Behaim Globe

It is the world’s oldest surviving terrestrial globe: The Erdapfel (earth apple) created by Martin Behaim between 1492 and 1494 belongs to the exciting highlights of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Europe, Africa, Asia and the Japanese archipelago are shown more or less in detail. America „discovered“ by Kolumbus in 1492, however, is not yet included.

Behaim, a citizen of Nuremberg and widely travelled, was instructed by the City Council to create a globe. As a textile merchant he wanted to explore the Western world for commercial reasons and the globe helped to illustate his economic success.