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Review

"Die Normalität des Absurden" - Heinz Schneider

27 Apr 2017 by Melanie Alperstaedt
„Die Normalität des Absurden” tells the story of Heinz Schneider, who lived through two German dictatorships. Even though the book mainly focuses on his personal life, many universal themes are uncovered: how is one meant to behave in a dictatorship? How is our identity formed? How should the DDR be remembered?
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Collection

Valuable additions to the collection of the DDR Museum

26 Apr 2017 by Admin
The collection of a museum is never truly complete. In the following text we will introduce some objects which have been recently added to the collection of the DDR Museum.
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Bake on your own

Easter bread

19 Apr 2017 by Admin
Why do we necessarily need an easter basket made of plastic or another material to fill it with easter eggs and other treats?
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Travel

Altenburg

31 Mar 2017 by Admin
Altenburg is known worldwide as the city of playing cards and the game of skat. It is located in the county of Thuringia in the rural district Altenburger Land and is a former seat of royal power.
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Exhibition

The Bathroom: The perspective of the curator

17 Jan 2017 by Admin
As a curator, I would like to give you some insights into the bathroom of our museum’s Plattenbau apartment today.
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Collection

The constitution of the DDR through the ages

11 Jan 2017 by Admin
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 Admin
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 Admin
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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DDR History

Shops and Department Stores in the DDR – The Intershop Retail Chain

1 Dec 2016 by Jörn Kleinhardt
Even today, many people remember the smell of the Intershops. Comparable to duty-free shops, the Intershops were aimed at travellers and were initially mainly found at railway stations, airports and other transit points. Until the end of the DDR, there were branches all over the country where the DDR's own population could also shop.
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Collection

Shopping in the DDR: Konsum

30 Nov 2016 by Admin
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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GDR History

Shops and department stores in the GDR: The »Handelsorganisation« (HO)

17 Nov 2016
The East German »Handelsorganisation« (HO) or »Trade Organisation« was established shortly before the founding of the GDR. It was the state counterpart to the privately run consumer cooperative chain »Konsum« and, in addition to retail, also included a network of restaurants and hotels.
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Relics from the DDR

Part XIII: DDR products

16 Nov 2016 by Admin
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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GDR History

Shops and department stores in the GDR: The »Konsumgenossenschaften«

10 Nov 2016
The so-called »Konsum« shops sold goods for daily use. The term »Konsum« was the popular abbreviation for »Konsumgenossenschaften« or »consumer cooperatives«, which had been founded in 1945. Just a few years later, the Konsum retail chain shaped the shopping scene in the GDR. We show you thematic objects from our collection.
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Tourism in the DDR

The island of Rügen

9 Nov 2016 by Admin
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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From the museum

The children's room in the DDR Museum

1 Nov 2016
In the DDR Museum's recreation of a typical children's room, you can not only reminisce about and discover many original toys, books and home accessories, but also learn about the influence the state had on the lives of young people.
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Collection

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

26 Oct 2016 by Admin
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 Admin
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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