History Museums in Germany

Opened in 2001, the Jewish Museum in Berlin ranks among the largest ones of its kind in Europe. Visitors can learn more about the history of German Jews from medieval settlements to the modern age and experience the history of Germany from the perspective of the Jewish minority. The museum consists

Opened in 1987, as part of the celebration of 750 years since the founding of Berlin, the German Historical Museum follows the long history of the German nation, as well as that of entire Europe. The museum is located in two main buildings, one modernist, other Baroque, which were erected some 250 y

The Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds is a museum in Nuremberg housed in the remains of the Congress Hall of the former Nazi party rallies. The museum features a permanent exhibition called "Fascination and Terror" on the causes, connections, and consequences of Nazi Germany and National

The Rickmer Rickmers is a significant historical monument in Hamburg. This three-masted steel cargo sailing ship is now a museum, providing visitors with a glimpse into the maritime history of the city. It is located in the port of Hamburg at the St. Pauli Landing Bridges, a popular tourist area known for its vibrant nightlife and entertainment.

The DDR Museum is an authentic and interactive museum devoted to the daily life in former East Germany (DDR). It is divided into three main areas: Public Life, State and Ideology, and Life in a Tower Block. You can see a typical DDR living room, try on usual DDR clothes, use an original typewriter o

Designed by Agostino Barelli, the name of this palace literally translates as the Castle of the Nymphs. When the Bavarian royalty in the 17th century wanted to take a summer break, they would go to the Nymphenburg Palace. Today, it is open to the public and home to several historical museums. You ca

The Palace of Tears (Tränenpalast) is the former train station and a crossing place between East and West Germany. Citizens from the west part of the country were allowed to travel and this was the place where they said their goodbyes to their friends and family in the east. After the fall of the Be

The Naturmuseum Senckenberg (Senckenberg Natural History Museum) is the largest museum of natural sciences in Germany, located in Frankfurt and housed in a building that was built between 1904 and 1907. The Naturmuseum Senckenberg holds the largest collection of large dinosaurs in Europe. One specif

The Samurai Museum Berlin is a unique institution that houses a private collection of artifacts and art objects related to the Japanese warrior class. This collection belongs to Peter Janssen, a construction entrepreneur. The museum offers a rare opportunity to explore the rich history and culture of the Samurai, making it a fascinating destination for those interested in Japanese history and culture.

The Romano-Germanic Museum (Roman-German Museum) is an archaeological museum in Cologne that holds and exhibits Roman artifacts from the Roman settlement of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, the Roman settlement on which the city of Cologne is built. The museum can be seen as an archaeological sit

The museum is situated in the historic Speicherstadt, on an old storage floor in the Speicher Block L. This location adds to the charm and authenticity of the museum, providing a fitting backdrop for the exploration of spices.

Schloss Benrath (Benrath Palace) is a Baroque-style maison de plaisance - a pleasure palace - in Benrath, a borough of Düsseldorf. The palace was built for the Elector Palatine Charles Theodor and his wife, Countess Palatine Elisabeth Auguste of Sulzbach.Construction of the palace began in 1755 and

The Germanisches Nationalmuseum is the largest museum of cultural history in Germany, located in Nuremberg. The museum holds and exhibits a large collection of items related to German culture and art from prehistoric times to the present day. The collection consists of around 1,3 million objects of

Dedicated to East Germany's secret police and housed in its former headquarters, the Stasi Museum in Berlin will inform you about state surveillance. The collection of the museum includes spy equipment and visitors can explore unchanged offices, and learn about the establishment of the Ministry of S

Despite its romantic setting by the lake, the Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz has witnessed a dreadful part of German history. The so-called "Final Solution", the deportation and mass murder of European Jews, was put into motion in this villa in 1942. As a reminder of these horrible acts, it has been tur

The Hamburg Museum, or Museum of Hamburg History, is a history museum on this history of the city of Hamburg that was established in 1922. The museum has many objects preserved by the Society of Hamburg History that was founded in 1839. The museum is known for displaying miniature scale models that

Operating since 1999, the interactive museum Story of Berlin presents the history of Berlin. Learn how people lived in different eras of the city's history. You can also take a guided tour through a nuclear bomb shelter from the Cold War. The museum is located inside the Kudamm Karree shopping mall.

