The living room: A first impression

A warm welcome to our new blog series in which we will present a room of our new exhibition part for an entire month. Once a week, staff members who have been involved in the creation of the exhibition will look at the different rooms from their very own professional perspective. The kitchen was the main topic in September; the October will focus on the living room of the WBS 70 apartment which you can visit at the DDR Museum since September.

The living room is the largest room of the Plattenbau apartment – no surprise here. Located at the end of the long hall and connected to the kitchen by a pass-through, the living room is waiting for you with its diverse topics. On first sight, however, you merely seem to have landed in somebody else’s living room…

The couch (very comfortable!) is located in the middle of the museum room and is facing the authentic Carat wall unit. Once you take a seat and let your gaze wander around, the surroundings look quite cozy and, please allow me this word coining, “DDR-ordinary”. One of my favorite surprises in the exhibition will be then right in front of you inside the so-called MuFuTi (Multifunktionstisch), the German phrase for multi-functional table. An inlaid tablet allows you to select and watch different TV programs from East and West Germany from the same day (March 5th 1984). I have been asked several times why we have chosen this particular date – I certainly know the answer, and I am convinced that the curator of this room will tell you more about this secret in her blog text about the living room!

The many drawers and wardrobe doors are hiding the many different topics which are to be discovered during the museum visit. In order to do so you will need quite some time – but it is definitely worth it. Make sure to also take a look into the bar element (inside the wall unit), it’s a very popular photo opportunity!

If you will then turn around and look across the room you will discover the large digital windows. They are creating the illusion of looking at a real Plattenbau residential area from a Plattenbau apartment on the fifth floor. This impressive installation will be further explained in our social media manager’s blog text about this room. He has already written about the technical installations in our museum kitchen, as well. I can assure you, however, that you haven’t seen a comparable installation in any other museum yet!