A Look at the Collection

From the Königsberg amber board game set dating from 1607 to Queen Luise’s dressing gown from 1806, to the poster for the “40 Years of the GDR” exhibition or a bunk bed from a refugee shelter in Kassel from 2015—the collection of the German Historical Museum comprises around one million objects related to German history. The exhibition “Objects. History. Stories. A Glimpse into the Collection” presents some 200 selected exhibits, including numerous objects never before on display, surprising discoveries, and new acquisitions. It offers insights into the museum’s collection practices and sheds light on the provenance, history, and significance of the pieces on display.

Pei-Bau des Deutschen Historischen Museums Berlin

The first section of the exhibition is devoted to the collection of the German Historical Museum itself, which has become a historical record over the course of its approximately 150-year history. The tour traces the institution’s eventful development between 1883 and 2006—from the “Hall of Fame of the Prussian-Brandenburg Army” through the Army Museum during the Nazi era and the Museum of German History of the GDR, all the way to its merger with the German Historical Museum, founded in West Berlin in 1987.

The second part focuses on history as a spatial process. Taking places, regions, and historical sites as their starting point, selected objects tell stories of contested territories, courtly diplomacy, colonization, and trade routes, as well as of vanished places, the drawing of borders, flight, and exile.

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