Blog

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. Read more

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. Read more

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. Read more

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. Read more

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. Read more

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! Read more

The DDR Museum’s fully furnished WBS-70 flat includes a reconstruction of a typical GDR kitchen. Here you can not only (re)discover many original objects and get some cooking inspiration for your meals back at home, but also learn about other topics on GDR history, conveyed in a playful and engaging way. Read more

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! Read more

Last Thursday, the 14th of July in 2016, the DDR Museum celebrated its 10th birthday. Many friends, partners and of course all staff members reveled the special event at the river front and lifted their glasses to the successes of the past and the exciting projects for the future of our institution. Read more

Today we would like to introduce to you one of our tours, which of course is also suitable for school groups. The Karl-Marx-Allee Tour is a combined tour, meaning that it will start with a one-hour visit of the DDR Museum, followed by a two-hour walk along the Alexanderplatz as well as the socialist boulevard. Read more

With the currency reform in the three western occupation zones in 1948, it also became necessary to introduce their own means of payment in the Soviet occupation zone, on whose territory the German Democratic Republic was founded in 1949. The article explains and shows the different currencies in the GDR until its end in 1990. Read more

The collection department of the DDR Museum now owns a modern set for photographing big objects. Read more

The Soviet magazine "Sputnik" (Russian for companion) has been published by the state-owned news agency "Nowosti" since January 1967. It was designed as a digest of the Soviet press and was not only adressed to Russians but also to readers from other socialist and western foreign countries. Read more

The thematically diverse Soviet magazine »Sputnik« was first published in 1967 and was available in both the DDR and the Federal Republic. On 18 November 1988, however, the DDR government imposed a distribution stop. Read more

To design an exhibition in a museum is a highly complex process. Many different staff members are involved – the maintenance man, colleagues who are working at the cashier's desk, as well as the curators. The DDR Museum is currently working on a new part of its permanent exhibition – find out more about it here. In the following text I would like to give you a little insight into what it takes to plan a new exhibition! Read more

The preparations for our new permanent exhibition are coming along with high speed. Already since the beginning of 2016, a new exhibition space is being realized within our museum. Additionally to the already existing two parts of our permanent exhibition, a third exhibition part will offer even more information for our visitors about everyday life in the GDR. Read more

Every technology enthusiast in the GDR was well accustomed with the products of the company ORWO. No wonder: The company used to have the monopoly on the production of chemical data mediums in the GDR. The history of the production site, Wolfen, however, is only familiar to few. Read more

Nowadays there's an app for that. In the GDR, on the other hand, people kept an eye on their receipts and expenditures with the help of a meticulously kept book of household accounts. It was a proper housewife's duty to keep track of what amount of money was spent for what and when. The DDR Museum was recently donated a total of 8 books of household accounts from a family from Dresden, starting on January 1st in 1963 and ending on January 3rd in 1993. Learn more about these highly interesting historical documents in the following text! Read more

The DDR offered a wide range of toys that often contained an educational aspect in addition to the playful aspect. Particularly included are toys that were intended to familiarise boys in particular with their later service in the army, such as the toy tank »T-62«. Read more

We review "Kulturgeschichte der DDR. Ein Überblick, Erfurt 2014." by Frank Hoffmann. Read more