Hamburg  - The German city of Hamburg gained a major new museum devoted to maritime history on Wednesday, thanks to the lifelong obsession of an 80-year-old millionaire with collecting model ships.

The models in glass cases illustrate the evolution of ships from canoes and galleys, through the age of sail, to today's supertankers.

They fill almost all nine storeys of the museum building, which was formerly a waterside warehouse.

German President Horst Koehler inaugurated the private International Maritime Museum, which was to open to the public on Thursday, and said, "Shipping mirrors human history."

He thanked the collector Peter Tamm, formerly chief executive of the Springer newspaper publishing group, who recalled how the collection began with a finger-sized toy ship, a gift from his mother when he was just 6. Tamm still has it.

Ole von Beust, mayor of Hamburg, joked that they should really be thanking Tamm's mother for launching the collection.

"It just goes to show what a 50-pence investment can lead to," he said.

The collection now comprises 36,000 of the little models and the main draw of the museum, the 1,000 larger models with associated drawings, naval uniforms and miscellaneous shipping souvenirs.

Exhibition designers have put up posters and text on the walls to provide the context.

Tamm, who previously kept the collection in a private mansion where it could only be seen by appointment, said he wanted it to be preserved after his death, rather than being broken up and sold, so he had gifted it to the foundation that runs the museum.

Tamm's foundation has a zero-rent, 99-year lease on the city-owned building, which is a landmark in a docklands redevelopment zone.

The oldest item in the collection is a dugout canoe from an archaeological excavation in the Germany. The newest is a replica of the cruise ship Queen Mary 2 just finished out of nearly 1 million Lego bricks. (dpa)