Blog

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. Read more

Vacation during the GDR - a topic you can not only find in the exhibition of the DDR Museum: In future we will also deal with this interesting subject on our online blog. How was tourism like and what where especially popular destinations? Read more

Even though the GDR had quite a number of economic problems itself, the small country nevertheless offered foreign aid to many places around the world since the 1960s, which within the socialist language use, however, was referred to as „Anti-imperialistic solidarity“. Read more

Have you already shopped all presents for your loved ones? In case you still have room for some gifts we are now providing you with the perfect recipe! This christmas-inspired cake is great as a present for your host(s) during the holiday festivities or a thoughtful present from grandchildren to their grandparents. After all, a self-made present is something truly special! Read more

People have been concerned with aesthetics and cosmetics already in antiquity. This was also true for the GDR. Even back then, a tired, aged and wrinkly skin was considered a disadvantageous feature. By wrinkling one's nose, raising and pulling together the skin of the forehead, pouting and squinting, parts of the dermal tissue and muscle activity are stressed only partially which eventually leads to unattractive wrinkles. Read more

On the corner of Prenzlauer Alle and Tor-/ Mollstraße stands a pompous building, which today is considered a popular place of shelter in the capital for international actors such as Brad Pitt or George Clooney. The Soho House Berlin is an exclusive club with combined living and work spaces for artists, journalists, directors and managers from the media sector. Read more

On October 29th in 1976, exactly 39 years ago, Erich Honecker was elected Chairman of the Privy Council by the People's Chamber. At that moment he had been holding all of the important positions in the GDR such as „General Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED“, „Chairman of the National Defense Council“ as well as „Chairman of the State Council in the GDR“ in personal union since 1976. Domestically, Honecker was at the peak of his power. But how did the little „Saarlander“ get into those influential positions? To answer this question, a look into history is necessary at first. Read more

Erich Honecker was head of state of the DDR from 1971 to 1989 and was responsible for numerous deaths during his time in office. The article looks at the political career from Honecker's rise to his fall. Read more

One of the core tasks of a museum is the care and enlargement of its collection along a specific collection concept. At the DDR Museum this happens to a large part by accepting donations from the public. Visitors can either deliver their donations directly at the entrance area of our museum or contact one of the members of the collection department. This procedure enables our staff to decide whether the specific object fits the collection concept and will represent a meaningful addition to the collection. Read more

On October 3rd in 1969, the Berlin TV Tower was ceremonially inaugurated in Berlin Mitte at the Alexanderplatz in the presence of Walter Ulbricht and other high-rank politicians of the SED party. At the same time the television broadcaster Deutscher Fernsehfunk started its emission and the era of color television in the GDR had begun. Prior to the construction there were constant internal discussions about the exact place and appearance of the tower. After agreement, the then-president of the Deutsche Bauakademie (German Construction Academy) Gerhard Kosel was instructed by the SED leadership with the overall instruction of the project. Read more

On 7 October 1989, the 40th and thus the last birthday of the Republic was celebrated in Berlin, during which there was turbulence on the city’s streets. This was only thematised in the GDR-press days later. We show an excerpt from the newspaper »Neues Deutschland« as well as thematic objects from our collection. Read more

The film distribution company Progress, founded in 1950, had a monopoly in the GDR and brought all movies into the movie theaters, regardless of the fact whether they were domestic or international productions. Read more

The GDR Guide offers a glimpse into the life of a bygone state along 160 pages. 42 chapters, more than 200 photographs and comprehensive information material depict everyday life in the GDR in a colorful and detailed way. Read more

The collection of the DDR Museum has grown again recently. The object concerned is a self-made converter for the reception of the TV channels ARD and ZDF – programs from West Germany and therefore not officially forbidden for GDR citizens, but nevertheless programs only minimally tolerated by the government. Read more

Back then, potato soup was a very popular dish, because it was fast and simple to make. Furthermore, all the ingredients for this soup were always available and affordable. Today, we would like to introduce a recipe from the times of the GDR. Of course there were also many more variations which surely also were quite delicious. Just try them! Read more

Regarding the inner-German tourist travel with all its aspects, one will inevitably come across the East-German „minimum exchange“ and the West-German „welcome money“. But what do these terms exactly mean and what were their consequences for the people? Read more

Yesterday evening our guest was historian Jens Schöne, who just published his newest work „Die DDR. Eine Geschichte des Arbeiter- und Bauernstaates“ ("The GDR. A history of the state of workers and peasants") at the Berlin Story publishing company, which offers an overall view of the GDR era. The book is also available in English („The GDR“), which unfortunately is still a rare fact considering the existing literature about the GDR. The book is very popular in our museum store, especially the English version is highly demanded by our interested international visitors. Read more

There have always been games, in every region of the world as well as within every cultural group – even outside of the nursery. Especially complex parlor games which demand logic, creativity and endurance, are highly popular among the youth as well as adults. Among them are Michael Geithner, Social Media Manager at the DDR Museum Berlin and Martin Thiele, a scientist in the field of media from Berlin. The two game researchers and developers gave a talk about imitated games during the GDR and the fascination about this cultural phenomenon at the visitor centre of the DDR Museum. Read more

How revealing was the German Democratic Republic? Were East-Germans more advanced in arithmetics than people living in Western Germany? Even after a visit to a museum the one or other question might be left unanswered and current political developments and events might provoke interesting discussions as well. Read more

Holiday time is summer camp time! This slogan was true for many children who grew up in the German Democratic Republic. And, truly, the small republic  established a great number of summer camps. The youth getaways were divided into pioneer's camps („Pionierferienlager“) and company camps („Betriebsferienlager“) and were spread all over the country. In the year 1989 alone there were 49 pioneer's camps within the GDR, as well as hundreds of additional company camps. Read more