Museum in the Kulturbrauerei, Museum of contemporary German history in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany.
The Museum in the Kulturbrauerei occupies a converted section of the former Schultheiss brewery, a listed complex whose foundation stone was laid in 1842. Its permanent exhibition "Everyday Life in the GDR" fills 600 square metres with around 800 original objects, over 200 documents, film and sound recordings and biographical reports, arranged in four thematic sections. A Trabi with a roof tent and a datsche stand in the fourth section.
The brewery's foundation stone was laid in 1842. After World War II the SED regime turned it into a state-owned enterprise (VEB), which ceased production in 1967 because of worn-out machinery. The buildings later housed a furniture market and the Frannz Club. In 1991 the Kulturbrauerei was founded as a cultural centre, and the museum opened its permanent exhibition on 15 November 2013.
The permanent exhibition is titled "Everyday in the GDR" and fills 600 square metres with around 800 original objects, over 200 documents, film and sound recordings and biographical reports, arranged in four thematic sections. The fourth section shows a Trabant with a roof tent and a dacha as examples of East Germans withdrawing into private life.
The museum occupies a listed former brewery building at Knaackstraße 97, within the Kulturbrauerei complex, which also holds theatres, cinemas and restaurants. Admission is free, and a free audioguide to the permanent exhibition is offered as a web app in German, English, French, Italian and Spanish, as well as in German Sign Language, Easy Language and with audio description. The permanent exhibition covers 600 square metres; temporary exhibitions have 180 square metres.
Few visitors notice that the courtyard of the former brewery complex itself functions as an open exhibition, with original production equipment still visible. These outdoor areas tell their own story and reveal how the brewing operation once worked.
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