Exactly 20 years ago today, Miniatur Wunderland opened its doors to visitors for the first time at 12:00 noon. If the founders Frederik and Gerrit Braun had known back then that one day they would actually be running the largest model railroad in the world, they probably wouldn’t have been quite so excited on that Thursday morning in August 2001. In the presence of the then Mayor of Hamburg, Ortwin Runde, they finally opened the first three Wunderland worlds (Knuffingen, Austria, Central Germany) and thus gave the starting signal for an incomparable fairytale. At that time, in the age of the New Economy and big dreams on the Internet, hardly anyone believed in the future of the old analog model railroad hobby: “Anyone who knows me knows that I like to dream and that I am fundamentally optimistic. But if I had been told back then how Wunderland would develop, I would have dismissed it as illusory dreaming. For us, the story of Wonderland is a fairy tale. What we have been able to experience over the past 20 years fills us with great gratitude and pride,” recalls Frederik Braun.
Around 20 million visitors from all over the world have now explored the exhibition, which took almost one million hours to create. Three times in a row, Miniatur Wunderland has been voted Germany’s most popular attraction by visitors from abroad. The exhibition has been awarded six world records by Guinness World Records and the Hamburg model railroad has also held the top position on TripAdvisor for years. Miniatur Wunderland has become a real visitor magnet for Hamburg as a tourist destination: When a global pandemic is not keeping the world on tenterhooks, Wunderland visitors alone generate over 300,000 overnight stays per year.
After 20 years, Wunderland not only has fans on every continent in the world, but also over three billion TV viewers who have followed the creation of Wunderland and its stories on their TV sets at home, as well as millions of fans on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and more.
The entire Wunderland team would have loved to celebrate this special birthday and milestone with its fans and visitors. But as only a fraction of the actual visitors are able to visit the exhibition due to the coronavirus pandemic, and as futile ticket requests are causing disappointment day after day due to Wunderland being completely booked out for weeks, the big anniversary celebration was canceled as a precaution. Gerrit Braun explains: “Every day we receive letters from disappointed parents asking for tickets for their children’s birthdays or e-mails from foreign guests who absolutely want to see Miniatur Wunderland during their once-in-a-lifetime visit to Hamburg. We have to disappoint far too many of these people due to the current situation. We simply didn’t want to cause additional sad faces when we celebrate our 20th anniversary with far too small a group of people.”
However, a look into the future promises: there will still be plenty of reasons for lavish celebrations in the coming Wunderland years, which can hopefully be celebrated again without social distancing rules and thoughts of the coronavirus. For example, the inauguration of South America on the other side of the Fleet in November 2021 or the opening of the Monaco/Provence section next year.
Gerrit and Frederik Braun are far from tired of dreaming: “Our ideas and visions are enough for at least another 20 years of Wunderland. The play instinct and creativity of our great team will probably last for several decades more. We look forward to building many new worlds and miniature wonders with just as much love and dedication.”
Video
You can find a review of the highlights from 20 years of Wunderland on YouTube:
Photos
To download, simply right-click and select “Save target as…”. Credit: Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg
Before beautiful model building landscapes could be created here in 2001, the warehouse had to be completely renovated for months 
Fully motivated, the first model building team was ready and waiting in 2000. At the time, nobody could have imagined what great things would come out of the wonderland. 
At the beginning, a temporary banner hung from the attic. 
At the opening on 16.08.2001, the mayor started the first train 
Ole von Beust, former First Mayor of Hamburg, was also present at the opening ceremony in Hamburg in 2002. 
In the America section, 99,000 hours were spent working on and building the many details and scenic features before it was opened on December 8, 2003. 
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. 
The world record attempt in 2005 included a distance of 725.37 m in the old Elbe tunnel and a train with a length of 110.5 m. 
The conversion to the new Switzerland section got off to a spectacular start in 2006 with a ceiling breakthrough. 
The 4,000,000th visitor was commemorated with a jetty and sailing yacht on a small, dreamy island in the North-East Sea in Wonderland. 
In November 2007, DJ BoBo opened the new Switzerland section with us. Of course, his grandiose stage show was not to be missed and was placed there with more than 20,000 little mini-fans. 
“The Divided City” is a special exhibition on the division of Germany. In several dioramas, the history of the division of Germany can be experienced using the example of a street corner in the middle of Berlin. 
On January 3, 2010, Miniatur Wunderland was the scene of an exciting outdoor bet on “Wetten dass…? 
The photo only gives a rough idea of the planes that will take off and land here when it opens in May 2001. 
The impressive airport is certainly not just the highlight of Wunderland for all aviation and technology fans. 52 different aircraft (from the A380 to the Cessna) take off and land here. 
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. 
In May 2011 there was the big train race between James May and Miniatur Wunderland in England. 
On November 14, the miniature mammoth project in Wonderland was launched with the laying of the foundation stone in the presence of the Senator for Culture, Professor Barbara Kisseler, and the General Director of the first Elbphilharmonie, Christoph Lieben-Seutter. 
In mid-April 2013, the “smallest garden in the world” was added to the complex on the occasion of the Hamburg International Garden Show. 
The first nail in the coffin for the new Italy section was laid on May 9, 2013. “La Dolce Vita” on 190 m² was finally opened on September 28, 2016. 
At the end of August 2013, we finally welcomed our 10 millionth guest. Fabulous! 
3 years before the opening of the “real” Elbphilharmonie, the miniature concert hall in our Hamburg section was opened with a brilliant opening concert. 
On December 6, 2013, Wunderland posted this picture “The violent storm surge is over. We hope you made it through the night safely! In Miniatur Wunderland, for example, the cellars were full. But the miniature AIDA finally got to cast off”. 
Germany won its 4th world championship title in Brazil. 
Miniatur Wunderland was also on fire for the Olympics and supported the event with various activities. 
On November 11, 2015, Helene Fischer opened her charity concert at Miniatur Wunderland and has been collecting donations for the “Ein Herz für Kinder” campaign ever since. 
The grand opening ceremony for the new Italy section took place on September 28, 2016. Hamburg’s former First Mayor Olaf Scholz opened the section with the envoys of the Republic of Italy. 
On December 2, 2016, we cracked the 15 million visitor mark. 
A new record was set on February 1, 2017: one million aircraft movements at Knuffingen Airport. 
On February 21, 2018, our smallest (partial) Venice section to date was opened on a 9 m² model area. 
In 2018, Otto Waalkes moved into the Hamburg section with his new stage show. 
With the connection of 315 additional meters of track in Italy, the Wunderland route network was extended to a record-breaking 15,715 meters in August 2019. 
We build with South Americans in South America South America: The spectacular section from the Amazon to the Andes, to Rio and to Antarctica is being built on 200 – 220 m². 
On June 30, 2020, we opened our new spectacular and colorful funfair. 
After 14 years, the time had finally come in 2020. The 25-metre-long pedestrian bridge was lifted 40 meters above the Miniatur Wunderland warehouse. It was then attached to the warehouse opposite at a height of around 16 meters. The starting signal for the future of Wunderland. 
Great jubilation and relief at the new musical world record 2021
Press contact
Sebastian Drechsler
040 300680-0
sd@miniatur-wunderland.de
