DDR Museum Berlin

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DDR Museum Berlin
DDR Museum (Berlin) Schriftzug.jpg
logo
Data
place Berlin
Art
Contemporary history
opening July 15, 2006
management

Gordon Baron von Godin,

Quirin Graf Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden
Website
ISIL DE-MUS-706312
Entrance to the museum

The DDR Museum is a museum in the DomAquarée in Berlin-Mitte . In its permanent exhibition, it deals with life and everyday culture in the GDR . In 2015, it was one of the most visited museums and memorials in Berlin with 584,000 visitors.

description

The museum covers the topics " State border of the GDR ", Berlin, traffic, wall, Stasi , consumption, GDR products , nutrition, building, living, partnership, family, equality, private niche, media, literature, education, childhood, youth, Work, fashion, culture, leisure, music, vacation, health, army, opposition, party, state, ideology, brother states , GDR opposition , penitentiary system, economy, environment and authority. In contrast to other museums, a large part of the exhibits can be touched at this exhibition: You can sit in a Trabant , rummage in the closets in the prefabricated apartment or try on clothes from the wardrobe with a digital mirror.

Special exhibition elements

The permanent exhibition consists of three different areas. In the first exhibition room “Public Life”, everyday life in the GDR is presented. A prefabricated housing estate on a scale of 1:20 is divided into thematic blocks such as “training”, “consumption”, “ sport ”, “music” or “vacation”. Many of the exhibits are allowed to be touched. There is also a Trabant driving simulation with which visitors drive through a virtual prefabricated housing estate. A kindergarten, cinema and listening stations are also located in the first part of the exhibition.

In the second large room, “Party and State”, the political structures of the GDR , the connections to other socialist countries (especially the Soviet Union ) as well as the GDR economy and the military are examined. A reconstructed interrogation room, a detention cell and a spy room provide insights into the work of the State Security . Other components are a multi-touch table, an original Volvo from the GDR government's driving stand and animated portraits of Karl Marx , Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin .

A built-in panel elevator takes visitors to a faithfully reproduced WBS-70 panel apartment with a living room, bedroom, children's room, bathroom and kitchen. The five rooms are furnished with original exhibits from the GDR, which can be removed from the drawers and cupboards. In the living room, East and West German television can be compared with one another, GDR music can be rated for the museum's internal chart list and letters can be written on an Erika typewriter. The digital mirror in the bedroom makes it possible to try on GDR clothing virtually. In the kitchen you can print out recipes from GDR cookbooks and take them with you.

Collection and special exhibits

Collecting and preserving GDR cultural assets is one of the museum's core tasks. According to the company's own information, the collection includes 250,000 different objects that are housed in a spacious depot. The museum scientists have been working on recording the extensive holdings for years. Some of the already cataloged museum objects can be found in the object database of the DDR Museum. In general, the focus in the exhibition is not necessarily on the individual objects, but on the scenic composition of the exhibits. This conveys the experience.

Part of the collection is shown in the permanent and special exhibitions. Special highlights include a.

  • Environment library printing press (environmental sheets)
  • Film projector of the State Council of the GDR
  • Trabant 601
  • Deficiency diary
  • Crib carriages (in the "kindergarten")
  • Mural “In Praise of Communism” by Ronald Paris
  • "Oral-Turinabol" doping agent
  • 1 megabit chip
  • Volvo 264 TE from the ministerial fleet
  • Simson "Schwalbe" KR 51/1 (in the "garage")

Exhibition design

From an entrance level, the visitor descends into a staged prefabricated housing estate on a scale of 1:20. Each prefabricated building contains a different subject area, in each individual there are numerous drawers, flaps, doors, windows and media stations. The exhibits and information can be found behind these elements. In addition to the prefabricated buildings, there is also a Trabant to sit in with a driving simulation that is unique in the world, a cinema and a typical GDR kindergarten. In the second part of the exhibition, visitors end up in the world of politics, can take a seat at the party office table, view a simulated interrogation room, a simulated prison cell and a simulated Stasi listening room. The third part is modeled on a WBS 70 panel apartment. Five faithfully furnished rooms provide extensive insights into the everyday life of a family in the GDR.

