The exhibits of the Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster include almost all major German WW2 tank and armoured fighting vehicle designs. Among them are some pretty rare vehicles, including a Sturmtiger assault mortar, one of only two still in existence, and an example of the Tiger II, but from the day the Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster opened its doors to the public in September 1983 one vehicle was missing from its collection, the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger I Ausführung E Sd.Kfz. 181. Worldwide the Tiger I is probably the best known tank ever built in Germany and therefore the Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster considered the lack of a Tiger I quite a gap in its collection. Since April 2013 a privately owned Tiger I has been on loan to the museum, a loan that will see the Tiger displayed until at least 2016, thus closing the gap in the collection for the time being. Previously experts had agreed that only six out of the total of 1,355 Tiger I's built between 1942 and 1944 had survived. One is on display at the Bovington Tank Museum, having been captured by British forces in Tunisia in April 1943, another Tiger I captured by Allied forces is on display at the National Armor and Cavalry Museum at Fort Benning, Georgia in the USA, two survivors can be found in Russia, one of them at Kubinka, the other at the Military Historical Museum in Lenino-Snegiri, and finally two Tiger I are located in France, one at the Musée des Blindés in Saumur, while the other serves as a monument in the outskirts of Vimoutiers in Normandy.
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