The museum of technology and labour in Mannheim opened in 1990 in a Modernist building designed by the Berlin architect Ingeborg Kuhler. Its objective is to illuminate the process of industrialisation during the last two centuries in Baden-Würtemberg, bringing together the history of technology with social and economic history. Amongst its 16 principal themes are paper-making and printing, textiles and particularly the cotton industry in south-west Germany, engineering including the construction of locomotives, the manufacture of cars which is illustrated by an automated work station from the Porsche factory, electric power and nuclear energy. The ship Mannheim is an outstation of the museum in the nearby harbour on the River Neckar. The approach is interactive, and throughout the displays the experience of working machines is described, alongside explanations of how they worked.