Free Museums in Germany

The Mercedes-Benz Museum is an automobile museum in Stuttgart that is dedicated to the brand and its history, including all brands associated to Mercedes-Benz. The museum is housed in a building designed by UN Studio that is located right outside the main gate of the Daimler factory. The chronologic

What used to be the headquarters of the Gestapo until 1945 is now an architectural complex which holds the evidence of Nazi crimes. There are three permanent exhibitions in Topography of Terror that you can explore and a number of temporary ones. All information is provided both in German and Englis

BMW Welt is the presentation and distribution center for the current products of the BMW car brand and a conference and symposium center in Munich. All kinds of cars, motorbikes, innovations and examples of technology are exhibited in the Markenwelt (Brand World). The building is not only an exhibit

Spanning an area of some 5 000 square meters, the BMW Museum in Munich features exhibitions detailing the history of the BMW brand, but also a collection of the company's best cars and motorbikes. Sit in one of the vehicles and play a VR game that will allow you to feel like you are really driving i

The Palace of Tears (Tränenpalast) is the former train station and a crossing place between East and West Germany. Citizens from the west part of the country were allowed to travel and this was the place where they said their goodbyes to their friends and family in the east. After the fall of the Be

Opened in 2003, the Classic Remise Berlin center is packed with vintage cars. You can see showrooms, shop for spare parts or take a tour and learn about the origins of this facility. The total area of ​​the Classic Remise Berlin is approximately 12,000 m². In the Classic Remise there are 88 setting

The Classic Remise Düsseldorf was opened on 16 September 2006 in a former roundhouse. The total area is more than 19,000 square meters. The Classic Remise Düsseldorf contains 80 boxes of glass for the exhibition of cars and 35 specialized service providers - including dealers, restorers, workshops a

Despite its romantic setting by the lake, the Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz has witnessed a dreadful part of German history. The so-called "Final Solution", the deportation and mass murder of European Jews, was put into motion in this villa in 1942. As a reminder of these horrible acts, it has been tur

The Heimat-Tierpark Olderdissen (animal park Olderdissen) is an urban zoo in Bielefeld that consists of around 16 hectares. The zoo is home to more than 450 individual animals, including 90 different species. The park offers a year-round 24-hour opening with free entry and focuses on the representat

Museum Folkwang is an art museum in Essen with an art collection with 19th- and 20th-century art. The collection of the museum contains works of impressionism, expressionism, surrealism and other styles of modern art. In addition, Museum Folkwang holds objects of the arts and crafts, a graphic and a

The NS-Dokumentationszentrum Munchen is a museum in Munich that is dedicated to the history of the city and of Bavaria between the First and Second World Wars, with particular attention to the political and social consequences of Nazism. Opened to the public on 1 May 2015, the museum was built symbo

The Museum in der Runden Ecke is a museum in Leipzig on the history, structure and operation of the Ministry of State Security (MfS) in the GDR. The museum houses the permanent exhibition "Stasi - Power and Banality".

The Zeitgeschichtliche Forum is a museum in Leipzig that illustrates the history of the German division, of everyday life in the communist dictatorship of the GDR and of the reunification process as well as the challenges that face the reunited Germany in the 21st century. The permanent exhibition b

Wildpark im Grafenberger Wald is a 36 hectares wildlife park in the Grafenberger Wald (Grafenberg Forest). It is one of the oldest game parks in Germany and shows only native animals. Visitors can see over 100 animals living in spacious enclosures, with wild pigs, raccoons and more.

The Museum in der Kulturbrauerei in Berlin shows the permanent exhibition "Everyday life in the GDR", using objects, documents, film and sound examples to illustrate the tension between the expectations of the political system and the real living conditions. The exhibition is divided into four main

The Bundeswehr Museum of Military History – Berlin-Gatow Airfield is a military history museum of the German Air Force Luftwaffe at a former Luftwaffe and Royal Air Force (RAF) airfield, RAF Gatow. It is one of the German military's largest military history museums and mainly focuses on the history

The German Resistance Memorial Centre is a memorial, museum with a permanent exhibition and research center in Berlin that is dedicated to German resistance to Nazism, occupying three floors of one of the Bendlerblock buildings. It was at the Bendlerblock in the inner courtyard where members of the

The German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst is a museum that is devoted to German-Soviet and German-Russian relations. The museum is housed in the historical venue of the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces in 1945, where it illustrates the history of German-Soviet relations from 1917

The Ruhr Museum is a natural history and cultural history museum for the Ruhrgebiet (the Ruhr area) in Essen. In the permanent exhibition in the museum, it documents nature, culture and history of the Ruhr area and thus the development of the largest agglomeration in Europe.

