The main building, the listed Liller Halle, was built in 1913 for Compagnie Francaise Thomson-Houston (CFTH), the French sister company of British Thomson-Houston (see also: Thomson-Houston Electric Company), in Lesquin near Lille. During World War I, the entire hangar was dismantled by German troops and transported to Speyer in 1915, where it served as a production hall for the Pfalz-Flugzeugwerke. In 1913, the Pfalz-Flugzeugwerke was founded, which built an aircraft factory on the present site of the Technik-Museum and produced aircraft there until 1918. In 1918, after losing World War I, French troops seized the Pfalz-Flugzeugwerke and used the site as a military automobile park until 1926. The last French troops left Speyer in 1930. From 1937 to 1945, the ensemble served German specialists as a repair and overhaul workshop for aircraft from Flugwerke Saarpfalz. After the Second World War, from 1945 to 1984, the French occupation forces used the buildings as barracks and added other buildings. The French forces returned the Martin barracks to the federal government on December 30, 1986. Initially, there were plans to house a hundred troops of the Federal Border Guard there. The barbed wire fence on the south side dates from this period. After these plans were rejected, the Liller Halle was sold in 1990 and in December 1992 the 18.5 hectare site, with the exception of 1.6 hectares where a bus company was located, was sold to the owners of the Auto- und Technik-Museum Sinsheim, who could no longer expand in Sinsheim. Subsequently, first the Liller Halle and then the Wilhelmsbau were renovated and larger open spaces were used for museum purposes. The former barracks canteen serves as a restaurant, the officers' building and the infirmary were converted into a hotel. Finally, two IMAX cinemas and a large entrance area were added to the north of Liller Halle