The German Hygiene Museum (Deutsches Hygiene-Museum) is a medical museum in Dresden. It sees itself as a public forum for science, culture and society. On permanent display are the permanent exhibition "Abenteuer Mensch" and the "Kinder-Museum Unsere fünf Sinne". The permanent exhibition puts the hu

The Bundeswehr Military History Museum (Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr Dresden, MHMBw) is the military museum of the Bundeswehr (the German Armed Forces). The museum is housed in a former military arsenal and is one of the major military history museums in Germany. The Military History Mu

The Bach Museum is a museum in Leipzig that is dedicated to the composer Johann Sebastian Bach and his family. It is located in the Bosehaus where the Bach Archive is located. In addition to original pieces from Bach's life, interactive elements have also been added to the presentation. There are mu

Spy Museum is a private museum in Berlin that was inaugurated in 2015. The museum has an interactive and multimedia-oriented exhibition that deals with the history of international spy and intelligence services. A special focus in the Spy Museum Berlin is on the spies in Berlin during the Cold War.

The Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum is a museum of ethnography in Cologne that arose from a collection of over 3500 items belonging to ethnographer Wilhelm Joest. The museum answers questions such as: How do people live their lives at different times and in different parts of the world? And what connects

The Museum in der Runden Ecke is a museum in Leipzig on the history, structure and operation of the Ministry of State Security (MfS) in the GDR. The museum houses the permanent exhibition "Stasi - Power and Banality".

The Zeitgeschichtliche Forum is a museum in Leipzig that illustrates the history of the German division, of everyday life in the communist dictatorship of the GDR and of the reunification process as well as the challenges that face the reunited Germany in the 21st century. The permanent exhibition b

The Martin-Gropius-Bau, previously used as a museum for applied art, is an exhibition building and art hall in Berlin. The building is intended for large exhibitions with a temporary character, but also the presentation of archaeological collections, linking these to current issues and discourses. U

The Goethe House is a writer's house museum in Frankfurt. The Goethe House was the residence of the Goethe family until 1795. When the house was bought by geologist Otto Volger in 1863, it got restored to the condition the Goethe family had left it in. The house was destroyed during World War II, bu

Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, this building is one of the finest examples of the Neoclassical Architecture in Berlin. Being fully dedicated to classical antiquity, the Altes Museum houses several thousands of historically and culturally important artefacts. Its chronologically divided areas i

The State Collection of Egyptian Art in Munich (Staatliche Sammlung für Ägyptische Kunst) is an archaeological museum in Munich that holds and exhibits the state collection of Ancient Egypt art with exhibitions both on the predynastic as well as the dynastic periods. The State Collection of Egyptian

The Museum in der Kulturbrauerei in Berlin shows the permanent exhibition "Everyday life in the GDR", using objects, documents, film and sound examples to illustrate the tension between the expectations of the political system and the real living conditions. The exhibition is divided into four main

The Bavarian National Museum (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) is a museum of applied art in Munich that holds and exhibits objects originating from the Middle Ages onward. The museum was founded in 1855 by King Maximilian II of Bavaria and houses a varied collection of sculptures and visual art collecti

The German Resistance Memorial Centre is a memorial, museum with a permanent exhibition and research center in Berlin that is dedicated to German resistance to Nazism, occupying three floors of one of the Bendlerblock buildings. It was at the Bendlerblock in the inner courtyard where members of the

The Historical Museum (Historisches Museum) is a museum in Frankfurt am Main that holds and exhibits cultural and historical objects relating to the history of Frankfurt and Germany. These objects are displayed in permanent chronological exhibitions, namely: Medieval Frankfurt, the Late Middle Ages,

The Landesmuseum Württemberg (Württemberg State Museum) in Stuttgart was founded in 1862 by Wilhelm I. König von Württemberg. Its origin dates back to the 16th century. Back in the Kunstkammer, the dukes collected everything that was rare, precious and unusual. The museum's mission is to depict Germ

The Stadtmuseum Fembohaus (City Museum at Fembo House) is the city museum of Nuremberg that is dedicated to the history of Nuremberg that spans 950 years. The building that houses the City Museum is the Fembohaus, Nuremberg's only surviving large merchant's house of the late Renaissance. The museum

The (Museum of European Cultures) in Berlin (Museum der Europäischen Kulturen) is one of the three museums of the Berlin-Dahlem Museums complex in Berlin. The main focus of the collection is on art and cultural objects of European peoples and ethnic groups. With more than 270,000 museum pieces, the

