Berlin Museums

Berlin is the capital and the largest city in Germany and the second-most populous city in the European Union.

First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, Berlin during its history has been the capital of various Kingdoms, Empires, and Republics.

Berlin is a popular tourist destination and renowned for its universities, orchestras, museums, entertainment venues, festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts.

Berlin is home to some of the great museums of the world and featured are the following:

A Virtual Tour of the Museums in Berlin

The Pergamon Museum
Neues Museum
Altes Museum
Alte Nationalgalerie – National Gallery (Berlin)
Bode Museum
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Spy Museum Berlin
Jewish Museum, Berlin
Deutsches Historisches Museum – German Historical Museum
DDR Museum
German Resistance Memorial Center
Ethnological Museum of Berlin

Highlights of Berlin’s Museums

The Pergamon Museum

The Pergamon Museum is located on “Museum Island” in Berlin, Germany. The museum is famous for housing large monumental historic Babylonian, Greek and Roman buildings such as the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus.

Pergamon Museum has three separate museums: the Collection of Classical Antiquities, the Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the Museum of Islamic Art.

Neues Museum

The Neues Museum, meaning “New Museum,” is one of the leading museums in Berlin, Germany, and is located to the north of the Altes Museum or “Old Museum” in an area called Museum Island.

It was built between 1843 and 1855 and was heavily damaged during the bombing of Berlin. Following the museum’s rebuilding, it reopened in 2009 and testified to the neoclassical architecture of museums in the 19th-century.

Exhibits include the Egyptian and Prehistory and Early History collections, as it did before the war. The artifacts it houses include the iconic bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti.

Altes Museum

The Altes Museum, which is German for Old Museum, is on Museum Island in Berlin, Germany. The museum houses the ancient history collection.

The museum building was built between 1823 and 1830 in the neoclassical style to accommodate the Prussian royal family’s art collection.

Until 1845, it was called the Königliches Museum (Royal Museum). Since 1998, the Collection of Classical Antiquities has displayed its Greek collection, including the treasury, on the ground floor of the Altes Museum.

Special exhibitions are presented on the second floor of the museum.

Alte Nationalgalerie – National Gallery (Berlin)

The National Gallery in Berlin is focused on Art of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Starting with the Alte Nationalgalerie, which opened in 1876, its exhibition space has expanded to include five other locations.

The museums are part of the Berlin State Museums, and the holdings of the National Gallery are exhibited across multiple sites.

Bode Museum

The Bode Museum is one of the museums on the Museum Island in Berlin, Germany. It was completed in 1904 and was initially called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum after Emperor Frederick III.

The museum was renamed in honor of its first curator, Wilhelm von Bode, in 1956. Today the museum is the home for a collection of sculptures, Byzantine art, and coins and medals.

Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

The Gemäldegalerie is an art museum that houses one of the world’s best collections of European paintings from the 13th to the 18th centuries.

Its collection includes masterpieces from such artists as Dürer, Holbein, Van der Weyden, Van Eyck, Raphael, Botticelli, Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.

Spy Museum Berlin

The Spy Museum Berlin shows in an interactive and multimedia exhibition the history of espionage and secret services worldwide.

Particular emphasis is dedicated to espionage activities in Berlin during the Cold War. The museum’s collection includes nearly 300 exhibits with over 1,000 collection items. T

he collection consists of original objects and is supplemented by replicas.

Jewish Museum, Berlin

The first Jewish Museum in Berlin was founded in1933 to curate Jewish history and feature collections of Jewish art.

The current Jewish Museum Berlin was opened in 2001 and consists of three buildings, two of which are new additions built explicitly for the museum.

German-Jewish history is documented in the collections, the library, and the archive, and is reflected in the museum’s program of events.

Deutsches Historisches Museum – German Historical Museum

The German Historical Museum or in German: Deutsches Historisches Museum, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history.

The permanent exhibition German History in Images and Artifacts is housed in the Zeughaus of 1695 – the oldest building on Unter den Linden.

DDR Museum

The DDR Museum is a museum is located in the former governmental district of East Germany, on the river Spree, opposite the Berlin Cathedral. Its exhibition depicts life in former East Germany, known in German as the Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR.

The display has three themed areas: “Public Life,”; “State and Ideology,” and “Life in a Tower Block.”

The exhibits presented life under the DDR and explore the themes of media, literature, music, culture, family, party, Ministry for State Security, economy, state, ideology, army, brother states, wall, opposition, penal system, and authority.

City: Berlin
Country: Germany
Population: 6 million, Metro