Kölner Karnevalsmuseum, carnival museum in Ehrenfeld, Cologne, Germany

The Kölner Karnevalsmuseum opened on 19 June 2005 and covers more than 1,400 m² in Cologne's Ehrenfeld district. It is divided into a historical exhibition, which uses films, images and documents to trace carnival from antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Weimar Republic and National Socialism, and an experience area in the museum hall.

The museum opened on 19 June 2005 in Ehrenfeld, after earlier attempts to house a carnival museum in the Festkomitee rooms on Antwerpener Straße. Its collection gathered objects previously kept decentralised by carnival societies, supplemented by rare pieces. It has been closed since August 2022 for fire-protection renovation, after a COVID-19 closure.

The museum's name refers to Cologne's carnival, whose organizing committee alone unites more than 100 societies, with around 60 further clubs and neighbourhood groups celebrating. The collection gathers costumes and regalia that were previously kept decentralised among the carnival societies, alongside rare objects. The annual Rosenmontagszug, with at least 10,000 participants, is Germany's largest parade.

The museum is in Cologne's Ehrenfeld district and has been closed since August 2022 for renovation work required by fire protection rules, after an earlier closure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that it opened only once a month. Guided tours of the exhibition were offered from the museum's opening in 2005.

The museum houses the original protocol book of the carnival society from 1827, one of the oldest documents of this celebration culture. Particularly noteworthy is the documentation about the creation of the Dreigestirn, the three main figures of Cologne carnival, which continue to define this tradition today.