In the late 1970s Heinz Nixdorf began to collect historical calculating devices and early computers to serve as the basic exhibits of a computer museum. After Nixdorf’s death, the Nixdorf Foundation was set up to develop the museum. To see the different ways of looking at computer history, a pluralistic approach was chosen, with the focus on the history of objects, ideas, people or societies. This paper tells something of the development, goals and purpose of the museum.