Jewish Museum Munich, Jewish museum in Altstadt-Lehel, Germany.
The Jewish Museum Munich is a freestanding cube designed by architects Rena Wandel-Hoefer and Wolfgang Lorch, with a transparent ground-floor lobby. A staircase without a change of direction connects three levels: the lower level holds the permanent exhibition, while the two upper floors contain changing exhibitions, a learning center, and a library.
Plans for the museum originated in 1928, but construction did not begin until 2004 with the official opening in 2007. The long gap reflects the complicated history of Munich's Jewish community.
The permanent exhibition "Voices – Places – Times" in the basement covers Munich's Jewish history and present, with a focus on religion, annual festivals and rites of passage: circumcision, bar and bat mitzvah, marriage and death. The ground floor holds a Jewish bookshop and a cafeteria.
The museum stands on Sankt-Jakobs-Platz, between the Ohel Jakob synagogue and the Jewish Community Center. The entrance is on the transparent ground floor, which also holds a Jewish bookshop and a cafeteria. The permanent exhibition is in the basement, reached by a staircase that runs through all three floors without changing direction.
Young Austrians can serve as Austrian Holocaust Memorial Servants at the museum instead of mandatory national military service. The building was designed by Rena Wandel-Hoefer and Wolfgang Lorch, who won the contract in an architecture competition on 6 July 2001.
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