The show offers a sweeping survey of two thousand years of German history and opens a new chapter in the museum’s own history. Eight thousand selected exhibits from the Museum’s own collections, many of them unique historical artefacts, will convey a lively and attractive impression of events past.

The exhibition covers 7,500 m² and is divided into two parts. The period from the first century AD to the abdication of the Kaiser in 1918 is presented on the first floor, while the ground floor houses the sections relating to the Weimar Republic, the Nazi era, the Cold War period and the two German states up to the withdrawal of the Allies in 1994.
The exhibits are objects of significance from almost all fields of the historical legacy: documents, paintings and other works of art, books, posters, textiles, furniture, machines and a wide variety of everyday objects, to name but a few. In the methodology of the permanent exhibition these exhibits serve as more than mere illustrations of the historical events. They are presented, explained and placed in their wider context as pieces of history in their own right, focusing on their specific character as historical evidence. This approach produces a unique form of reconstruction of historical relationships and processes, one that speaks directly to the viewer. Rather than presenting a German-centred view, the exhibition consistently places German history in its European context, giving consideration to the many different forms of exchange and political and cultural networking with neighbouring states.

Numerous multimedia elements, models and educational stations deepen and expand the wealth of information on offer.

Friedrich II of Prussia – known as Frederick the Great – is one of the most distinctive figures in German history and culture of remembrance. It is the image of “Old Fritz” above all that has marked the German collective memory up to the present day. Yet in the more than 200 years since the death of the Prussian king this memory has been re-evaluated and exploited in many different ways: he was seen as the first servant of the state and as philosopher on the throne, was idolized as military commander and national hero, and later vilified as warmonger and misanthrope. The major temporary exhibition of the German Historical Museum takes the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Prussian king to present an extensive examination of Friedrich’s legacy in art, politics and society. Around 600 objects from Germany and abroad will reflect the eventful history of the sovereign’s reception over time and provide a fascinating survey of Prussian-German and European cultural memory.

An exhibition of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in cooperation with the German Historical Museum


The exhibition brings together the most beautiful and historically important treasures of the Grand Duchy’s Silver Treasury, many of which are being presented in public for the first time. The occasion for this unique show in the Permanent Exhibition of the German Historical Museum is the state visit of TRH the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg to the Federal Republic of Germany. A richly illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

An exhibition of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the German Historical Museum

Project management: Dr. Regine Falkenberg, Dr. Tim Urban

With Fashioning fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 the German Historical Museum is presenting – exclusively in Germany – a unique collection of historical garments and accessories from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. More than 200 years of European fashion history are on display. The renowned Belgian scenographer Bob Verhelst has specially designed the exhibition architecture for Berlin. Glamorous women’s costumes and elegant men’s suits are adorned with elaborately fashioned trimmings. Luxurious clothing of the wealthy haute-bourgeoisie and nobility are shown, including such highlights as the gold-embroidered dress of a Portuguese queen and the turban of the designer Paul Poiret. Fascinating fabrics, exquisitely tailored raiments and precious décor are all to be seen in the museum’s show.

The spectacular exhibition takes us through four chapters focusing on the aesthetic and technical developments of fashion history:

Timeline shows in chronological sequence the changes in the silhouette of women’s dresses and the evolution of men’s suits from brightly coloured to their traditional dark hue.

Textiles informs us about the variety of surfaces that come about through complex weaving, colouring and printing techniques.

Tailoring deals with the process of turning plain material into clothing, with special emphasis on forming, bracing and constricting techniques.

Trim presents the finery of fashionable clothes: delicate laces, magnificent fine-wire embroidery, artful silk trimmings and colourfully patterned and sequined accessories.

An exhibition of the German Historical Museum
Curators: Carola Jüllig, Simon Kuchlbauer

More than 20 years after reunification, many facets of life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) barely exist anymore. This is particularly evident in the language: while most Germans are familiar with abbreviations like SED or FDJ, acronyms like EKO, WBS 70 or ABV have to be explained.

The exhibition “Focus GDR” presents unique objects from the German Historical Museum’s collections that vividly illustrate many of the official GDR abbreviations. Objects like the highly decorated uniform of the Minister of National Defence, Heinz Hoffmann, or the official apparel of the 1968 Olympic Games march along as if in a parade, showing how the GDR displayed itself in public. At the same time the exhibition presents aspects of work and everyday life in the GDR, such as the impressive model of a strip mining excavator.

