DDR Museum

The DDR Museum is a museum in the centre of Berlin. The museum is located in the former governmental district of East Germany, right on the river Spree, opposite the Berlin Cathedral. The museum is the 11th most visited museum in Berlin. Its exhibition depicts life in the former East Germany (known in German as the Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR) in a direct "hands-on" way. For example, a covert listening device ("bug") gives visitors the sense of being "under surveillance". One can also try DDR clothes on in the recreated tower block apartment, change TV channels or use an original typewriter. The exhibition consists of thematic blocks, including education, work life, holidays, shopping, sports, economy, environment, the Stasi and its surveillance methods as well as ideology, to name just a few. Each of them is presented under a critical light: the positives as well as the negative sides of the DDR are explored in this exhibition. The museum was opened on 15 July 2006, as a private museum. Private funding is unusual in Germany, because German museums are normally funded by the state. The museum met some opposition from state-owned museums, who considered possibly "suspect" a private museum and were concerned that the museum could be used as an argument to question the public funding of museums in general. In 2008, the DDR Museum was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award.