Conception of the Wunderland

How was the decision reached?

Before this dream was becoming reality, one thing had to be ensured: the adventure must not totally destroy the existence as discotheque and music label owners which they had built up over years.

It had to be clarified whether the dream was financially practical at all, if enough visitors would come, whether technical realisation was possible, and whether there was an appropriate place in Hamburg available where the world’s largest model railway could be established.

In order to find out if it is possible to cover expenses with enough visitors, they decided to carry out a survey. More than 3,000 persons with different social demographic attributes were questioned via Internet and were supposed to rate which of 45 attractions, some of them fictitious, they would visit in Hamburg.

The invented Miniatur Wunderland concept was on third place considering men’s voting and was rated on the very last place considering women. Despite this ambiguous result the twin brothers had made up there mind: “WE ARE GOING TO BUILD THE LARGEST MODEL RAILWAY IN THE WORLD.“

Why Hamburg, why the Speicherstadt?

“Hamburg is the most beautiful and most perfect city in the world“, you can hear Frederik, as well as Gerrit answer, when being asked about their home city. Both of them are citizens of Hamburg with all their heart and are closely connected to the city, but furthermore, they feel obligated to it.

They agreed that the world’s largest model railway has to be in Hamburg. The search for an appropriate location within the city was more difficult. A location had to be found which is attractive and easy to reach for tourists as well as Hamburg’s inhabitants, which offers floor space of about 2,000 sqm per floor and has potential for expansion.

Moreover, its architectural style has to be suitable for a model railway, and the lease price has to be presentable. With the help of the Wirtschaftsbehörde a contact was made to Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA). The HHLA was instantly enthusiastic about the idea and offered the spaces at Kehrwieder for fair conditions. And that is how the location was found.

How was the Wunderland financed?

It didn’t take long to realise that a model railway of that size and that attention to detail will be very expensive and can only be financed by loans. The Braun brothers took an A4 sized paper with a draft of their idea and went to their bank asking for a credit of 2 million D-Mark.

Both of them were sure that bankers would be laughing at them – 2 million D-Mark, an A4 sized paper and a dream of a model railway… That doesn’t necessarily sound plausible to a banker – they thought. The more they were surprised when the bank soon granted the loan.

With hindsight, the calculation turned out to be completely wrong as out of 2 Mio. D-Mark became more than 7.3 Mio. Euros to this day. Fortunately they misjudged the number of visitors as well – in June 2007 the 4 millionth visitor is expected. And so the bank granted two more increases.

At this point it has to be mentioned that the Miniatur Wunderland, unlike most other exhibitions of this size, goes without any kind of government aid. The Construction Phase After the resolution was made to build the largest model railway of the world, the two brothers drove around Germany and looked at different model facilities.

Hundreds of ideas were explored to create a model train experience that would be entertaining for the whole family. Enclosing a facility behind a window pane wouldn’t be part of the plan, but instead the idea was to create a giant, immersive experience.

“Our idea was to build a world that men, woman, and children can be equally astonished and amazed in”, says the co-creator Gerrit Braun of the philosophy.

With this philosophy and thousands of ideas they drove to Gerhad Dauscher in the city of Mühlhausen (near Neumarkt). Gerhard was infected immediately with the concept and dropped all his contracts and appointments. This day played a large role in the Miniatur Wunderland being what it is today.

Prior to construction, a team had to be assembled. For this, the three held a model construction casting, with over 150 persons applying and 40 being short-listed to attend. Based on the casting, Gerhard assembled a team a model creators, of which up to 95% were not classical model-makers, but instead excellent handworkers.

In this way, the construction of the Miniatur Wunderland that exists today began. The original layout was 1000 square meters, with many more today and planned up until 2014. In our Weekly Reports you will find documentation about the construction progress and other timely information.