Modern ship model testing has a long international prehistory of several centuries. This paper deals with its precursors from the 17th c. to its maturing by the beginning of the 20th c., also in Germany. The prerequisites for a practicable, design relevant model test methodology were created in many steps with important contributions by prominent scientists such as Huygens, Mariotte, Newton, Van Zwijndrecht, Chapman, D'Alembert, Beaufoy, John Scott Russell, Reech, Rankine, William and Robert Froude, David Taylor and many others. These developments characterize the status reached by the turn to the 20th c. when several German model basins were founded, too.