The Neuengamme concentration camp was a network of concentration camps in the North of Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and its more than 85 subcamps. With more than 100000 prisoners that came through The Neuengamme camp and its subcamps, it became the largest concentration camp

The Anne Frank Zentrum is the German partner organization of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Its permanent exhibition "All about Anne" invites audiences to explore Anne Frank's life and her diary as a way to personalize the history of the Holocaust. Interactive learning installations encourage vi

The Munich Municipal Museum (Munich Stadtmuseum) is the city's main museum that houses various exhibitions on topics related to Munich on three floors, with focus on the culture. The museum is housed in the former municipal arsenal and stables, both of the late Gothic period. The museum features var

The Bremer Geschichtenhaus (Bremen Story House) in Bremen is a "living" museum where historical events and personalities of Bremen's life in historical settings from the mid-17th to the 20th century are prsented. Visitors are guided through the exhibition by unemployed citizens that wear costumes an

The Berlin Story Museum houses three floors of exhibitions that provide you with a concise overview of the history of Berlin. You will see period photographs, films, and other artefacts. As a part of a guided tour, you can access an authentic air raid shelter dating back to the World War II.

The Allied Museum is a museum in Berlin that documents the involvement of Western powers, the Allies (the United States, Britain and France) in Germany and Berlin between 1945 and 1994. The museum mainly shows the political and military history of the Cold War, illustrating the lives of the soldiers

Built in the 19th century, the Neue Synagoge Berlin has had a rough history, being damaged on several occasions. Due to its Moorish Revival style, it is fairly similar to a well-known Spanish palace, Alhambra. You are welcome to visit services that are still held here and to explore its museum. In s

Stuck Villa (Jugendstil Museum) is a villa in Munich designed and built by the painter Franz von Stuck for his personal use between 1897 and 1898. In 1968 it was transformed to house the Museum Villa Stuck dedicated to Art Nouveau. The interior presents some of the artist's paintings and retains the

The Memorium Nuremberg Trials (Memorium Nurnberger Prozesse) is an institution in Nuremberg. From 1945 to 1949, the Nuremberg Trials took place in the jury courtroom of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice. The Memorium Nuremberg Trials illustrates the history, course and aftermath of the processes. The

The Lower Saxony State Museum (Niedersächsische Landesmuseum Hannover) is a museum in Hannover. The museum's collection includes the Landesgalerie, a collection of paintings and sculptures dating from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. Furthermore, the museum features departments for ar

The Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main (Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt) is the oldest independent Jewish Museum in Germany. The museum collects, preserves and communicates the nine-hundred-year-old Jewish history and culture of Frankfurt from a European perspective. It includes a permanent exhibition in tw

The Staatliche Antikensammlungen (National Collections of Ancient Objects, Museum of Antiquities) is a museum in Munich with antiquities from Greece, Etruria and Rome. The building called Ausstellungsgebäude which houses the museum collections was built at the behest of Ludwig I, inspired by a templ

The Historische Kunstbunker (Historic art bunker) is a tunnel complex under the Nuremberg Castle in Nuremberg. Visitors can participate in discovery tours to take a look at Nuremberg from a completely different side and discover places that have existed for many centuries but are hidden under the st

The Historisches Museum Hannover (Historical Museum Hannover) collects and exhibits objects related to the history of the city of Hannover and today's Lower Saxony. The museum is divided into the following departments: "From the Principality to the Kingdom" with the development of the Principality o

The Deutscher Dom is an old German Protestant church on the south side of the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. The building with a five-leaf shape, designed by Martin Grünberg, was built in 1708 by Giovanni Simonetti. In 1785 a tower with a dome was added that resembles that of the Französischer Dom. The c

The Speicherstadtmuseum is located in the former warehouse with an authentic atmosphere. In the warehouse all the goods were stored to be transported to another destination. The Speicherstadtmuseum mostly illustrates the importance of trade for Hamburg with historical photos and many interesting exh

The Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig is a museum in Leipzig that collects, documents and exhibits objects, information and contexts of the city from the city of Leipzig in the early Middle Ages to the present. Housed in the city town hall, this museum is devoted to the history of Leipzig. Visitor