The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum in Bremen that houses a collection of European paintings from the 14th century to the present day, sculptures from the 16th to 21st centuries and a New Media collection. Highlights in its collection include works by Claude Monet, Édouard Manet and Paul Cézanne,

Klassikstadt is a center for classic cars in Frankfurt. Visitors can experience Automobile Culture in this world of automotive emotions and treasures. Glass workshops for restorations, repair work and engine construction as well as a watchmaker invite you to look over the shoulder of the expert and

The Neuengamme concentration camp was a network of concentration camps in the North of Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and its more than 85 subcamps. With more than 100000 prisoners that came through The Neuengamme camp and its subcamps, it became the largest concentration camp

The Allied Museum is a museum in Berlin that documents the involvement of Western powers, the Allies (the United States, Britain and France) in Germany and Berlin between 1945 and 1994. The museum mainly shows the political and military history of the Cold War, illustrating the lives of the soldiers

The Forum Willy Brandt Berlin is a location for historical education and political information in Berlin that has an exhibition on Willy Brandt and the political developments of the 20th century. He was a German statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 19

The Deutscher Dom is an old German Protestant church on the south side of the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. The building with a five-leaf shape, designed by Martin Grünberg, was built in 1708 by Giovanni Simonetti. In 1785 a tower with a dome was added that resembles that of the Französischer Dom. The c

The Lindenthaler Tierpark is an animal park/zoo in Cologne mainly for families with children who can observe animals up close or play in the park. The stock of animals varies in number. Around 26 fallow deer, 25 goats, highland cattle, many sheep, turkeys, peacocks, water fowl and various chickens h

The Knoblauch House (Knoblauchhaus) in Berlin is a museum on the Biedermeier style. The former residential house of the Knoblauch family is is one of the few 18th-century Berlin town houses remaining at the original location. Needlemaster Johann Christian Knoblauch bought the property in 1759. After

The Paleontological Museum Munich is a museum in Munich that exhibits objects from the Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie (Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology). The building that houses the museum dates from the 20th century when it was planned to be a schoo

Named after the famous Berlin painter Max Liebermann (a German painter and printmaker and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany), who lived here from 1892 to 1935, the building has been home to the Brandenburg Tor Foundation since 2000. It is dedicated to aesthetic education, org

The Museum Otto Weidt is dedicated to Otto Weidt and his workshop for the blind and deaf, whom he tried to protect from persecution. Visitors can explore authentic rooms of the workshop where Jewish workers used to produce brooms and brushes. This place served also as a hiding place for some of the

The Brewery Museum is a beer museum in Dortmund. It is a place devoted to the renowned Dortmund beer. Visitors can learn everything about the history and beer brewing process. The museum focuses on the history of the Dortmund breweries, mostly on the 19th and 20th century with a special focus on the

The Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte or MKK (Museum of Art and Cultural History) is a municipal art museum in Dortmund. The Museum of Art and Art History in Dortmund is housed in the 1924 former Municipal Savings Bank, built by Hugo Steinbach. The collections of paintings, sculptures, furniture

The Bergische Museumsbahn is a heritage tram museum in Wuppertal that operates its own tram line on original rails with original cars. It is one of the smallest running tram systems in the world.

The East Wall Museum (Museum am Ostwall) is a museum of modern and contemporary art, located in the former Dortmunder U brewery on the Leonie-Reygers-Terrasse in the German city of Dortmund. The museum collection includes paintings, sculptures, objects and photographs and a collection of graphics of

The Museum Pankow is a museum with two sites: Prenzlauer Allee and Heynstraße. Location Heynstraße is the former home of the manufacturer Fritz Heyn and features an exhibition on upper-middle class living in 1900, still with many decorations and furniture in their original state. The decoration and

The Book Museum (Buchmuseum) of the Saxon State Library is a traditional literature museum in Dresden. The museum emerged from the Zimelienzimmer of the Royal Saxon Library. The exhibition of the Book Museum is located in the SLUB building and is divided into a permanent exhibition in the so-called

The German Museum of Books and Writing (Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum, DBSM) is a museum in Leipzig that is the world's oldest museum of its kind. The museum focuses on objects, documents and literature connected with the history of books, including paper, printing techniques, the art of illustr

The Steinwache is a memorial museum in Dortmund. It is a Resistance & Persecution Museum housed in the police station Steinwache that was established in 1906. In 1933 the Gestapo took over the prison and imprisoned and tortured opponents of the Nazi regime. Between 1933 and 1945 more than 66,000 peo

Museum of Work is an unusual museum devoted to the changes in the work process over the last 150 years. The museum mostly focuses on the industrialization.

