This is a guest post from Naddya, a Bulgarian expat living in Germany. here she shares some of her preferred museums in the country. count on us, these aren’t your every day, boring museums! have a look and learn much more about Naddya in the author’s bio below.
Do you think museums are boring? have you went to a museum and wanted to leave roughly 5 minutes after you’ve walked in? Well, so have I!
Doesn’t it just seem plain wrong to take something out of its context, put it behind a glass with or without some boring explanation and expect visitors to be fascinated by the display? Luckily, the museum world is so diverse and collections are available for any taste or interest imaginable.
Some offer interactive content, while others are situated in the original surroundings of the industry they represent. I’ve gather a list of 10 fascinating German museums, which I’m sure will make you think differently about museum visits.
I bet I can make you so overjoyed with enthusiasm that you’ll start booking a trip and purchasing tickets online for your next museum visit by the time you’ve finished reading this post.
10 | 1st German Sausage Museum: It’s All about The Sausage
If you’ve ever been to Germany, you’ll know just how essential Bratwurst (sausage) for Germans is. Every province and county has its own recipe, with Thuringia having probably the most popular one.
Every market, supermarket, festival, food cart, butcher, café, pub and restaurant serves the local sausage specialty. The weirdest place I’ve seen Bratwurst being sold? inside Berlin’s Cathedral back in 2007!
The 1st German museum of the Bratwurst should be then something very German and very fascinating, right? even the street where it’s situated is called Bratwurstweg – Sausage Road!
Image by WikiCommons
Along with machinery for the sausage production, the collection also shows the oldest check found for a sausage feast, as well as files and anecdotes about the sausage. To the museum belong a Bratwursttheater – Sausage theater and, of course, Bratwurstscheune – Sausage restaurant with common specialties from the Thuringia province.
Category: Food industry
Name: 1. Deutsches Bratwurstmuseum – 1st German Sausage Museum
Address: Bratwurstweg 1, 99334 Amt Wachsenburg
Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday, holidays 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM (from April till October)
Tickets: Under 4: totally free admission; Under 18: 1.50 €; Adults: 3.00 €
9 | The Potato Museum: everything You need To know about Potatoes
What’s even much more essential and is served even much more often on the German table than sausages? That’s right, potatoes! If it wasn’t for potatoes, the post-WWII Germany would have starved to death. Which discusses the fascination with the vegetable and the various museums, dedicated to it.
Image by WikiCommons
The Kartoffelmuseum in Munich displays a collection on the history of potato harvesting dating back to the Inkas, market sceneries, art dedicated to or inspired by potatoes, different usages of the potato except as food and products made out of potatoes.
Category:
Food Industry
Name: Das Kartoffelmuseum – The Potato Museum
Address: GrafingerStraße 2, 81671 München
Opening hours: Friday 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Saturday 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Tickets: totally free admission
8 | German museum For Hygiene: Experience Your Body like never Before
It’s a good idea to wash your hands before eating, but we changed the purchase a little bit here. This museum isn’t just about washing your hands and brushing your teeth, though.
Along with eating and drinking, the exhibitions concentrate on living and dying, sexuality, mentality, charm and much much more (find out the rest for yourself!). The museum is interactive and visitors are welcome to take part in different experiments in purchase to test their thoughts and feelings.
Category: Health
Name: Deutsches Hygiene-Museum – German museum for Hygiene
Address: Lingnerplatz 1, 01069 Dresden
Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday, holidays 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Tickets: Under 16: totally free admission; decreased admission: 3.00 €; Adults: 7.00 €
7 | museum For Bathing Culture: wellness and medspa Weren’t created Yesterday
It’s not all about stylish bathing suits in this museum. The collection is distinct in Europe. The range of displayed objects is from Roman toiletries to the interior of a medieval bathhouse, from curious inventions of the last century to modern beach fashion and current restroom designs.
Image by: WikiCommons
Numerous multimedia stations invite all visitors to experience with all their senses. hopefully distinct smells are not included in the tour.
Category: Culture
Name: museum der Badekultur – museum for Bathing Culture
Address: Andreas-Broicher-Platz 1, 53909 Zülpich
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Weekends, holidays 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Tickets: Under 18: totally free admission; decreased admission: 3.00 €; Adults: 4.00
6 | German carnival Museum: Let’s party like There’s No Tomorrow
Did you know that the carnivals in Rio de Janeiro, Venice, Dusseldorf and Cologne all celebrate the same thing? It’s the time before pre-Easter fasting for Catholics begins and it’s the last opportunity to eat meat (carne) and to let loose. This is one of the top things to do in Cologne! If you time your visit for November, that’s the opening of carnival season – although things really pick up between Fat Thursday and Ash Wednesday.
You can’t really compare the costumes in Rio with those in Venice and certainly not with the middle-of-winter costumes in the German cities on Rhine, but even though they’re not as beautiful and attractive as Brazilian or Italian costumes, German ones still are worthy of their own museum.
Image by: WikiCommons
Amongst others, The German carnival museum houses one of the most significant collections of everything carnival-related: thousands of costumes, medals, literature pieces, masks and what not from medieval ages to modern times.
