DDR Museum
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 1
right on the river Spree,
directly opposite the
Berlin Cathedral
10178 Berlin
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 1
right on the river Spree,
directly opposite the
Berlin Cathedral
10178 Berlin
Monday - Sunday 10am - 8pm Saturday 10am - 10pm (no closing day)
Regular: 5,50 €
Reduced: 3,50 €
Groups/P.: 4,00 €
Student groups/P.: 3,50 €
Reduced: 3,50 €
Groups/P.: 4,00 €
Student groups/P.: 3,50 €
Welcome to one the most interactive museums in the world!
The DDR Museum is an unique and specific museum and one of the most-visited museums in Berlin. Specific because of three main reasons.
1. The topicThe DDR Museum is the only museum which concentrates on everyday life in the GDR. We don't only show the crimes of the State Security or the border defences at the Berlin Wall but we display the life of the people in the dictatorship: Maybe you know the spreewald pickles, nudism beaches and the Trabi - the rest of the life in this socialist state is unfamiliar to most of the people in the world.
2. The conceptA hands-on experience of history - the DDR Museum is not an exhibition to regard, but the visitor has to take part, to handle the exhibits and to look behind drawers and doors. For this reason we are one of the most interactive museums in the world - not the least point which nominated us for the European Museum of the Year Award 2008.
3. The institutionThe DDR Museum is privately financed to hundred percent. We don't spend one cent of public money and achieve no aid money. We finance probably as the only museum in Germany to hundred percent from the entrance fees of the visitor. Visitor orientation is not only a headword, but the guideline for our work. Thereby the DDR Museum has become one of the most visited museums in Berlin only one year after the opening.
The DDR Museum's collections
The DDR Museum's collection contains over 150,000 objects, which have been filed in databases. This process will still last for many years.
Even if we work on many of the objects, we can present you a small part of our database online. You can research, send us notes or ask special questions to the objects.
Museums can ask for loans online. Journalists can download photos of the exhibits in print quality.
As our research staff is German, we do our work in German. Please understand, that therefore the database is in German only!
Our partners
You will find further, interesting information on the following websites:Institutions with the topic GDR
Museums and memorial centers
Highlights in Berlin
A hands-on experience of history
Experience history in a vivid, interactive and playful way: The DDR Museum offers you a hands-on experience of the everyday life of a state long gone, the life in socialism. Visitors are welcome to broaden their knowledge in different thematic areas, to reconsider existing clichés and to have a hands-on experience of history. Exhibits are there to be handled - few are kept in glass cabinets. Everything waits to be touched and experienced: Open the drawers and closets, rummage through them and discover!
The smell of the Trabi is still originally GDR-like: take a seat, turn the ignition key, eyes front, foot on the gas pedal and here we go! Typical engine noises of the Trabi and a simulated ride through the concrete-slab housing estate give an impression of what it was like to go for a ride in such an original.
There is much more to discover in the DDR Museum: watch TV in the authentic GDR living room, rummage through the drawers of the Karat wall unit. The spice reg in the kitchen still smells of back then and the pressure cookeris still standing on the stove. There are documentaries for the visitors to watch in original GDR movie chairs and it is possible to replay the football game "GDR vs. FRG" by oneself or to dance the Lipsi. All this is peppered with the most important information about every topic.
Interactive, playful, vivid, entertaining and scientifically well-founded, the DDR Museum offers you the opportunity to experience the GDR everyday life yourself.
