DDR Museum, History museum in Berlin-Mitte, Berlin, Germany
The DDR Museum is a history museum near Alexanderplatz in Berlin that focuses on presenting everyday life in East Germany. The rooms contain reconstructed apartments, original documents, clothing, and objects from kitchens, schools, and factories of the former German division state.
Peter Kenzelmann founded the museum in 2006 to document the years between 1949 and 1990 when Germany was divided into East and West. The project began as a private initiative and quickly grew into an important source of information about the postwar decades in the divided country.
The permanent exhibition allows visitors to open drawers and cupboards, sit on original furniture, and handle everyday objects from the period of division themselves. The concept relies on direct touch to help people understand how ordinary citizens lived between the Baltic Sea and the Ore Mountains.
The museum occupies the site of the former Palace Hotel on the Spree promenade, directly opposite the Berlin Cathedral. From the ticket desk, visitors descend a few stairs to reach the 1:20 scale prefabricated housing estate that opens the permanent exhibition. The entrance is on the right bank of the Spree, marked by a low tan wall with the white letters "DDR" above a short staircase and a doorway facing the water.
Visitors can steer a Trabant in a simulator and experience how driving this small car feels. The exhibition also contains a fully furnished living room where people can sit on the sofa and turn on the television set.
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