Panzermuseum East

Panzermuseum East is a military museum south of Slagelse specialising in the armed forces of the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War. The museum opened in May 2014 and has developed into Scandinavia’s largest private collection of Warsaw Pact military vehicles. Its principal exhibitions cover the period from approximately 1950 until the collapse of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact system in 1991.

The museum is organised around the military threat Denmark faced as a NATO country during the Cold War. Warsaw Pact planning treated Denmark and the surrounding Scandinavian region as strategically important in a potential European war, and the exhibitions demonstrate the types of vehicles, weapons and support equipment that could have been deployed during an attack. This includes both conventional warfare and preparations for operations in an environment affected by nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

The collection includes Soviet and Eastern European T-72 and T-55 tanks, BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, amphibious armoured vehicles, reconnaissance vehicles and self-propelled artillery. Among the heavier systems are the Czechoslovak DANA vz. 77 152 mm self-propelled howitzer and components of the Soviet 2K11 Krug surface-to-air missile system, including a 2P24 missile launcher and the large P-40 “Long Track” radar used to locate and track aircraft. The museum also displays equipment associated with missiles capable of forming part of the Warsaw Pact’s nuclear-war infrastructure.

Several vehicles demonstrate how warfare involved considerably more than tanks. A BRDM-2 RKhB was designed to detect and survey radioactive, chemical and biological contamination, while command vehicles contain communications and fire-control equipment used to coordinate artillery, armour and missile units. Other exhibits include fuel tankers, motorcycles, jeeps, air-defence vehicles and more than twenty military trucks.

The museum has also reconstructed some of the logistical systems required to keep an army functioning during a major conflict. A complete mobile field hospital and a mobile field bakery are displayed alongside medical, communications and technical equipment. Uniforms, medals, weapons, engines and radio systems are presented throughout the halls. A rare East German Robur LO 2002 RKE propaganda vehicle represents another aspect of Cold War military organisation: it was equipped for broadcasting and showing films as part of political and military information work.

Propaganda and military training films are shown throughout the approximately 4,500-square-metre exhibition area. Displays also cover civilian defence preparations in Denmark, including the measures intended to protect or organise the population following a nuclear attack. This places the military hardware alongside the broader Cold War planning for radioactive fallout, disrupted infrastructure and large numbers of casualties.

The museum is surrounded by approximately 17 hectares of woodland and parkland where additional military vehicles, an aircraft and a large helicopter are displayed. Some vehicles in the collection remain operational and are demonstrated during special events. The annual Military Days event expands the historical period beyond the Cold War, with military vehicles, living-history groups and reconstructed military camps representing conflicts from the First World War onwards.