DDR Museum
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The DDR Museum is a museum in the centre of Berlin. The museum is located in the former governmental district of East Germany, right on the river Spree, opposite the Berlin Cathedral. The museum is the 11th most visited museum in Berlin.
attractions: Alexanderplatz, Berlin Cathedral, Pergamonmuseum, ALEXA Berlin, Bebelplatz, Neues Museum, Hackesche Höfe, Neptunbrunnen, Berlin Dungeon, German Historical Museum, restaurants: Hofbräu Wirtshaus Berlin, Döner Inn, BLOCK HOUSE Am Alexanderplatz, Kin Za & Georgian Restaurant Bistro Cafe Georgian Food & Chocolate Georgische Küche, Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt, Carambar, Georgbraeu, Dreh-Restaurant Sphere im Berliner Fernsehturm, Monsieur Vuong, Cantina Mexicana Que Pasa | Mexikanisches Restaurant Berlin Mitte | Cocktailbar
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The DDR Museum is a museum in the centre of Berlin. The museum is located in the former governmental district of East Germany, right on the river Spree, opposite the Berlin Cathedral. The museum is the 11th most visited museum in Berlin.
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The DDR Museum is a museum in the centre of Berlin. The museum is located in the former governmental district of East Germany, right on the river Spree, opposite the Berlin Cathedral. The museum is the 11th most visited museum in Berlin. Its exhibition depicts life in the former East Germany (known in German as the Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR) in a direct "hands-on" way. For example, a covert listening device ("bug") gives visitors the sense of being "under surveillance". One can also try DDR clothes on in the recreated tower block apartment, change TV channels or use an original typewriter. The exhibition has three themed areas: “Public Life”; “State and Ideology” and “Life in a Tower Block”. Each of them is presented under a critical light: the positives as well as the negatives sides of the DDR are explored in this exhibition. A total of 35 modules illustrate these three themes: Media, literature, music, culture, family, private niche, health, equality, diet, childhood, youth, partnership, fashion, border, Berlin, tra c, education, work, consumption, construction, living, free time, vacation, environment, party, Ministry for State Security, economy, state, ideology, army, brother states, wall, opposition, penal system and authority. The museum was opened on July 15, 2006, as a private museum. Private funding is unusual in Germany, because German museums are normally funded by the state. The museum met some opposition from state-owned museums, who considered possibly "suspect" a private museum and were concerned that the museum could be used as an argument to question the public funding of museums in general. In 2008, the DDR Museum was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award.
Venula TharushaVenula Tharusha
40
Right-wing fever dream of a museum! Before going to the DDR Museum, we read a few bad reviews (because it's funny to read bad reviews of tourist attractions and I usually judge the writers a little bit) plus the fairly ubiquitous good ones from people saying "best museum I've ever visited!" We didn't want to be joyless and I liked the look of the immersive interactive exhibits, so we ignored the bad reviews and decided to check it out. This is my first time taking the time to write a bad review of a tourist attraction but here I am... I entered the museum hoping to learn things like: what did it feel like to live in the DDR? What were the positive and negative things about it? What were real people's lives like? What legacy lives on? I learned none of these things, because the information boards in this museum are extremely scant on facts and include zero personal testimonies from those who lived through the period. Instead, what you read is a series of feverishly anti-communist propaganda. I've attached some photos of the most egregious examples. A lot of the text doesn't even make sense from one sentence to the next and the tone drips with bias, condescension and moral panic. It's hilarious that the info boards are so critical of propaganda but are so propagandistic themselves. 'Yes, they gave free childcare to everyone, but it was collectivist and THEY ALL HAD TO TAKE NAPS AT THE SAME TIME!!'... Isn't this just every kindergarten in the world tho? lol I wasn't expecting the info to say that the DDR period was a utopia - very far from it. But the info was so ridiculous we just went around the museum laughing and then left after 20 mins when we couldn't take any more. Also, this museum literally stinks. The ventilation is bad and it's underground so there's a lingering BO smell. This could be such a great museum, filled with personal stories and nuanced historical narrative alongside the cute immersively-decorated rooms. If they completely overhauled the information boards, included diverse personal testimonies and installed some decent AC, I'd give it another try. For now, it's a resounding disappointment.
c jc j
50
I thought this might be a bit of a tourist trap to cash in on "Ostalgie" but I was really pleased to find a small but comprehensive tour around almost every aspect of DDR culture, from the famous (Trabants and the Wall) to the less so (did you know naturist beaches were very popular?). The whole exhibition has clearly been created with love and care by former DDR residents, who want to give an unvarnished, warts-and-all portrayal of the East German state. In that I think it really succeeds. I'd only planned to spend an hour but I was there for nearly two hours, as there's so much to read and look at. I particularly enjoyed the explanation of how voting worked in the DDR (or rather, how it didn't work). There was good English translation throughout, and the texts have clearly been written with a sense of nostalgia, good humour (I laughed out loud at some points!) but also, of course, an understanding of how bleak and repressive growing up in the DDR could be. The museum shop had a great range of vintage-style fridge magnets and postcards. I'd recommend visiting as early as you can though since it was starting to get quite busy in mid-morning.