Category: Culture
Name: Deutsches Fastnachtmuseum – German carnival Museum
Address: Luitpoldstraße 4, 97318 Kitzingen
Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Tickets: Under 6: totally free admission; decreased admission: 4.44 €; Adults: 5.55 €
5 | Colliery Zollverein: industrial culture In The Heart Of West Germany
This is not just a museum. It’s a whole complex and a UNESCO world Heritage site. The museum complex is situated on the grounds of the colliery, which was once a distinct installation for processing hard coal.
Established in 1847 and closed in 1993, the coal mine and its grounds were added to the list of UNESCO world Heritage sites in 2001 and transformed into various museums in the period 2003 – 2006.
Monument road: the authentic installations of the colliery, including a trip in the shafts
Red dot design Museum: 1000+ products with amazing designs from all over the world
Ruhr Museum: regional museum, showing culture, nature and history of the Ruhr region from fossils to mining
Gastronomy: from currywurst to new world cuisine
Event locations, including a casino: industrial style spaces for all types of events, open-air concerts, performances and workshops
Ice rink: open in December on a 1800 m2 area between imposing coke ovens, rust-coloured pipes and high chimneys
1.5 million visitors per year can’t be wrong, this museum is much more than worth a visit and don’t trick yourself in thinking you can see everything in a few hours. You’ll need at least a few days or a few visits, but don’t worry – you can also book packages with overnight stay.
Category: Mining Industry, Art & Design, History
Name: Zeche Zollverein – Colliery Zollverein: Coal Mine industrial Complex
Address: GelsenkirchenerStraße 181, 45309 Essen
Opening hours and Tickets: find all relevant information here
Additional information: plan of the complex
4 | stained Glass Museum: sadly A dying Art
Have you ever went to a church or cathedral and stopped in awe to look at the colourful stained glass windows? once upon a time stained glass was used in all churches and noble homes. Nowadays it’s sadly a dying art.
The museum is one of a kind and along with the history of stained glass production, displays art from the 20th and 21st century on 7 floors in a sunlit building, which once served as a grain mill.
In this museum you can see the same windows as you see in cathedrals in front of your face, not somewhere high above your head, where you can’t distinguish any detail of the scene depicted. You can even take a workshop in making your own stained glass art pieces. and you’ll learn that the most expensive colour is yellow as it’s produced by mixing in precious metals.
Category: Art
Name: Glasmalerei museum – stained Glass Museum
Address: Rurstraße 9-11, 52441 Linnich
Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Tickets: Under 5: totally free admission; decreased admission: 5.00 €; Adults: 6.00 €
3 | German Mining Museum: everything There Is To know about Mining
Well, yes, it’s a museum with machinery and stones on display, I admit. The most significant exhibit, however, is the 70+ m high green headframe, which previously stood above the main shaft of the Germania mining complex in Dortmund.
It was transported and rebuilt in Bochum in 1973. If weather conditions allow it, don’t miss the view over the Ruhr region from its top. and if that’s not fascinating enough, 20 m below the ground, the museum maintains a visitor mine, constructed to resemble a real mine, with a 2.5 km network of tunnels.
Here visitors can see the outstanding mining machines from close up, get an idea of the work underground, and feel like real miners for a little while.
Category: Mining Industry
Name: Deutsches Bergbau museum – German Mining Museum
Address: Am Bergbaumuseum 28, 44791 Bochum
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM, weekends 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Tickets: decreased admission: 3.00 €; Adults: 6.50 €
2 | Sauerland visitor Mine Ramsbeck: welcome To The Bowels Of The Earth
So you got all pumped up and enthusiastic about all the previous mining industry gems? then it’s time to visit a real mine. Mine Rambeck closed in 1974 as the amount of lead and zinc won was not worth to maintain it and reopened for visitors just a few months later with everything still in its place.
One of the ex-miners is now your friendly guide and joins you on a ride in the original miners’ train into the depths of the mountain, where he shows you how the machinery works, how the ore was transported to the surface and where, well, miners went to the toilet during their shifts.
Category: Mining Industry
Name: Sauerländer Besucherbergwerk Ramsbeck – Sauerland visitor Mine Ramsbeck
Address: Glück-Auf-Straße 3, 59909 Bestwig-Ramsbeck
Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Tickets: Under 16, decreased admission: 5.50 €; Adults: 8.50 €
Additional information: Helmets and jumpsuits are provided.
1 | The government Bunker: Survivalists know best Why You need One
It was built in the middle of the cold War. The objective was to safeguard West Germany’s government in the event of an atom war. The government was situated in nearby capital Bonn at the time, which discusses the location of the bunker.
The project was so secret, that along with the builders, a team of biologists were recruited, whose goal was to cover the hill, where the bunker was buried, with fast growing trees in purchase to hide the location from possible air espionage as soon as possible.
The secrecy is sort of still kept today, as the official address of the bunker is at Number 0 on a road, challenging to be found even with a modern navigation system.
Category: History
Name: Der Regierungsbunker – The government Bunker
Address: Am Silberberg 0, 53474 bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler
Opening hours: Wednesday, Weekends, holidays 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM (from March – November)
Tickets: Under 12: totally free admission; Under 16: 4.00 €; decreased admission: 6.00 € – 8.00 €; Adults: 9.00 €
Additional information: Guided visits only, duration roughly 90 min. constant inside temperature: 12° C = 53.6° F.
So you see, not all museums are boring, right? Some are pretty fascinating and even mind-blowing. If you think I’ve kept my guarantee and you’re actually mind-blown by the gems on the list, I wouldn’t mind you saying so in the comments below!
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