By Cindy Brzostowski, to Museum Spotlight Europe (July 2023)
In Berlin, there’s no shortage of places where you can learn more about Germany’s history. You could head to the German Historical Museum for special exhibitions on formative events and people (the permanent exhibition is currently closed during renovations). There’s Topography of Terror for learning about the operations and crimes of the Gestapo and SS. For a look at what life was like during the days of the DDR, or Deutsche Demokratische Republik, there’s the DDR Museum. But for those who are searching for a place to see German history through a wider lens, there’s a new museum in town: the Deutschlandmuseum.
Opened June 2023, the Deutschlandmuseum covers a whopping 2,000 years of history, divided into 12 main eras: The Germanic Peoples, Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, Reformation, Enlightenment, German Confederation, Imperial Germany, Weimar Republic, Third Reich, Division of Germany, Two Germanies, and German Reunification.
Located in Leipziger Platz, the Deustchlandmuseum takes the place of the Dalí exhibition, which closed in 2021 after nearly 13 years of operation. The sister museum to the neighboring German Spy Museum, the Deutschlandmuseum was created under the leadership of executive director Robert Rückel (the same person behind the DDR Museum’s permanent exhibition) and designer Chris Lange (whose resume includes designing attractions at Shrek’s Adventure in London and the Rulantica water park in Rust). The result of such a partnership? An immersive, highly interactive museum that feels more theme park at times than it does your standard history museum.
That amusement park feeling is established from the very beginning as the visitor is required to scan their ticket at a turnstile to enter the first display room—one that resembles a dark, forest with soft, soil-like floor; verdant fake trees, and projections of shadowy figures moving through the woods on the walls.
Expect that level of immersion throughout. The museum is billed not just as a 4D museum but a 360-degree museum. Along with visual elements that envelope you, exhibition rooms feature different smells and sounds, and you’ll encounter props you’re encouraged to touch. The whole idea here is to not just view history but to experience it with all your senses.
After you climb up the stairs to the High Middle Ages room, you’re immediately hit with the distinct smell of farm—just pungent enough to create a distinct ambiance, but not enough to repel. As you explore the Weimar Republic area, you’re met with jazz music and the sounds of an alley fistfight. In the Division of Germany section, you can open and close cabinets in a DDR-style kitchen to see retro appliances as oldies music plays on the radio.
Throughout, there are many touchscreen trivia games enticing you to test your history knowledge alongside other interactive entertainment elements like a faux press where you can design and print your own bookmark or a short mystery game where you can figure out which suspect robbed the pharmacy. While there are some real artifacts in display cases (for instance: an executioner’s sword and some sunglasses issued to defendants at the Nuremberg trials), they aren’t the focus throughout the highly designed rooms.
For avid history buffs who already have some grasp of Germany’s past, the exhibits will probably prove too shallow—more flash than substance—to hold interest. It can be a bit of a shocker to see how little detail is mentioned in the section about the Holocaust (and a bit frustrating to see the lack of coverage on women’s roles in German history). But for those who really just want a basic understanding of Germany’s past, the museum offers that quick overview, requiring only about an hour of your time to make it through all 12 rooms.
Really though, the Deutschlandmuseum is best for those visiting with children. There is plenty to keep younger minds engaged in a way that traditional museums’ display cards and signs can’t. Treat the Deutschlandmuseum as the kid-friendly alternative to the more serious historical establishments around the city, and you can better appreciate its contribution to Berlin’s museum landscape.
Cover photo by Deutschlandmuseum
