Jüdisches Museum & Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin

Jüdisches Museum

The building housing the city’s recently opened Jewish Museum is an exciting and imaginative example of 20th-century architecture.

Designed by a Polish-Jewish architect based in the United States, Daniel Libeskind, the plan, shape, style, and interior and exterior arrangement of the building are part of a profoundly complicated philosophical programme.

The museum’s architecture itself is intended to convey something of the tragic history of the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust. For example, the zig-zag layout recalls a torn Star of David.

The interior arrangement is dominated by a gigantic empty crack, which cuts a swathe through the building. Several corridors lead to a windowless Holocaust tower.

The collection focuses on Jewish history and art. Also on display are artifacts that were once part of everyday Jewish life in Berlin. The new museum is accessible only through an underground passageway in the former Berlin-Museum building next door.

Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin

The Technical Museum was first established in 1982 with the intention of grouping more than 100 smaller, specialized collections under one roof.

The current collection is arranged on the site of the former trade hall, the size of which allows many of the museum’s exhibits, such as locomotives, water towers and storerooms, to be displayed full-size and in their original condition.

Of particular interest in the collection are the dozens of locomotives and railway carriages from different eras, as well as vintage cars. There are also exhibitions dedicated to flying, the history of paper manufacture, printing, weaving, electro-technology and computer technology. There are also two windmills, a brewery and an old forge. The section called Spectrum is especially popular with children as it allows them to try the “handson” experiments. One hall is dedicated to the display of aircraft and aircraft engines.

A special attraction of the Technical Museum is the Historical Brewery, which opened in 1995. The building was once used by the brewery Tucker Br for storing beer, but it was destroyed in World War II. Decades later, the brewery was rebuilt on four levels. Some visitors claim they can smell roasted malt.