Concrete slabs as far as the eye can see

The DDR Museum is not a conventional exhibition, in which exhibit after exhibit waits in a showcase for the visitor´s gaze, the DDR Museum challenges you as a visitor to make an experience: Only with the help of our hands, the exhibition becomes alive.

The DDR Museum shows one of these housing estates on a smaller scale. The arrangement displayed here represents an apartment block of the housing series 70, which typifies the panel-construction system in the GDR. At first, this realistic model might be confusing due to its unusual scale, but then it manages to give an authentic impression of what the original buildings were like.

What initially appears to be a grey and dull monotony turns out to be a lively and colourful everyday culture once you take a closer look. The slabs are both, room dividers and showcases, offering the visitor the opportunity to not only see but also touch the exhibits, thus giving a better insight into the private life of GDR citizens. Movies, media, drawers, hinged doors and showcases with exhibits and models - they all tell the story of a country long gone.

These slabs with their stone-grey surfaces are prefabricated, just like the originals were. The columns and the ceiling are toned in red, and numerous slogans and mottos depict the influence of the socialist ideas, weathering away at the historic site of the Palasthotel, which used to be one of the most splendid buildings in the GDR.

But don´t linger too long at this station, because not only the concrete-slab buildings can be used by the visitor: A concrete-slab flat with living-room, kitchen and bathroom, designed in original 70´s style invites you to rummage through someone else´s cupboards, to flick to a Western TV channel, although you could get into trouble with this, or to pick up the phone and talk to a GDR citizen.

Is this too exhausting for you? Then, you can relax while going for a simulated ride in the Trabi or take a seat in an authentic movie chair.