Just like last year we identified which museums we might be interested in, worked out where they were and how to get between them all and came up with a Battle Plan. It makes sense to avoid the free museums and the ones we'd been to already. Like last year we started off at the Lustgarten in Museum Island, where it all kicks off and we ate dinner beforehand. We did miss out on the Champagne and cake there unfortunately - it was the 25th anniversary of the event and we didn't know what was going on until too late!
The German History Museum - fairly comprehensive, we had a good look around but did not spend an exhaustive amount of time there. It goes through the history of Germany from the stone age through to the present. Interestingly it deals with World War One in a slightly strange way to me - it talks about the tensions, about Germany going to war and all the brave soldiers who fought and all the campaigns they won. And then at the very end of the section, just by the stairwell to the next floor its all a bit "Oh yeah after all that we lost. Next floor". Very little is said, mentioned or shown about the period between WW1 and WW2, i.e. the rise of National Socialism (Fascism) and Hitler which stands out given how thorough they have been with prior history; likewise World War 2 is not mentioned much and certainly not in the same depth as WW1. However the post-WW2 era with the split between East and West Germany is covered in depth, though in quite a different fashion to the rest of the history. It all largely ends at Unification, with a little bit about Germany since then but not much. I also got to try on chainmail and a medieval helmet, with a sword too! Also, they had an original model Trabant, and for some reason they also had Napoleon's Hat!
The German Spy Museum - appropriate that this is in Berlin since Berlin was once known as the City of Spies, thanks to the East vs West nature of it. There are a lot of exhibits and stories about spying methods and cases in this museum, both in Berlin and internationally. There also for some reason seems to be an area dedicated to spies in Movies, which largely revolves around just James Bond. This museum was over-run with people when we were there - we wanted to do the Laser Obstacle Course the Museum has but the sheer number of people meant the wait to get in there and have a go was just far too long.
The Museum for Communication - mostly, we came here because it looked a little interesting but also there was a 1950's-themed dancing event on that we wanted to see. This museum deals with, surprise surprise, communication - but not completely in the way you might think. Its not just talking about telephones, or the Lamson pneumatic tube systems that used to be all around Berlin, or the Postage system; but also about Posters and Advertisments - visual communication, Television as a communication medium and of course Radio. One of the highlights? Original letters carried on the Hindenburg's final flight, including some looking scorched from the fire.
This is Berlin's Natural History Museum - a nice, but not large museum that pales compared to some of the other similar ones around Europe. It does have some cool dinosaur skeletons in the main hall though, but one of the wing arms of the building seems to be struggling for purpose and isn't very full of anything. What I did like however was the massive specimen sample room with jars upon jars of animals in formaldehyde solution, and the big taxidermy animal gallery which in some respects was even poking fun at itself - they had side by side an example of a well done and lifelike taxidermied ferret, and a very poorly taxidermied ferret that if it wasn't next to the other one for context, you wouldn't know what it was!
Archenhold Observatory This one has been on our list the previous year but we ran out of time and energy to do it. Its quite a way out from the rest of the museums, but was in the general area of Berlin where we live. Although the guided tour of the Great Refractor telescope was in German and we didn't stick around for all of that, we did have a look through the rest of the museum (including seeing a large meteorite rock - very large!) and also saw through two telescopes in huts outside (one looking at Jupiter, which was just a slightly orange dot which you couldn't see any surface features; the other a part of the Galaxy looking at some very early stars formed Billions of years ago). We did however miss out on any planetarium/movie theatre shows going on, but it was a good one to end the night with. |