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The constitution of the DDR through the ages

11 Jan 2017 by Jörn Kleinhardt
Throughout its entire existence, the German Democratic Republic had a total of three valid constitutions. The original constitution is from 1949, the founding year of the DDR, and consists of 144 articles. Due to the political developments in the 1950s and 1960s a revision of the old constitution was inevitable.
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Relics from the DDR

Part XIV: Nature in the border area

4 Jan 2017 by Elke Sieber
The construction of the Wall and the Iron Curtain may have represented a limitation of the range of movement for many people, but the border installation, covering a total of 1400 kilometers, was a lucky chance for many animals and plants.
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Exhibition

The Garage: The Idea

14 Dec 2016 by Sören Marotz
When we decided to portray the private life in the DDR in the form of a newly built flat of the WBS 70 type it was soon obvious that we wanted to add some sort of haven outside of the 4 Plattenbau walls.
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Collection

Presenting DDR-clothes from the collection

7 Dec 2016 by Maria Bartholomäus
The collection department of the DDR Museum has recently acquired professional equipment for the documentation of textiles. The seven figurines are essential for an authentic representation of clothes and are therefore contributing to the quality of our object photographs.
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Collection

Shopping in the DDR: Konsum

30 Nov 2016 by Jörn Kleinhardt
In order to satisfy their daily consumer needs, the citizens of the DDR / Soviet occupation zone had a number of possibilities to do their shopping. Already in December of 1945, a consumer cooperative with the simple name of “Konsum” was established. Only three years later, almost 300 independent consumer cooperatives existed in different cities.
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Happy cooking!

Deer Pörkölt with red wine

23 Nov 2016 by Janine Henschel
You probably all know the term „goulash“. But have you ever heard about the Hungarian phrase “pörkölt”? To be honest, I have never heard of it before, either. Pörkölt is the equivalent to the dish goulash, as it is referred to outside of the Hungarian area. The texture, however, is slightly thicker since it is being cooked for a longer period of time.
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Relics from the DDR

Part XIII: DDR products

16 Nov 2016 by Elke Sieber
The border between the two German states did not only divide the people into East and West, but also the product world. Some of the articles which were developed in the DDR have survived the transformation after 1989 and have their fixed place in today's supermarkets in western and eastern parts of Germany.
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Tourism in the DDR

The island of Rügen

9 Nov 2016 by Esra Kurtoglu
Rügen is located in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the German state of Mecklenburg- Western Pomerania. With an area of 976 m² it is the largest island in Germany.
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Exhibition

The children’s bedroom: Introduction

2 Nov 2016 by Melanie Alperstaedt
Welcome to our new blog series, in which we will introduce each room of our new permanent exhibition for an entire month. Once a week, different staff members who took part in the creation of the exhibition will approach the rooms from their specific professional points of view. In September we have already been talking about the kitchen, in October the focus was on the living room. In November we will be talking about the children’s room which is part of our WBS 70 Plattenbau apartment.
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Collection

Collecting with a system: How do objects get into a collection?

26 Oct 2016 by Maria Bartholomäus
A museum has five main tasks: Teaching/communicating, Exhibiting, Researching, Collecting and Preserving. At the DDR Museum, the last two tasks are taken care of by the collection department. Collecting therefore also means to reasonably enlarge the inventory and to add new objects to the museum's collection. The following blog text will tell you more about how this exactly works.
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Collection

Fuel for the DDR – the brand Minol and the Minol Pirol

19 Oct 2016 by Jörn Kleinhardt
In order to keep motor vehicles sustained with fuel, an area-covering net of gas stations is required. As a result of the Second World War, the existing net of gas stations was divided along the different occupation zones after the West German brand „Gasoline“ was running all gas stations in all of the occupation zones in the beginning.
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Survey

The DDR Museum is number 36 among the most popular sights in Germany

12 Oct 2016 by Maria Bartholomäus
Every year, the DTZ (German National Tourist Board) is asking international visitors to name their favourite places in Germany. In 2016, the 40,000 participants of the survey voted the DDR Museum on number 36. We would like to thank everyone who gave us their voice for this great ranking!
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Exhibition

The living room: A first impression

5 Oct 2016 by Melanie Alperstaedt
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.
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Exhibition

The kitchen – Part III: The perspective of the curator

28 Sep 2016 by Elke Sieber
After the kitchen has been looked at from many different perspectives, today I, the curator, have the opportunity to tell you something about the content of that room. Of course this cannot replace the individual experience of the exhibition itself– however, I would like to make you a little curious about the topics diet, consumation and the role of women in the DDR.
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Happy cooking!

Junket Lorraine and icecream pears

16 Sep 2016 by Janine Henschel
Who can seriously say no to scrumptious desserts? Even more so if they look as yummy and sound as tasty as the two recipes from the collection of the DDR Museum... definitely worth a "sweet sin"!
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Exhibition

Everyday life in the Plattenbau – new exhibition part at the DDR Museum

7 Sep 2016 by Elke Sieber
Finally, the time had come during the Long Night of the Museums on August 27th, 2016: The DDR Museum opened the doors to the new exhibition part which had been developed and planned for the past 1 ½ years.
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Event

Long Night of the Museums

31 Aug 2016 by Maria Bartholomäus
Last Saturday, the DDR Museum opened its doors until the small hours: Our institution was one of the 77 museums in Berlin which took part in the 36th Long Night of the Museums and greeted a total of 28.000 guests – 5400 of which visited our museum. Just like the many years before, we offered quite a diverse framework program and the special atmosphere of the late summer night made the event quite memorable!
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Event

Press conference for the opening of the new exhibition „Everyday life in the Plattenbau”

24 Aug 2016 by Maria Bartholomäus
Last Friday, August 19th 2016, a press conference took place at the DDR Museum on behalf of the opening of the new permanent exhibition on August 27th 2016, in the context of the Lange Nacht der Museen in Berlin. The long period of preparation is now almost over and we are looking forward to show even more of a hands-on experience of history on additional 270m²!
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Behind the scenes

With a DDR Museum-Outfit across Berlin

3 Aug 2016 by Maria Bartholomäus
Not everyone in Berlin still knows what a "Niethose" or a "Rennpappe" is. As of now you will see these and other terms from GDR times rolling along the S-Bahn tracks – for there is an S-Bahn driving around designed in the DDR Museum look!
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Off topic

Pokémon Go at the DDR Museum

27 Jul 2016 by Maria Bartholomäus
A new attraction can be found at the DDR Museum since a couple of weeks:  The Pokémon Go hype has arrived at our exhibition! Both visitors as well as staff members are having a lot of fun chasing the colorful little monsters which are hiding on our exhibition premises, in the office or around the DDR Museum itself.
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