The entire exhibition is interactive. From October 2010 to March 2015, a GDR restaurant was attached to the exhibition, where visitors could experience typical GDR cuisine . This area was converted for the third exhibition area, the WBS 70 apartment, which opened in August 2016.

Exhibits are u. a. the shortage diary , a ceiling lamp from the Palace of the Republic and a Volvo 264 TE official limousine . A 9-meter-long mural by Ronald Paris from 1969 with the title “In Praise of Communism”, which used to be in the House of Statistics , was moved to the museum shop at the end of the exhibition.

history

The DDR Museum project was initiated by the Freiburg ethnologist Peter Kenzelmann . According to media reports, he was looking for a museum on the GDR on a trip to Berlin and found none. The house was opened on July 15, 2006. Gordon Freiherr von Godin has been the director since May 2016, and Stefan Wolle is the scientific director .

The museum celebrated its first anniversary on July 14, 2007 and stated that it received 180,000 visitors in the first year. The museum was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award in 2008 and 2012 and was voted 44th in 2015 by international guests in a survey by the German National Tourist Board (DZT) and 36th in the top 100 travel destinations in 2016 been. On December 23, 2009, the museum had its one millionth visitor. A second part of the permanent exhibition with a new focus and numerous media stations was opened on October 10, 2010. In August 2016, the third part of the permanent exhibition was opened, which shows a WBS 70 prefabricated apartment. On November 7, 2017, the museum welcomed its five millionth visitor.

On August 4, 2018, the multimedia exhibition " nineties berlin ", which was designed by the DDR Museum, opened. The multimedia exhibition was located in the Alte Münze in Berlin-Mitte until December 28, 2019 and showed life in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall with the newly created open spaces. Thus the exhibition nineties berlin picked up at the point where the historical presentation of the DDR Museum ends.

carrier

The DDR Museum is a private initiative and does not receive state funding. The sponsor is the DDR Museum Berlin GmbH with the two managing directors Gordon Freiherr von Godin and Quirin Graf Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden (as of May 2016).

There is a non-profit association, the DDR Museum Berlin e. V . There is also a GDR Museum Verlag , which publishes the museum's publications.

literature

  • Quirin Count Adelmann v. A., Gordon Freiherr von Godin (ed.): GDR leader: The book for the permanent exhibition . DDR Museum Verlag, Berlin 2017 ISBN 3-939801-19-4 .
  • Robert Rückel (Hrsg.): DDR Museum: Guide through the permanent exhibition "Everyday life in a past state to touch" . DDR Museum Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-939801-00-3 .
  • Robert Rückel (Ed.): The GDR Museum: a guide to the permanent exhibition A hands-on experience of everyday life . DDR Museum Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-939801-01-1 .
  • Robert Rückel (Ed.): GDR leader. Everyday life in a past state in 22 chapters . DDR Museum Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 3-939801-13-5 .

Web links

Commons : DDR Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Imprint. January 13, 2017, accessed July 8, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Press kit of the DDR Museum , accessed on February 7, 2018
  3. ^ Object database of the GDR Museum
  4. ↑ ddr-museum.de: Deficiency Diary
  5. ↑ ddr-museum.de: Nativity car
  6. ^ Mural "Praise of Communism" by Ronald Paris
  7. ↑ ddr-museum.de (PDF; 129 kB)
  8. ↑ sz-online.de
  9. ↑ Isabel Metzger: Techno in Berlin: "Once upon a time, it was poor and sexy" . In: Spiegel Online . August 4, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 24, 2018]).
  10. ↑ official website: imprint , accessed on May 28, 2009


Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '8.2 "  N , 13 ° 24' 8.1"  E