafting wood since the Middle Ages.

It comprises the old air control and command centre as well as modern buildings added in the late 2000s after strong endorsement from Franz Josef Strauß, former prime minister of the state of Bavaria (1978 to 1988), who was a passionate flyer.

The Flugwerft Schleißheim displays various interesting airplanes for which there was insufficient room at the Museumsinsel site in downtown Munich, and also several which were moved from their former places in the main museum.

In the early years, the exhibition and the collection of the Deutsches Museum were strongly influenced personally by Oskar von Miller.

A few months before the 1903 meeting of the Society of German Engineers, Oskar von Miller gathered a small group who supported his desire to found a science and technology museum.

In June 1903, Prince Ludwig agreed to act as patron of the museum and the city of Munich donated Coal Island as a site for the project.

Before and during World War II the museum was put on a shoestring budget by the Nazi party and many exhibits were allowed to get out of date with a few exceptions such as the new automobile room dedicated on 7 May 1937.

This was followed by an extensive reconstruction effort and additional building bringing the total exhibit space to 55,000 square meters (13½ acres) by 1993.