Berlin Sights: Museums

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Bode-Museum is part of the Museumsinsel

Berlin has a vast array of museums. Most museums charge admission for people 16 years of age or older - usually €6 to €8 (a day ticket with which one can also visit the other state museums is the only thing available and doesn't count for special exhibitions) for the big museums. Discounts (usually 50%) are available for students and disabled people with identification. However, the state-run museums www.smb.spk-berlin.de grant free entrance four hours before closing every Thursday. A nice offer for museum addicts is the three day pass 'Museumspass' SchauLUST-MuseenBERLIN www.berlin-tourist-information.de/english/berlin-infos/e_bi_infomaterial_museumspass.php for €19 (reduced €9.50), which grants entrance to all the normal exhibitions of the approximately 70 state-run museums and public foundations. Most museums are closed on Mondays; notable exceptions include the Altes Museum www.smb.spk-berlin.de/smb/service/index.php?lang=en&p=5&n=3 and the Deutsches Historisches Museum www.dhm.de/ENGLISH/index.html, which are open daily.

A short list of important museums (for a more detailed list check the district articles) are:

• Museumsinsel www.museumsinsel-berlin.de. Literally "Museum Island", this area is best known for the vast Pergamon-Museum, which houses an extensive collection of ancient Greek, ancient Middle-Eastern and Islamic art and architecture. Other museums which belong to the Museum Island are the Altes Museum (with the Egyptian and the antique collection), the Alte Nationalgalerie (with mainly German paintings of the 19th century) and the reopened Bode-Museum with its fantastically presented sculpture collection and Byzantine art. The recently reopened Neues Museum houses the Egyptian collection, Neaderthal and other pre-historic archeological finds, and some of the treasures unearthed at Troy. This is the only museum on Museums Insel that requires a timed entry ticket. It's best to get a timed ticket online ahead of time as time slots fill up quickly.
• Deutsches Historisches Museum, Unter den Linden 2, Tel. +49 30 203040 www.dhm.de. German historical museum covering everything from pre-history right up to the present day. One can spend many, many hours here!
• Jüdisches Museum, Lindenstraße 9-14, Tel. +49 30 25993 300 www.juedisches-museum-berlin.de/site/EN/homepage.php. 10AM-8PM. Jewish Museum. Learn about the history of Jews in Germany. Permanent exhibition on two millennia of German-Jewish history, changing exhibitions and impressive modern architecture by Libeskind. There is a small unrelated Jewish Museum at the Oranienburger Straße Synagogue.
• Gemäldegalerie, Matthäikirchplatz, Tel. +49 30 266 2951 www.smb.museum. At the Kulturforum. Thousands of European paintings from the 13th to the 18th century. Works from Dürer, Raffael, Tizian, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Rubens.
• Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, Tel. +49 30 266 2951 www.neue-nationalgalerie.de At the Kulturforum. Art from the 20th Century. This museum often houses temporary exhibitions during which the permanent collection is usually not on display. (As of December, 2009, the permanent collection is closed while the building undergoes repairs.)
• Museum für Naturkunde www.museum.hu-berlin.de/home.asp?lang=1. Near the main railway station. Natural science museum with a big collection of dinosaur skeletons, fossils and minerals. Reopened after restoration in late 2007.
• Mauermuseum at Checkpoint Charlie www.mauermuseum.de. This museum is situated at the most famous historical checkpoint between the two Berlins.
• Museum of European Cultures www.smb.museum. The biggest of its sort in Europe. At the museum district of Dahlem.
• Ethnological Museum www.smb.museum. Again one of the world's most comprehensive museums. At the museum district of Dahlem. Well worth a visit for its splendid collection of Pre-Columbian archaeology! It now includes the:
• Topography of Terror www.topographie.de. This open-air museum documents the terror applied by the Nazi regime. It consists of excavated prison cells located directly under a remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall.
• DDR Museum www.ddr-museum.deKarl-Liebknecht-Straße 1, 10178 Berlin. This small museum just over the river from the Berliner Dom. Really interesting with all the displays in German and English, it gives a good insight into life in the former GDR.
• Musikinstrumenten-Museum www.mim-berlin.deTiergartenstraße 1 (am Kulturforum), 10785 Berlin. This museum is part of the Staatliches Institu für Musikforschung PK and has an amazingly wide range of historic and unusual instruments on display.
• Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité www.bmm.chartie.de Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin. Interesting exhibition charting the development of European hospitals from the 14th Century to the present day.
• Ramones Museum Berlin de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramones_Museum_Berlin. The Ramones Museum Berlin pays tribute to the Punk band The Ramones. It displays more than 300 unique and original Ramones memorabilia.
• The "Berlinische Galerie" www.berlinischegalerie.de/index.php?id=270&L=1 is the city museum for modern art, architecture, and design. The museum is just around the corner from the Jewish Museum at Alte Jakobstraße 124-128.