Our mission

With its exhibitions and events, the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum seeks to keep people informed and help them find their place in our modern information society.

The starting point is a portrayal of the cultural history of information technology in a journey through time covering five thousand years, from the origins of arithmetic and writing to the 21st century.

The experiences provided by the exhibition are supplemented by events which show the impact of information technology and pick up the challenges of our information age - globalization, networking, and the spread of information and communication technology. HNF focuses on people and their relationship to technology and society, with a view to assisting them in their striving for a sense of community, meaning and personal development.

HNF's objectives are to impart knowledge to help people understand developments in the past, to provide a stimulus for structuring the present, and to suggest visions for coping with the future of the information age.

In embracing these objectives HNF is dedicated to Heinz Nixdorf, who died in 1986. This computer pioneer and innovative, public-spirited entrepreneur wanted information technology to be a benefit to mankind. He had the idea of founding a museum to show the story of computing to people, especially the young, and collected over 1,000 historical objects for this purpose.

Stiftung Westfalen, a foundation that he established, has made his dream come true - using his collection and adding contemporary aspects in this new combination of a museum and a forum.