In the 1950s, West Germany, France, and Italy decided to launch a multi-national effort to design a new battle tank that would replace the US-made M47s that all three countries had in their inventories. This new tank would eventually become the Leopard 1 Main Battle Tank.

• Consortium A: MaK, Jung, Luther and Jordan, Porsche
• Consortium B: Warnecke, Rheinstahl-Hanomag, Henschel

France, however, decided to develop its own tank, while Italy decided to build the US M60 under license as an interim vehicle, and then buy the German tank when it became available.

Troop trials of the series I prototypes were carried out in 1961, with the Consortium A design being approved for further development. Further trials with series II and III pre-production vehicles began in 1962, and favorable results led to production orders for what had been designated the Leopard I.

The turrets on earlier versions had a rounded appearance, but this was replaced in later models by a turret with spaced armor that had a more box-like appearance. The main gun is the ubiquitous British-designed 105mm L7 rifled gun, which is fitted with a bore evacuator and thermal shroud. The standard load of 105mm ammunition was 55 rounds. Secondary armament comprises a 7.62mm machine gun coaxial with the main gun, plus another mounted atop the turret.

The Leopard 1 also served as the basis for a family of armored vehicles:

• Biber Armored Vehicle-Launched Bridge (AVLB
• Dachs Combat Engineer Vehicle
• Armored Recovery Vehicle
• Gepard anti-aircraft gun
• Driver training tank

The Panzermuseum has two Leopard 1s on display. The one displayed outdoors is a series II prototype, and has an early production turret that differs significantly from standard production vehicles. The one on display indoors is a later Leopard 1A2 model.