Museums in Germany – Virtual Tour

Germany has the highest population of any state in the European Union, and its capital is Berlin.

The country’s other major cities are Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Bremen, Dresden, Hannover, and Nuremberg.

Today, Germany is the world’s 4th largest economy by nominal GDP and a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors.

Throughout its history, Germany has been the home of influential and successful artists, philosophers, musicians, scientists, engineers, and inventors.

Representing this heritage and history are many famous museums to explore in Germany.

A Virtual Tour of Germany’s Museums

Munich Museums

Art Galleries
Greek and Roman Art
- Glyptothek
- Staatliche Antikensammlungen
Egyptian Art
- Staatliche Sammlung für Ägyptische Kunst
Kunsthalle Munich
Deutsches Museum – German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology

Germany Museums

Country: Federal Republic of Germany
German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Capital: Berlin
Official languages: German
Population 82 million

German Proverbs and Quotes

German Proverbs and Quotes

Museums in Berlin

Berlin is the capital and the largest city in Germany and the second-most populous city in the European Union.

First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, Berlin during its history has been the capital of various Kingdoms, Empires, and Republics.

Berlin is a popular tourist destination and renowned for its universities, orchestras, museums, entertainment venues, festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts.

Berlin is home to some of the great museums of the world and featured are the following:

The Pergamon Museum

The Pergamon Museum is located on “Museum Island” in Berlin, Germany.

The museum is famous for housing large monumental historic Babylonian, Greek and Roman buildings such as the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus.

Pergamon Museum has three separate museums: the Collection of Classical Antiquities, the Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the Museum of Islamic Art.

Neues Museum

The Neues Museum, meaning “New Museum,” is one of the leading museums in Berlin, Germany, and is located to the north of the Altes Museum or “Old Museum” in an area called Museum Island.

It was built between 1843 and 1855 and was heavily damaged during the bombing of Berlin. Following the museum’s rebuilding, it reopened in 2009 with the neoclassical architecture of museums in the 19th-century.

Exhibits include the Egyptian and Prehistory and Early History collections, as it did before the war. The artifacts it houses include the iconic bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti.

Altes Museum

The Altes Museum, which is German for Old Museum, is on Museum Island in Berlin, Germany. The museum houses the ancient history collection.

The museum building was built between 1823 and 1830 in the neoclassical style to accommodate the Prussian royal family’s art collection. Until 1845, it was called the Königliches Museum (Royal Museum).

Alte Nationalgalerie – National Gallery (Berlin)

The National Gallery in Berlin is focused on Art of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Starting with the Alte Nationalgalerie, which opened in 1876, its exhibition space has expanded to include five other locations.

The museums are part of the Berlin State Museums, and the holdings of the National Gallery are exhibited across multiple sites.

Bode Museum

The Bode Museum is one of the museums on the Museum Island in Berlin, Germany. It was completed in 1904 and was initially called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum after Emperor Frederick III.

The museum was renamed in honor of its first curator, Wilhelm von Bode, in 1956. Today the museum is the home for a collection of sculptures, Byzantine art, and coins and medals.

Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

The Gemäldegalerie is an art museum that houses one of the world’s leading collections of European paintings from the 13th to the 18th centuries.

Its collection includes masterpieces from such artists as Dürer, Holbein, Van der Weyden, Van Eyck, Raphael, Botticelli, Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.

Spy Museum Berlin

The Spy Museum Berlin shows in an interactive and multimedia exhibition the history of espionage and secret services worldwide. Particular emphasis is dedicated to espionage activities in Berlin during the Cold War.

The museum’s collection includes nearly 300 exhibits with over 1,000 collection items. The collection consists of original objects and is supplemented by replicas.

Jewish Museum, Berlin

The first Jewish Museum in Berlin was founded in1933 to curate Jewish history and feature collections of Jewish art.

The current Jewish Museum Berlin was opened in 2001 and consists of three buildings, two of which are new additions built explicitly for the museum.

German-Jewish history is documented in the collections, the library, and the archive, and is reflected in the museum’s program of events.

Deutsches Historisches Museum – German Historical Museum

The German Historical Museum or in German: Deutsches Historisches Museum, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history.

The permanent exhibition German History in Images and Artifacts is housed in the Zeughaus of 1695 – the oldest building on Unter den Linden.

DDR Museum

The DDR Museum is a museum located in the former governmental district of East Germany, on the river Spree, opposite the Berlin Cathedral.

