The original armory building was completed in 1876 as an armory for Kaiser Wilhelm I.[4] The Arsenal main building in the center of Dresden's Albert City served as an armory for roughly twenty years, until it was transformed into a museum in 1897. Since then, the main building of the arsenal has housed the Royal Arsenal Collection, the Royal Saxon Army Museum, and in 1923 became the Saxon Army Museum. After 1938, the museum became the Army Museum of the Wehrmacht, and in 1972 the Army Museum of the GDR.[5] Seven months before the reunification of Germany, the museum was renamed the Military History Museum in Dresden.[6]
On February 13 and 14, 1945, British bomber planes commenced an air attack against Dresden, creating a vast firestorm below.[7] During the first phase, 244 Lancaster bombers dropped high explosive and incendiary bombs aimed at the center of the city.[8] American B-17 bombers followed the next morning, to destroy the city's railroad marshaling yards.[7] While much of the city was in ruins, the Bundeswehr's main military museum and most of the other military buildings in the Albertstadt survived the bombing of Dresden because of its location on the city's outskirts.[4] The building withstood World War II attacks on Germany and continued to be used as a military museum until it was closed in 1989. It re-opened again in 2011 and provided a new way of presenting military history. The exhibition concept and design was developed by HG Merz.