From 13 June 2018 to 6 January 2019, the Deutsches Historisches Museum presented the special exhibition Europe and the Sea. Taking selected port cities as points of departure, the eventful history of the Europeans was portrayed from a maritime perspective. The theme of ‘Shipbuilding and Seafaring’ in the exhibition was set in the context of the port of Amsterdam and the Dutch Golden Age. The digital media station contained in that section of the exhibition is now freely accessible here. It looks at twenty significantly different ‘types’ of ship as examples to illustrate major developments in shipbuilding between the ninth and the twentieth century. These are linked in a historical context by a timeline, which gives the earliest year in which there is evidence of the ship type’s existence in each case. Well-known individual ships are also explained in greater detail.

Thomas Eisentraut, 9 April 2019