Jewish Museum, Berlin

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What makes the Jewish Museum of Berlin world-famous is its remarkable architecture. A competition for the design of the building was held in 1989. There were 165 competitors and the first prize went to David Liebeskind - an American musician-turned architect with Polish roots. At that time Liebeskind was practically unknown so it was the building of the Jewish Museum in Berlin that made him famous. Completed in 1999, the Museum was oficially opened in 2001.
The building looks interesting from the outside: irregular zinc-clad structure with zig-zag slit-like windows. The only entrance leading to the Museum is through its old part: a baroque building of a former court. Here you will find a ticket-office, cloak-rooms and a restaurant. Don't feel deterred by the security control at the entrance - it seems to be a must in objects like this. After buying a ticket (5 Euro) you can borrow an audio-guide for the price of 3 Euro. Then through the underground tunnel you get to the new building.

The Jewish Museum Berlin is famous for the way its architecture communicates to visitors and the surrounding world. The opinions are as many as there are visitors (a lot!). The architect, Daniel Libeskind, has created a building/museum/artpiece that opens to every visitor to experience, perceptually, mind and body.

The structure of the building is two lines with different angles that together make voids and meeting-points, and continuous movements beyond the very building.

The museum displays two millennia of German-Jewish history and culture and about the difficult relations between Jews and non-Jews. The techniques and objects used for this are multiple, from personal items and letters to art installations and multimedia in a path system in three axes.

The Axis of Continuity connects the Old Building with the Sackler Staircase to the exhibition levels. The "Axis of Emigration" leads outside to the magnificent Garden of Exile. The "Axis of the Holocaust" is a dead end and leads to The Holocaust Tower commemorating the numerous Jewish victims of mass murder.

There is so much to say about this museum and so much more to learn and experience, terrifying and beautiful at the same time.

Opening hours:
The museum is open daily from:
10 to 8, Mondays from 10 to 10.

The museum is closed some days a year, check homepage for exact dates.

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A ten minute walk South East of Checkpoint Charlie is the Jewish Museum, just North of the Kreuzberg district. An exhibition in an archtecturally interesting building (actually a bit odd of a building), however, the 1,000 years of history complete with exhibits of living conditions, medieval history, musical instruments, ancient books and scrolls is worth a visit.

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It is the largest Jewish museum in Europe and one of the must-see in Berlin. Go through two thousand years of Jewish history in Germany and the contributions of this community to the culture, art and other fields. The 14 sections of the museum, ranging from Roman times to the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment and Emancipation to the Holocaust, and so on until the emergence of the new Jewish community in Germany.
There is only one part dealing directly with the Holocaust, but its horror is reflected in the architecture of the building concerned. Designed by Daniel Libeskind, is a metaphor for the troubled history of the Jewish people.
The symbolism continues in the interior. A steep stairway down to the three passages that cross inhospitable called "axis". The axis of the garden that leads to exile from exile and emigration, a field of concrete columns with a sloping olive top of the column. The axis of the Holocaust that led to the Holocaust Tower, one of several gaps in the museum, burial spaces that symbolize the loss of humanity, culture and life.c*

Es el museo judio mas grande de europa y una de las visitas obligadas de Berlin. Repasa los dos mil años de historia judia en Alemania y las contribuciones de esta comunidad a la cultura, el arte y otros campos.
Las 14 secciones del museo abarcan desde la época romana a la Edad Media, de la Ilustración y la Emancipacion hasta el Holocausto, y así hasta el resurgir de la nueva comunidad judia en Alemania.
Solo hay una parte que trata directamente el holocausto, pero su horror está reflejado en la inquietante aquitectura del edificio. Diseñado por Daniel Libeskind, es una metafora de la atormentada historia del pueblo judio.
El simbolismo prosigue en el interior. Una empinada escalera baja hasta los tres inhóspitos pasajes que se cruzan llamados "ejes". El eje del exilio que conduce al jardin del exilio y la emigración, un campo de columnas inclinadas de cemento con un olivo en parte de arriba de la columna. El eje del holocausto que lleva a la torre del holocausto, uno de los diversos vacios del museo, espacios sepulcrales que simbolizan la perdida de la humanidad, la cultura y la vida.

Of course, the Jewish museum is a "must" for any serious tourist. BUT make sure to tell them at the ticket desk the type of ticket you require. I had only time to see a "special" exhibit so I initially asked for the wrong (general admission) ticket as opposed to the other one.

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Architecturally, the building is unlike any other in Berlin. A break-line which runs through it reminds the visitor of the tragic end of the proud and successful Jewish community in Germany. At the start of the visit we go down to the basement, then slowly go up the path of the Holocaust (dead end, void sensation beautifully conveyed architecturally), the path of Exile (another dead end: "The Garden of Exile", another architectonically-eloquent monument), and then the path of Continuation leads us to the main exhibition halls, telling the story of the Jews in Germany from the early Middle Ages to the 20th century.

The display is colorful and interactive, makes use of multi-media and hands-on-computers. Jewish traditions are made easy and understandable, and Jewish characters come to life, among them Glikel, the "feminist" woman-merchant of the 17th century; and Moses Mendelssohn, the enlightened philosopher of the 18th century.

I watched with satisfaction how non-Jewish visitors from many countries and continents got so interested in the contents of the displays and engulfed by its ambience and spirit.
This is definitely one of the "must see"s of Berlin.

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Well I read in the guide book that there was some controversy surrounding Daniel Liebeskind's design of the Jewish Museum.But the picture looked quite impressive, and it seemed like a must-see.At first glance the outside looks a bit like a shack made of aluminium and bolted together, with slits cut into it at slanted angles.Not very pretty.Then we went inside through the old building next door which adjoins the modern building ,but you can't see any bridge, a fact which is explained to you at the beginning of the audio guide.A first in a serious of theoretical explanations into the architect's intentions.
Firstly I understand the whole security issue and all,which some VT and other visitors seem to object to.I had no problem with that,living in Israel we unfortunately go through some kind of check every day just going to the supermarket,the cinema or the theatre.However,having paid, and gone through and got our audio guides we found ourselves inside a long dark corridor with not much in the way of exhibits.The two axes had silly names like Axis of Exile or something and it seemed to me more like "Disney of the Holocaust" than a serious museum like the one near the Reichstag or Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Then having walked around in the bottom part for a while confused, hearing the explanations of 'what the architect's intentions were' we progressed up to the next level of the museum.
Here it was even worse,the audio guide explaining to us the albeit well laid out exhibits, as if we were high schoolers.
anway ,we got out of there after about half an hour feeling we had wasted our money.
The explanations could be okay I suppose if you don't know anything at all about Judaism, I think it must be designed for Germans and others who have never met a Jew and know nothing about religious custom and tradition.But for us Israelis it was ridiculous to hear an explanation of the weekly torah readings or the brit ceremony etc.
The building itself ,as I said,I found bewildering and unpleasantly gimicky.
But that's my personal view.Other people said they found it moving, impressive, fascinating etc .
So maybe you should go and judge for yourself.

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The Jewish Museum is housed in an impressive building designed by Daniel Libeskind. The permanent exhibition traces the high and low points of German-Jewish history from the Middle Ages to the present day.

It is an huge museum. There is so much to see that you should reserve at least three to four hours to see it all.

Two special rooms are the "holocaust room": a triangular darkened room with a huge high ceiling with one small light and a ladder. Here you can really feel the isolation. And there is the "void", a room where thousands of iron sculpted human faces are laid out. They form a long path in another huge high ceilinged “void” in the building. When you walk on the sculpted faces a high pitched clanging reverberates around the room. It's a strange experience.