Ethnological Museum Berlin, Ethnographic museum in Berlin-Mitte, Germany.
The Ethnological Museum Berlin holds more than 500,000 objects from Africa, Oceania, East and North Asia, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Americas, plus 280,000 historical photographs and 125,000 sound recordings. Since 2021 it has occupied the upper floor of the Humboldt Forum in the reconstructed Berlin City Palace, sharing the building with the Museum of Asian Art. Its rooms are organised by region, from the Sepik River and Hawaii to the Kingdom of Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Tanzania, China, the Pacific Northwest Coast, Mesoamerica and the Andes.
The collection traces back to the 17th-century Kunstkammer of Brandenburg-Prussian rulers and was formally established as the Royal Museum for Ethnology in 1886. Over the centuries it grew through collecting efforts and expeditions into one of Europe's largest ethnographic holdings.
The museum's name changed from Museum für Völkerkunde to Ethnologisches Museum in 1999. Its Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv holds one of the first ethnomusicology sound collections, and the museum also runs a small children's museum and a museum for the blind. Reconstructed dwellings and boats from various peoples are among the holdings.
The Ethnological Museum shares the Humboldt Forum, in the reconstructed Berlin City Palace just south of Museum Island, with the Museum of Asian Art. Its displays opened in stages in 2021 and 2022, so some galleries may still be changing. Allow several hours; the collection is organised by region, from Africa and Oceania to the Americas.
The Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv holds more than 125,000 sound recordings, one of the first ethnomusicology collections of its kind. The museum also keeps over 280,000 historical photographs and 20,000 ethnographic films, and its reference library has more than 140,000 volumes on ethnology and non-European art.
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