Matt DurrantMatt Durrant
00
A truly interesting museum, some great exhibits including a great model of the Palace of the Republic. A bit too busy at peak times but not overwhelming. I'm not sure about the German text but some of the English translations are spectacularly hilarious and always dripping with a neoliberal slant (marketed towards an American audience perhaps?). The particular highlight was the suggestion that nurseries in East Germany (which remarkably had free places for 90% of children) were in fact vessels for the nefarious state to install collectivist ideals in children because nap time was communal. And of course, the gift shop makes its trade selling the icons and aesthetics of the ideology that the rest of the museum has just sarcastically ridiculed which does make you wonder who the museum is actually for (again, other than Americans) - perhaps a moneybox bust of Ayn Rand would sell better than one of Marx? An exhibit on how the former East has been treated so poorly post-Reunification would have been interesting but the museum seems preoccupied with avoiding nuance and balance elsewhere.
Sam SlaterSam Slater
40
Great museum, a lot of history insights and explanations. A possibility to see the inside of a typical flat from Soviet Union is amazing, I believe seeing how life was a long time ago in details is always fascinating. One fact that made the museum a bit off-putting to me is that it seems like DDR and everything that happened in the DDR is only taken a look at from one “Western” perspective. An example of that would be that for a lot of facts there are comments explaining why it was like that, and most of the time it comes down to “DDR bad”. While I agree that probably life there was harsh and DDR did a lot of bad things, I’m sure there were nice things as well, and I believe they should be displayed too. Museums should try to just show the facts from both perspectives, so one can think and make his own balanced decision on how he sees this thing. This is just my opinion.
Kirill KramarenkoKirill Kramarenko
00
The DDR museum is amazing even if it’s an old museum (it shows). I came in early in the morning but the museum was already packed with visitors, i guess they don’t regulate the number of visitors because as soon as I started the visit I already felt cramped (had this feeling until the end). However, this museum is very informative but in a interactive way, making it the kind of museum perfect for kids (they can easily touch, watch, play with the installations). I particularly appreciated the false condo of an ordinary berliner family displayed, in which everybody felt instantly immersed into the past. I almost missed it because the condo is a bit hidden just before the exit of the museum. Eventually I ended up spending a couple of hours even if the museum was very small in size, because there were so many interesting things to read !
Eliane CamusEliane Camus
00
Nearby Attractions Of DDR Museum
Alexanderplatz
Berlin Cathedral
Pergamonmuseum
ALEXA Berlin
Bebelplatz
Neues Museum
Hackesche Höfe
Neptunbrunnen
Berlin Dungeon
German Historical Museum
Alexanderplatz
4.3
(65.5K)Click for details
Berlin Cathedral
4.6
(14.8K)Click for details
Pergamonmuseum
4.5
(10.7K)Click for details
ALEXA Berlin
4.3
(8.8K)Click for details
Nearby Restaurants Of DDR Museum
Hofbräu Wirtshaus Berlin
Döner Inn
BLOCK HOUSE Am Alexanderplatz
Kin Za & Georgian Restaurant Bistro Cafe Georgian Food & Chocolate Georgische Küche
Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt
Carambar
Georgbraeu
Dreh-Restaurant Sphere im Berliner Fernsehturm
Monsieur Vuong
Cantina Mexicana Que Pasa | Mexikanisches Restaurant Berlin Mitte | Cocktailbar
Hofbräu Wirtshaus Berlin
4.3
(10.4K)Click for details
Döner Inn
4.7
(4.4K)Click for details
BLOCK HOUSE Am Alexanderplatz
4.5
(4.3K)Click for details
Kin Za & Georgian Restaurant Bistro Cafe Georgian Food & Chocolate Georgische Küche
4.7
(3.9K)Click for details
Reviews
Overview
4.3
(9.6K reviews)
Phone
+49 30 847123730
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Website
ddr-museum.de
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Deep Dive
A deep dive into DDR Museum
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