The Altes Pumpwerk (Old pumping station) is a disused sewage pumping station in Bremen that is now used as a museum that illustrates the history of water treatment and wastewater disposal. In addition to a visit to the machine hall and an exhibition on sewage history and sewage technology, it is als

The Stauffenberg memorial site in Stuttgart's Old Palace is dedicated to the Hitler assassin Claus von Stauffenberg and his brother and co-conspirator Berthold. The exhibition shows the lives of both brothers from the sheltered youth in Stuttgart, their careers in the civil service, and the resistan

The new permanent exhibition of the memorial and memorial site, Mahn- und Gedenkstätte, deals with the topic "Dusseldorf children and young people under National Socialism". Through selected biographies, it is examined how children and adolescents behaved during the period of National Socialism, how

The Museum Der Stille (The Museum of Silence) in Berlin was founded in 1994 by the Russian painter Nikolai Georgievich Makarov with the aim of enabling people in the middle of the city to enjoy peace and contemplation. This intention was realized through a special interior design and the exhibition

The Zoological Museum houses extensive collection of scientifically important zoological material. The museum features over ten million scientific objects divided into nine research collections.

The Borstei Museum is a museum in Munich that holds a collection related to German architect, contractor and senator honorary Bernhard Borst and the Borstei, a listed housing estate in the Munich district Moosach, which was built between 1924 and 1929 by Bernhard Borst. The museum holds a collection

The Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung is a foundation in Munich that aims to stimulate public interest in art and culture, primarily through its own program of exhibitions and concerts. The Kunstfoyer features exhibition related to graphic art and drawings, where every exhibition sets its own accen

As if Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach had just completed it, this former garden house is still largely in its original state from 1882. At that time, however, the surrounding park was not a public green oasis in the city but part of Daimler's private estate. The Gottlieb Daimler Gedächtnisstätt

The Regiomontanus-Sternwarte Nürnberg is an astronomical observatory, aimed primarily at the public teaching of astronomy. It is located at the second highest point of the Nuremberg metropolitan area, the Rechenberg, in the St. Jobst district at about 338 meters. All the activities of the observator

The Gaslaternen Freilichtmuseum (The Gas Lantern Open Air Museum Berlin) in Berlin is a permanent exhibition of historic gas lanterns in the immediate vicinity of the Berlin S-Bahn station Tiergarten on the edge of the Great Tiergarten. Some gas lamps were dismantled and stored in the Museum of Tech

The Archenhold Observatory (Archenhold Sternwarte) is an end of the 19th century created public observatory in the Treptower Park in Berlin. It houses the Great Refractor, the longest pointable telescope in the world, also called Celestial Cannon. The institution was named after Friedrich Simon Arch

The NRW Forum Wirtschaft und Kultur or Forum NRW is an exhibition and event venue in Düsseldorf that focuses on the development and the economy of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and regions within it, with a focus on photography, pop and digital culture. The NRW Forum is housed in the Ehrenhof

The Marienfelde Refugee Center Museum is a museum in Berlin that is devoted to the subject of leaving the GDR. Around four million people left the GDR to the Federal Republic between 1949 and 1990; 1.35 million of those passed the 1953 founded Refugee Center in Berlin-Marienfelde where they were car

The Villa Oppenheim, or Villa Sorgenfrei, is a villa in Berlin that is built in the style of the Renaissance Revival architecture. Built in 1881, it was the summer residence for Margarete Oppenheim and Otto Georg Oppenheim (a German lawyer and member of the Preußisches Obertribunal). Since 2012 Vill

The Mineralogical Museum (Mineralogisches Museum) showcases a collection on an area of ​​approximately 450 square metres over two floors. In the gallery, 1500 selected objects are on display in artfully illuminated window displays.

The Sammlung Falckenberg is a private art collection in Hamburg of Dr. Harald Falckenberg. The collection is housed in the former factory halls of Phoenix AG. The art collection includes 1600 works by international avant-garde artists, including works by Martin Kippenberger, but also large installat

The Heimatmuseum in Frankfurt is a local history museum dedicated to the local history in Frankfurt and its region.

