MS Wissenschaft ("MS Science") is an exhibition ship in Germany. It is named after German: [[Wissenschaft]], the German term for any study or science that involves systematic research and teaching. It is a project of German: [[:de:Wissenschaft im Dialog|Wissenschaft im Dialog]] and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany). The ship travels through Germany and also through Switzerland and Austria for several months of the year showing temporary exhibitions in line with the respective Science Year.
The ship was built in 1969 at the former Elfring shipyard in Haren. In 2002, the University of Bremen hired the cargo ship, then called Geoschiff, which was used as a floating exhibition on geoscience for six months. Due to the success of this, MS Wissenschaft has been used as a science exhibition ship every summer since 2003. For the use as MS Wissenschaft the ship is converted every year.
On its tours, MS Wissenschaft visits numerous cities throughout Germany, which it can reach on inland waterways. In 2005, Basel in Switzerland, the first foreign city to be reached via the Rhine, was also on the tour schedule. Since 2010, several cities along the Danube in the neighboring country of Austria have also been visited.
| Image | Year | Theme | Ship name | Notes | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Geoschiff | The exhibition lasted 6 months and explored marine science. | |||
| 2003 | MS Chemie | The ship visited 26 cities, with over 40,000 visitors. | |||
| 2004 | MS Technik | The ship visited 31 cities featuring an exhibition about the expansion of human capabilities through technology. | |||
| 2005 | MS Einstein | The ship visited 37 cities, with over 100,000 visitors. With Basel, the ship landed for the first time in a non-German city. | |||
| 2006 | MS Wissenschaft – Sport und Informatik | The ship visited 34 cities, with approximately 74,000 visitors. | |||
| 2007 | MS Wissenschaft – Sprache ist mehr als Worte | The ship visited 34 cities, with approximately 77,000 visitors. | |||
| 2008 | MS Wissenschaft – das Matheschiff | The ship visited 31 cities, with approximately 118,000 visitors. | |||
| 2009 | MS Wissenschaft – das Zukunftsschiff | The ship visited 34 cities, with approximately 90,000 visitors including 650 school classes. | |||
| 2010 | MS Wissenschaft – das Energieschiff | The ship visited 36 cities, with approximately 105,000 visitors. For the first time, the ship also called at Austrian cities, including Vienna, Krems and Linz. | |||
| 2011 | MS Wissenschaft – Neue Wege in der Medizin | The ship visited 35 cities, with approximately 72,000 visitors. | |||
| 2012 | MS Wissenschaft – Zukunftsprojekt Erde | The ship visited 36 cities, with approximately 90,000 visitors. | |||
| 2013 | MS Wissenschaft – Alle Generationen in einem Boot | The ship visited 37 cities. | |||
| 2014 | MS Wissenschaft – Digital unterwegs | The ship visited 38 cities. | |||
| 2015 | Cities of the future | MS Wissenschaft – Zukunftsstadt | The ship visited 40 cities. | ||
| 2016/2017 | Seas and Oceans | MS Wissenschaft – Meere und Ozeane | The ship visited 33 cities, starting with the northern states of Germany in 2016 and ending with the southern states in 2017. | ||
| 2018 | Working life of the future | MS Wissenschaft – Arbeitswelten der Zukunft | |||
| 2021 | MS Wissenschaft – Bioökonomie | ||||
| 2022 | In demand | MS Wissenschaft – Nachgefragt | |||
| 2023 | MS Wissenschaft – Unser Universum | ||||
| 2024 | MS Wissenschaft – Freiheit |