The Dresden City Museum (Stadtmuseum Dresden) is the central city and local history museum of the Saxon capital Dresden in Germany. The museum is housed in the Landhaus and is dedicated to the more than 800-year history of the city. The permanent exhibition of the Dresden City Museum addresses vario

The Kölnisches Stadtmuseum (Cologne CIty Museum) is a museum in Cologne that is housed in The Zeughaus, the city's former arsenal. The building was built between 1594 and 1606 and has served as a museum since 1958. It is built on the remains of the Roman city wall. Exhibits of the permanent exhibiti

The Blackbox Cold War Museum in Berlin features an exhibition housed inside a black, box-shaped building at Checkpoint Charlie. The museum is dedicated to the Cold War and features authentic exhibits and 16 media stations with film excerpts and interviews, relating to topics such as rearmament, host

The Paleontological Museum Munich is a museum in Munich that exhibits objects from the Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie (Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology). The building that houses the museum dates from the 20th century when it was planned to be a schoo

The Museum chronicles the product culture of the 20th & 21st centuries, a culture marked by mass production & industrial manufacturing. At the core of our institution is the archive of the Deutsche Werkbund. Founded in 1907, this group of German artists, designers & manufacturers was one of the lead

The Museum Otto Weidt is dedicated to Otto Weidt and his workshop for the blind and deaf, whom he tried to protect from persecution. Visitors can explore authentic rooms of the workshop where Jewish workers used to produce brooms and brushes. This place served also as a hiding place for some of the

The Jewish Museum Munich is a museum in Munich that provides an overview of Munich’s Jewish history, located between the main synagogue Ohel Jakob and the Jewish Community Center. The 900 square meters of exhibition space is spread over three floors. The ground floor features the permanent exhibitio

The Märkisches Museum in Berlin presents a variety of objects on the culture and history of Berlin. The permanent exhibition „Here is Berlin!“ invites you to take a walk through Berlin's streets and neighborhoods, where visitors experience how Berlin has changed over the centuries. „Ask your city!“

The Focke Museum is a museum of history and the history of art in Bremen. It is surrounded by a spacious park and includes four historic buildings, the modern main building and the recently built Schaumagazin. In the buildings,the collections on the history of the city and general cultural history f

The Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst (Museum of East Asian Art) is a museum in Cologne that specializes in East Asian art that started off with the collection of Adolf Fischer (1856 - 1914) and his wife Frieda (1874 - 1945). The museum houses the most important collection of art from China, Korea and

The Museum am Rothenbaum – Kulturen und Künste der Welt is one of the largest museums of ethnology in Europe. The museum has a collection of over 350.000 objects.

The East Wall Museum (Museum am Ostwall) is a museum of modern and contemporary art, located in the former Dortmunder U brewery on the Leonie-Reygers-Terrasse in the German city of Dortmund. The museum collection includes paintings, sculptures, objects and photographs and a collection of graphics of

The Archaeological Museum Hamburg (Archäologisches Museum Hamburg) owns a collection that puts its focus on the archaeology of Northern Germany and the history of the town of Harburg. The museum houses one of the largest collections on prehistory and early history of Northern Germany. Changing speci

The Steinwache is a memorial museum in Dortmund. It is a Resistance & Persecution Museum housed in the police station Steinwache that was established in 1906. In 1933 the Gestapo took over the prison and imprisoned and tortured opponents of the Nazi regime. Between 1933 and 1945 more than 66,000 peo

Museum of Work is an unusual museum devoted to the changes in the work process over the last 150 years. The museum mostly focuses on the industrialization.

The Altonaer Museum - Norddeutsches Landesmuseum tells the story of the Altona district, which used to be an independent centre with sea trade until the 20th century.

