Blog

Tip

For in German history interested people

22 Apr 2015 by Admin
Every now and again I search through the internet for foreign language offers for those who are interested in German history and especially in GDR history. Sometimes I find some, sometimes not. Today I was once again successful. This time I found something interest about German history in general.
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Educational Program

The students quiz of the DDR Museum

15 Apr 2015 by Janine Henschel
Do you actually know our quiz for students? Whether during a group visit as additional task or complementary after a guided tour – the questionnaire is the ideal companion for visiting the exhibition with your students.
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Happy coocking!

Capers meatballs

1 Apr 2015 by Janine Henschel
Many people know this dish under the name of Königsberg meatballs, too. This dish of minced meat was not only known and popular in East Prussia, but one could find it also on the plates of the GDR citizens. According to a survey of the Forsa institute the Königsberg meatballs have with 93% the highest profile under the local dishes in Germany!
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Review

“The Trabant" by Eli Rubin

25 Mar 2015 by Admin
Since 1976 the History Workshop Journal is one of the world’s leading historical journals. It is part of the Oxford University Press. On the homepage of the journal you find a lot of interesting articles and essays. Most of them aren’t free and you can only read the abstracts. But, I found an essay which you can read completely for free.
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News

The “DDR-Restaurant Domklause” closes

20 Mar 2015 by Admin
Some decisions are difficult, above all the necessary ones. Since 2010 we have attended to the idea of a “DDR-Restaurant” and now we have to confess, that the running of a restaurant requires too much capacities. The preservation and the imparting of history are our core tasks as a museum. All other projects have to subordinate themselves to this goal.
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To Recook

Hunter's Schnitzel with Tomato Sauce

13 Mar 2015 by Janine Henschel
The original GDR hunter's schnitzel is probably one of the most famous GDR dishes. It consists of breaded hunting sausage and was served with tomato sauce and pasta. We have prepared the hunter's schnitzel according to GDR recipes for you.
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Design

A post war Phono-Pioneer from Dresden capitulated

27 Feb 2015 by Admin
Seventy years ago, right after the end of the war in 1945, the Dresdner electrical engineer Heinz Hummel launched his own small business. Using stock material of the German Armed Forces, other suitable material and his improvisation skills, he created initially a flashlight out of a hand dynamo-drive and later a record player under the brand name “Dynamos”. People started to enjoy listening to music again. In the first year of the GDR the disc production (at the beginning mainly shellac discs) increased speedly, and especially the demand of portable music players in “suitcase” boomed.
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Tip

“Constructing Socialism in East Germany - an essay by Stephanie Engelhard

25 Feb 2015 by Admin
Researching online after interesting pages or institutions for foreign-speaking people regarding the GDR I found an interesting essay about the early history of the GDR.
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Review

“OST COLA”

19 Feb 2015 by Admin
A new coffee-table book, OST COLA, has been added to our library. It shows pictures of the Brandenburg an der Havel before the reunification. The photos has been taken by Mathias Knoppe, Hans Hoffmann and Alexander Pollock.
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Collection

The Activist Movement in the GDR

12 Feb 2015 by Admin
During the first year after the war, the governance had to undertake special strategies in order to increase the industrial production and economy. The dammages caused by the war casted industrial zones into poverty. Many workers, especially men, were still in war captivity. In the East, a large number of infrastructure´s investements of Soviet occuping force were unthinkable. Therefore it was important to make the most out of the available resources. 
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Tip

The Wende Museum in Los Angeles

11 Feb 2015 by Admin
A few weeks ago I presented here the book “Beyond the Wall. Art and Artifacts from the GDR”. The book was published by the Wende Museum in LA and so I started some research. I want to know what a museum this is that so far away from Germany and the Eastern bloc deals with the artifacts and the history of these countries.
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GDR History

The Activist Movement in the GDR

5 Feb 2015
To increase the productivity of industry and the economy in the early years of the GDR, the Soviet Stakhanov movement from the 1930s served as a model for the GDR’s activist movement. Here are some thematic objects from the collection of the DDR Museum.
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Games

Ligato – Play history in the DDR Museum

28 Jan 2015 by Michael Geithner
As Lothar Schubert in December 1984 wrote the rules of a new game, he didn’t guess yet, that his work would be published first 30 years later. Now everybody can play it on his smartphone or in the DDR Museum.
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GDR History

A dream ship in the service of the FDGB – die MS »Völkerfreundschaft«

22 Jan 2015
The GDR cruise ship »Völkerfreundschaft« represented East German holidaymakers' dreams from 1960 to 1985. For the majority of the population, however, the GDR's dream ship remained just that – a dream.
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Review

“Beyond the Wall. Art and Artifacts from the GDR”

14 Jan 2015 by Admin
It’s once again time to present you here an English book about the GDR. Today it’s a very special one. Not only the content but also the size and the layout are something special. It is the biggest book out of our library and the one with the most pictures. And, I think, it’s one of the most expensive ones, too. On 904 pages you can see in this book 2500 artifacts, design pieces and everyday objects from the East German Collection of the “Wende Museum” in Los Angeles.  
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Retrospect

The year 2014

7 Jan 2015 by Melanie Alperstaedt
My first working day started with good news: The DDR Museum, and so all of us, beat the attendance record of 2013! 10.000 more people were in the exhibition, but, the year was beyond that really eventfully!
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History

Five suprising facts

19 Dec 2014 by Admin
In this article we tell you five suprising facts about the end of the German Democratic Republic.
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Design

The Staßfurter suitcase television K 67

29 Oct 2014 by Admin
Transistorisation! Magic Word of the 60s in the GDR. Also fixed in the radio and television industry of Central Germany under the state scheme.
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Music

The asylum of Tamara in paradise – the rock group Silly

18 Sep 2014 by Sören Marotz
Ok, Silly had ever since the middle of the 1980ies arrived in the upper league of the GDR rock music with the Amiga album “Bataillon d’Amour” (1986), but there they weren’t the only ones. Unique though was their sound, which differentiated for the first time from the mainstream in the GDR. The drawers were too small for them. At least since Werner Karma assumed the overall control, the writing, it was clear, that here wouldn’t sung about dying swans, but rather the trouble’s brewing of dying cities, how he framed it.
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From the collection

Advertising in the GDR

11 Sep 2014
From Minol-Pirol and Fewa-Johanna to Korbine-Früchtchen: Despite their comparatively short »period of use«, almost everyone who lived in the GDR knows them. With the help of numerous posters, figures and displays from the DDR Museum’s collection, we give an overview of the history of advertising in the GDR.
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