Museum der Unerhörten Dinge

In the Museum der Unerhörten Dinge (Museum of Extraordinary Things), fiction blurs with reality: in just 20 square metres, all sorts of curious objects abut each other. Founder Roland Albrecht has woven real or invented stories around all these things. Whether the stories are true, is up to your imagination. The museum opens up a world of curiosities, viewed through artefacts that offer unique perspectives on pivotal historical moments such as Columbus' discovery of America. The scope of the collection includes a petrified potato, psyllium and hamburger bacon. Again and again, quirky items are labelled with equally quirky explanations: fossilised rice, acorn olives and white red wine.

Hotchpotch of curiosities

Roland Albrecht came into the world in 1950, in Memmingen in Bavaria. Fascinated from childhood by the bizarre, he began to collect rarities of any kind. Everything began with his acquisition of the alleged telescope of Columbus. Peering through it as a small boy, Albrecht started to drift into a world of fantasy. As he says, the collection snowballed from there and was housed in Berlin from 2000. The Museum der Unerhörten Dinge is located in a literal 'nowhere', in the space between the doorways of Crellestraße 5 and 6. So a visit to this tiny Berlin museum is also a journey beyond the facade of reality. More than 400 items are on show in the museum. On its walls hang texts and artefacts with fascinating histories; hip joints, the fur of a bonsai deer, a 22 metre-high relief of Soviet space dog Laika and film snippets with secret subliminal messages. Roland Albrecht interweaves fiction with reality, and discovering which story is true and which invented seems almost impossible. Whether you try to disentangle them or not, at the Museum der Unerhörten Dinge, you leave the everyday world for a moment of fantasy.

Some things between fiction and reality

• the telescope of Columbus, the origin of Roland Albrecht's collection
• an original letter by Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud
• a Japanese bonsai deer fur, tanned and stretched
• a petrified potato from the Wendland
• rarities such as white red wine and the relief of Soviet space dog Laika

Nearby destinations for art lovers

At the Under the Mango Tree gallery, you can explore Mini Kapur's world of photography, design and art. Only 600 metres from the Museum der Unerhörten Dinge, the gallery shows contemporary artists such as Joris Göritz and Monika Rauscher. Exhibitions change with a quarter to half-yearly rhythm. You'll find fair trade designer fashion from India at the gallery shop. A full concerts and readings programme at the nearby Kleistpark House on Grunewaldstraße features regional artists in a 240-square-metre exhibition area. Soak up its purist ambiance, surrounded by artworks by three monthly exhibitions of work by artists such as Clara Bahlsen, Adriana Lestido and Lea Gilloire.

Our tips for your visit

The S-Bahn S1 station Julius-Leber-Brücke is just 200 metres from the Museum der Unerhörten Dinge. Alternatively, take the U7 to Kleist Park. If you are arriving by car, you will find car parks at Gleisdreieck and Bülowstraße. Please note that the museum is only open three days a week in the afternoon. Admission is free.

Opening hours