DDR Museum

The museum's logo
living room in the DDR

The DDR Museum is an interactive 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 shows the daily life in 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]

The museum was opened on July 15, 2006, as a private museum. The 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 concerned that the museum could be used as an argument to question public funding to museums in general.[3]

In 2008, the DDR Museum was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award.[4]

Further reading

References

  1. Senate Chancellery of Berlin . Accessed 2009-12-17.
  2. Richard Bernstein, International Herald Tribune, 2006-07-21. In a Berlin museum, under surveillance. Accessed 2009-06-18.
  3. Catherine Hickley, Bloomberg.com, 2006-07-14. New Berlin Museum Portrays Daily Life in Communist East Germany. Accessed 2009-06-18.
  4. Die Welt, 2008-01-12, DDR-Museum für europäischen Museumspreis nominiert. Accessed 2009-06-18.

External links

Coordinates: 52°31′8.5″N 13°24′8″E / 52.519028°N 13.40222°E