The Hoesch Museum is a museum in Dortmund that is housed in the historic concierge building of the Westfalenhütte, the museum presents an overview of 160 years of company history, the history of technology and the social history of steel work, combined with Dortmund's city history.

KraftWerk - Dresden Energy Museum is a technical museum in Dresden that is located in the mechanical workshop of the old central heating power plant.The main themes of the exhibitions in the Dresden Energy Museum are the supply history of Dresden with electricity, city gas, district heating and wate

The Museum of Asian Art (Museum für Asiatische Kunst) in Berlin houses some 20,000 Asian artifacts, making it one of the largest museums of ancient Asian art in the world. The permanently exhibited collection includes works of art from 4000 BC. to contemporary art. The Museum of Asian Art was one of

The Weinbaumuseum Stuttgart is a museum that shows an exhibition on historic and modern viticulture in Stuttgart. The musuem aims to present the regional characteristics of wine production. The museum belongs to the state capital Stuttgart and is housed in a half-timbered house that was built in 190

The Abguss-Sammlung Antiker Plastik of the Free University of Berlin comprises about 2100 casts of Greek and Roman sculpture. Today's exhibition provides a comprehensive overview of the history and manifestations of Greek and Roman sculpture. The chronological arc extends from the Cycladic culture o

Ernst Thälmann (1886-1944) was chairman of the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) in Hamburg and a member of the Hamburg Parliament. He then became a member of the German Reichstag and chairman of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). From 1929 until his arrest on 3 March 1933 he lived with

The Mineralien Museum (the Mineralogy Museum) is a museum in Essen that hosts an impressive collection of minerals that used to be private. The minerals are presented in various thematic exhibitions.

The Museum of applied art Frankfurt (Museum Angewandte Kuns Frankfurt) is a museum of artisanal art and design in Frankfurt with a special emphasis on design, fashion and the performative element. The collection comprises 65,000 pieces over a period of 5 centuries, with the main focus being European

Herrenhausen Palace was originally a Baroque building from the 17th century. As a result of the air raids on the city of Hannover during the Second World War, the main building burned down completely. The façade of the classical castle was reconstructed and a convention center and museum were establ

The Haniel Museum is a museum in Duisburg. The museum is housed in the oldest building in Ruhrort, the former home and founder of the company Haniel which was once known as the "Ruhrorter Packhaus". In this historic warehouse, on three floors, the visitor experiences how the family business develope

The Schillerhäuschen (Schiller Pavillion) is a literary museum in Dresden that is dedicated to the important German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright Friedrich Schiller. The museum is housed in a small building in which Schiller is said to have lived. The Schillerhäuschen (Sch

Das Kartoffelmuseum is the potato museum in Munich which is one of the more unusual places in the city. The museum covers all aspects of the vegetable, including art, history and its rise to fame.

Schuppen Eins - Zentrum fur Automobilkultur und Mobilität is an old-timer center in Bremen. It is the center for automotive culture and mobility for Bremen and the northwest of Germany. The port and automobile history are revived in this historic two-storey general cargo handling shed. It constantly

The Kobelt Zoo is a zoo in Frankfurt with more than 50 different animal species. The zoo is home to monkeys, snakes, parrots, raccoons, ferrets and even prairie dogs. Children can pet the numerous rabbits, horses, donkeys and goats or ride on ponies.

The GeoMuseum - University of Cologne is the only natural history museum in Cologne. The museum holds and exhibits a collection that includes minerals, gemstones, meteorites and fossils.

KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION aims to be an independent space for contemporary art. It is a non-commercial art institution without an own collection. The exhibition space is located in a former warehouse from the 1950s, one of the few historical buildings remaining in Düsseldorf’s Media Harbour. With

The Plattenbau-Museumswohnung in Berlin is a 3-bedroom show flat from 1986, decorated as if the tenants, living there 30 years ago, have just left. The museum includes personal items, furniture and household products.

The Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) is a platform for the production, presentation, and communication of contemporary and experimental (media) art. Among the major goals of the HMKV are exploring contemporary themes and questions, addressing the wider public in its educational work, and an interdi

The Museum der Unerhörten Dinge (Museum of the Extraordinary Things) in Berlin is a private museum by Roland Albrecht who collected many oddities, including Columbus' alleged telescope and the fur of a bonsai deer. The museum exhibits all sorts of curious objects in just 20 square metres.