The Hafenmuseum Bremen Speicher XI is a museum in Bremen that is dedicated to the development of the urban Bremen ports with a local history approach. The museum commemorates the former use of the area, which was characterized by ships, cargo handling and harbor life. The history of the port is told

The House of History Baden-Württemberg is a history museum in Stuttgart. The permanent exhibition of the House of History is divided into three parts. In the entrance area, 26 items are on display that are considered typical of Baden-Württemberg, one for each letter of the alphabet. The second part

As if Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach had just completed it, this former garden house is still largely in its original state from 1882. At that time, however, the surrounding park was not a public green oasis in the city but part of Daimler's private estate. The Gottlieb Daimler Gedächtnisstätt

The Torhaus Dölitz (Gatehouse Dölitz) is the remnant of a noble residence, the castle Dölitz. Large parts of Dölitz Castle and with it the gatehouse were built in the 17th century. The gatehouse contains a tin figure museum, the collection is one of the three largest publicly accessible worldwide wi

The Ludwig Roselius Museum (Museum im Roselius-Haus) is a museum in Bremen that holds the private collection of the coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius (1874–1943). The museum is housed in a building that was completed in 1588. The collection consists of various objects from the Middle Ages to the Baroq

The Hufnerhaus from 1533, named after the Rieck family of farmers, is one of the oldest preserved half-timbered houses in northern Germany. This open-air museum tells the story of its five hundred years culture and history. The museum focuses on showing peasant life in the Vierlanden before the Indu

Grassi Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig is a large ethnographic museum in Leipzig in Germany. The museum holds a collection of around 200,000 objects, making it one of the largest ethnographic collections in Germany. The objects can be geographically categorized, with objects form East Asia, Southeast

The Museum Village Duppel (Museumsdorf Düppel) is an open-air museum founded in 1975 at the protected landscape area Krummes Fenn in Berlin. The museum, which belongs to the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, has reconstructed an entire village and its environment as it would have existed in the Middle Ag

The Palitzsch Museum is a museum in Dresden that is dedicated to the 7000-year settlement history of today's district of Prohlis and the Prohlis natural scientist Johann George Palitzsch, who in 1758 first saw the then eagerly awaited Halley's comet. The museum is housed in a former farm and its exh

The Schulmuseum Dresden (School Museum Dresden) is a school museum in Dresden in Germany. The extensive collections of the school museum document the school history of Dresden and consist of an extensive collection of textbooks, teaching aids, pictures and photographs and other objects related to sc

The PuppenMuseum Falkenstein (Doll Museum Falkenstein) shows a nostalgic miniature world of lace, velvet and silk, but also historical and cultural aspects of the bourgeois world from the late 18th century to the 1950s.

The Naturkundemuseum is a natural history museum in Leipzig with geological-paleontological, botanical, zoological and archaeological collections. The museum includes the insect collection of Alexander Julius Reichert. The collections contain a large number of scientifically valuable exhibits. Among

The Mineralien Museum (the Mineralogy Museum) is a museum in Essen that hosts an impressive collection of minerals that used to be private. The minerals are presented in various thematic exhibitions.

The Dresden Museum of Ethnology (Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden) is a museum in Dresden in Germany that holds and exhibits an ethnographic collection with more than 90,000 pieces from all over the world, including numerous precious, irreplaceable testimonies of long-lost cultures. The museum present

The Egyptian Museum of the University of Leipzig (Ägyptisches Museum der Universität Leipzig) is a museum in Leipzig that holds a collection of approximately 7,000 finds from several millennia, from the Paleolithic and pre-dynastic cultures of Egypt throughout all periods of Pharaonic Egypt (early E

Heimatmuseum Schloss Schönebeck is a musuem in Bremen that is housed in the Schönebeck Castle, a moated castle built in North German half-timbering. Special exhibitions cover the topics of the history of the former port city of Vegesack, including topics such as sailing, steamboats, herring loggers,

The Albrecht Dürer's House (Albrecht-Dürer-Haus) is a Nuremberg Fachwerkhaus and the home of painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance Albrecht Dürer from 1509 to his death in 1528. The house was built around 1420 and has five stories functioning as a museum dedicated to Dürer's li

The Heine-Haus in Hamburg is the former garden house of Salomon Heine, built in 1832. Since 2001, the Heine-Haus is part ofthe Altonaer Museums

The Schwules Museum (Berlin Gay Museum) is a museum and research centre in Berlin with collections on LGBT history and culture. The museum opened in 1985, making it the first museum in the world dedicated to gay history. The Schwules Museum organizes several temporary exhibitions every year, includi

The Cologne Carnival Museum (Kölner Karnevalsmuseum, KK Museum) is the largest carnival museum in Germany. The museum is divided into two sections with the exhibition on the history of the carnival and the adventure area.

In Köksch un Qualm, the historic kitchen of a cigar factory, visitors can see maids from up close and make a journey to a bygone era of housekeeping.