Many of the exhibits were taken over from the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte, the national historical museum of the GDR. Others, such as objects from the Palast der Republik, first came into the German Historical Museum’s collections after reunification.

An exhibition of the German Historical Museum
Curator: Prof. Dr. Monika Flacke

The exhibition “Critique and Crisis” is an initial attempt to take a look at European art since 1945 without the usual ideological demarcation lines that came about with the Cold War. Twelve chapters will examine the different ways in which artists have dealt with the ideals of Enlightenment and the belief in universal human rights, freedom, equality and democracy. Selected works will be seen within the framework of the project as visual expressions of ideas and concepts that have the potential to change the world. The artworks come from almost all of the European countries – from Portugal to Russia, from Scotland to Albania and Greece. Thus the exhibition also taps into the art of often neglected regions of Europe and in this way overcomes the separation of art into East and West, North and South, which has been a common practice since the Cold War. National background of the artists, chronologies and artistic schools do not play a role.

The exhibition is the centrepiece of an international cooperation, coordinated by the German Historical Museum, in which ten museums, galleries, research and cultural institutes from Germany, Poland, Estonia, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Greek, Schweden and Hungary are participating. Besides the exhibition, which will travel from Berlin to Warsaw, Tallinn and Milan, further individual aspects will be presented in smaller satellite exhibitions as well as in the context of workshops and conferences.

Accompanying the exhibition will be an extensive catalogue as well as a bilingual German-English publication that will most likely also be translated into the languages of the exhibition’s further stations. An interactive website dealing with the project as a whole and a closing conference will round off the wide range of individual projects.

An exhibition of the German Historical Museum
Kurators: Dr. Sabine Beneke, Dr. Brigitte Reineke, Dr. Dieter Vorsteher-Seiler

This exemplary exhibition of the German Historical Museum’s paintings on the occasion of its 25th anniversary aims to demonstrate the museum’s successful history of collecting its stocks. Some 120 examples from the 14th to the 20th century will be selected from a total of more than 2,500 paintings. Unlike the usual presentation of pictures in historical museums, including the former Museum für Deutsche Geschichte of the GDR and, in fact, the present German Historical Museum, the planned jubilee exhibition “Paintings” will display the works simply as that: individual paintings without the usual trimmings of documents, posters, photographs or newspaper clippings that otherwise help to reconstruct the historical context. Instead, the paintings will be deliberately removed from their function as part of our view of history and rather, will be displayed in their own right as works of art.

For the first time the individual artworks will form a “Picture Gallery” from the museum’s collections. It is an experiment that poses the question: Do paintings that often find their way into a historical museum in order to document historical viewpoints have the power to stand alone and develop their “own” (hi)stories. The exhibition also seeks an answer to the question of whether a “view of history” from the past six-hundred years can be derived merely by means of such easel paintings.

An exhibition of the German Historical Museum
Curator: Dr. Simone Erpel


In the year 2013 it will be 80 years since the National Socialist “seizure of power” in 1933 and 75 years since the November pogrom of 1938. On this occasion the German Historical Museum, in cooperation with the City of Berlin, is presenting an exhibition temporarily entitled “Berlin under National Socialism” (w.t.) as a contribution to Berlin’s theme year “Destroyed Diversity. Berlin before and after 1933”. The exhibition is the starting point for an exploration of Berlin’s memorial sites within the framework of a comprehensive programme of exhibitions and events in which several museums, memorials, initiatives and associations as well as private individuals will participate with projects on local history. The aim of the central exhibition in the German Historical Museum is to introduce these diverse cultural projects and to place the memorial sites in their historical, political and topographical context.

Moreover, the exhibition takes the 30th of January – the day Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor – as its point of departure for an examination of the fateful year of 1933 as well as the time before and after the forcible establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. It will show how the social diversity and cultural avant-garde that had turned 1920s Berlin into a pulsating metropolis were destroyed after 1933 when the National Socialists came to power. In this way the exhibition will provide significant insight into the conditions and consequences of Hitler’s rise to power.