An eye on the detail – The daily preparations for the day at the museum

The doors of the DDR Museum are opened every day at 10am sharp for our visitors. But before the museum officially greets its guests, a number of diligent colleagues have already been at work for some time in order to prepare the exhibition for the numerous visitors. One of them is our colleague who throws a scrutinizing eye on every corner and every single exhibition element each morning.

After the cleaners have prepared the exhibition areas, the shop as well as the entrance area for the coming day, our colleague Rudie Ewals begins with the exhibition control routine about an hour before the official opening hours. Her routine follows a strict structure: The tour has a fixed starting as well as ending point. Every exhibition part is being looked at in every detail regarding cleanliness, technical functionality, damage or wearout. Due to her long lasting experience, Ms. Ewals knows exactly which details she needs to pay attention to: She knows the structure of every drawer, the content of the toolbox in the Trabi as well as every object’s place within the living room. What is the biggest challenge of her daily task? “The challenge is to be present every single day, both at the weekends as well as on holidays. Luckily, this is no problem, since it’s only a 3 minute walk to the museum for me.” As soon as something within the exhibition deviates from the status quo, she either eliminates the irregularity herself or forwards the problem to the colleague in charge. By doing this, Ms. Ewals manages to keep track of every detail and knows exactly who to contact in case something is not working properly. Her favorite part of the exhibition is the interrogation room: “What I especially like about this room is its design. The offered picture is created with the help of technology whereas the content is a supporting element. A sense of authenticity is being created.”

After our colleague is done with her control tour and the exhibition has been checked as a whole, the exhibition control ends by preparing a protocol. This document enables us to comprehend which changes and repair work has been carried out at what time. Ms. Ewals is furthermore responsible for taking care of incoming emails concerning the functionality of the exhibition. When asked about what she especially likes about her job, her answer is the following: “Moving around a lot in the morning feels great. I also enjoy being able to touch everything within the exhibition; I even have to. I also like the combination of physical work and mental input.”

Even though our visitors don’t know about all of these preparations, they are nonetheless fundamentally important in order to guarantee an unrestricted experience of our exhibition. We wish you an interesting and pleasant stay at our museum!