Jüdisches Museum (Jewish Museum Berlin)

Visitors can follow the history of the Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day in a multimedia and interactive way and gain insights into the diversity of Jewish culture. You can also re-explore the axes in the basement of the Libeskind Building with the Garden of Exile and the installation "Fallen Leaves" by Menashe Kadishmann in the empty space of memory.

The new ANOHA children museum opened in 2020. The Children's World encourages children to explore and touch everything up close. 

Learn, understand and reflect - the Jewish Museum Berlin tells the history of Jews in Germany. When you visit, you find yourself inside an artwork. The whole edifice (inside and out) reflects the museum's subject matter. Architect Daniel Libeskind's building unfurls in zigzagging corridors like a lightening flash, or for some, a broken Star of David. Empty spaces, known as 'voids', appear throughout the building. These voids are not accessible until you reach the Memory Void. They remind visitors of the voids that the Holocaust has left behind.

The Museum, an artwork in itself

The museum's exceptional character strikes you before you even enter. The building's zigzag shapes and sharp angles are disguised in titanium and zinc. Enter via Kollegienhaus, which dates back to the 18th century. This entrance takes you to the ground floor of the Libeskind Building. Here you choose between three divergent axes, corridors symbolic of Jewish life in Germany: exile, Holocaust and continuity. Take the axis of exile to the Garden of Exile. Concrete towers and uneven ground establish a feeling of uncertainty. Olive bushes are present, signifying reassurance in times of need. The Holocaust axis leads to a dark tower. A bare concrete shaft with a narrow slit of light serving as a symbol for hopelessness and abandonment.

Special exhibits at the Jewish Museum Berlin

• Schalechet (fallen leaves): Thousands of faces formed from iron on the floor of a void
• The Torah as a central exhibit in the first exhibition room
• Sound space: from the sound of the shofar to Israeli pop music
• Installation DRUMMERRSSS by Gilad Ratman

Guided tours at the Jewish Museum Berlin

General public guided tours take place every Saturday at 3 p.m. and every Sunday at 11 a.m.

More memorials for National Socialism in Berlin

Berlin is home to several sites commemorating the Holocaust and the history of National Socialism. These include the documentation centre, Topography of Terror, lying on land that once housed the headquarters of the SS. It deals with their reign of terror between 1933 and 1945. About a kilometre north is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Here, a labyrinth of variously sized concrete squares rise from an undulating concrete sea. The House of the Wannsee Conference is another important memorial site, being the planning location for the genocide of European Jews by the Nazis. Among other things, it holds a media library of documents recording Jewish deportation to Eastern Europe. The T4 Information Centre commemorates the murders of 70,000 disabled people as part of the Nazi's 'euthanasia' programme. The office of the perpetrators, at Tiergartenstraße 4, is marked with a memorial and information on the victims. Only a few metres away on Stauffenbergstraße, you find the Bendlerblock, now the second seat of the Ministry of Defence. Here, a memorial dedicated to the German Resistance is located within a commemorative courtyard for the Stauffenberg resistance.

How to get here

The easiest way to get to the Jewish Museum Berlin is by U-Bahn. Take the underground line U6 to Kochstraße, which is about ten minutes away by foot. The buses M29, M41 and 248 also all stop close to the museum. With a Berlin WelcomeCard you can enjoy a 25% discount on the price of admission. Purchasing a Berlin Museum Pass lets you visit the museum for free on three consecutive days. 

Persons under 18 years of age have free admission.

So-called "hosts" are available in the museum as contact persons for orientation. You can recognize them by their red scarves. There are regular public guided tours of the Jewish Museum, for which it is necessary to register in advance. School classes and groups can book guided tours on a particular topic or theme. There are also special children's workshops.

Tickets

Opening hours