DDR Museum

This article is about the museum in Berlin. For the museum in Washington, D.C., see DAR Museum. For the museum in Dir, Pakistan, see Dir Museum.
DDR Museum
DDR Museum is located in Central Berlin
DDR Museum
Location within Central Berlin
DDR Museum is located in Germany
DDR Museum
DDR Museum (Germany)
LocationGermany, Berlin
Coordinates52°31′8.5″N 13°24′8″E / 52.519028°N 13.40222°E / 52.519028; 13.40222
Living room in the DDR
Photographic films and cameras made in East Germany (GDR)

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.[1]

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".[2] 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”.[3] Each of them is presented under a critical light: the positives as well as the negative 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 15 July 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.[4]

In 2008, the DDR Museum was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award.[5]

  1. ^ Senate Chancellery of Berlin [1] Archived 5 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 17 December 2009.
  2. ^ Richard Bernstein, International Herald Tribune, 21 July 2006. In a Berlin museum, under surveillance. Accessed 2009-06-18.
  3. ^ "Website of the DDR Museum". www.ddr-museum.de. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  4. ^ Catherine Hickley, Bloomberg.com, 14 July 2006. New Berlin Museum Portrays Daily Life in Communist East Germany. Archived link accessed 2019-12-07.
  5. ^ Die Welt, 2008-01-12, DDR-Museum für europäischen Museumspreis nominiert. Accessed 18 June 2009.