Its exhibition depicts life in former East Germany, known in German as the Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR. The exhibition has three themed areas: “Public Life,” “State and Ideology,” and “Life in a Tower Block.”

The exhibits presented life under the DDR and explore the themes of culture, family, health, education, work, Ministry for State Security, economy, state, ideology, army, brother states, wall, opposition, penal system, and authority.

Top 5 Museums in Berlin

Munich Museums

Munich is the capital of Bavaria, and, it is the third-largest city of Germany after Berlin and Hamburg, as well as the 12th-largest city in the European Union.

Straddling the banks of the River Isar, a tributary of the Danube, it is the most densely populated municipality in Germany.

The city is a major center of the arts, technology, finance, publishing, culture, and innovation in Germany.

Alte Pinakothek

The Alte Pinakothek is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings.

The name Alte (Old) Pinakothek refers to the period covered by the collection, from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century.

The Neue Pinakothek includes nineteenth-century art, and Pinakothek der Moderne exhibits modern art.

Neue Pinakothek

The Neue Pinakothek is an art museum in Munich, Germany. Its focus is the European Art of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Together with the Alte Pinakothek and the Pinakothek der Moderne, it is part of Munich’s “Kunstareal” (the “art area”).

The name Alte (Old) Pinakothek refers to the period covered by the collection, from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century.

The Pinakothek der Moderne exhibits modern art.

Lenbachhaus

The Lenbachhaus houses an art museum in Munich’s Kunstareal, which is the museum’s quarter in the city center of Munich, Germany.

The gallery collection includes works by Munich painters and contemporary artists.

Deutsches Museum – German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology

The Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, is officially titled: German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology, which is the world’s largest museum of science and technology,.

The museum contains about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology. Founded in 1903, it is the largest museum in Munich.

The museum’s permanent exhibits cover all the areas of significance in Science and Technology.

Munich – Exploring the City’s Museums

Hamburg Museums

Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany and lies to the north of Germany on the River Elbe and two of its tributaries.

Hamburg historically was a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire.

Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a fully sovereign city-state, and before 1919 formed a civic republic headed constitutionally by a class of hereditary grand burghers.

Kunsthalle Hamburg

The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of Hamburg and is one of the largest museums in Germany.

The name ‘Kunsthalle’ derives the museum’s history as an ‘art hall’ when founded in 1850.

Today, the Kunsthall’s collections cover seven centuries of European art, from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg

The Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg is a museum in Hamburg, Germany, with a collection of model ships, construction plans, uniforms, and maritime art, amounting to over 40,000 items.

The collection is split across ten floors in a former warehouse, organized in themes.

Miniatur Wunderland

Miniatur Wunderland is a model railway and miniature airport attraction in Hamburg, Germany, and the largest of its kind in the world.

The railway consisted of over 15,400 m (50,525 ft) of track in the H0 scale.

The exhibit includes over 1,300 trains made up of over 10,000 carriages, over 100,000 moving vehicles, ca. 500,000 lights, 130,000 trees, and 400,000 human figurines.

Best Museums in Hamburg – Travel Germany

Frankfurt Museums

Frankfurt is the fifth-largest city of Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne. Situated on the River Main, the city is named after the Franks.

Frankfurt was a city-state, the Free City of Frankfurt, for nearly five centuries. It was one of the most important cities of the Holy Roman Empire, as a site of imperial coronations.

Frankfurt lost its sovereignty upon the collapse of the empire in 1806 and then permanently in 1866 when the Kingdom of Prussia annexed it.

Städel Museum

The Städel Museum, officially the Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, is an art museum with a collection of over 2,700 paintings, of which 600 are displayed and a collection of 100,000 drawings and prints as well as 600 sculptures.

The Städel Museum has European paintings beginning with the early 14th century, moving into Late Gothic, the Renaissance, Baroque, and into the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

The large collection of prints and drawings is not on permanent display and occupies the first floor of the museum. Works on paper not on display can be viewed by appointment.

Frankfurt – City of banks and museums

Dresden Museums

Dresden is the capital city of Saxony, Germany, on the River Elbe near the Czech border.

Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendor.

Since German reunification in 1990, Dresden is again a cultural, educational center.

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister ( Old Masters Gallery) in Dresden, Germany, has a collection of over 1,500 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

It includes major Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch and Flemish paintings. Outstanding works by German, French, and Spanish painters of the period are also among the gallery’s attractions.

The collection is located in the Semper Gallery, the gallery wing of the Zwinger.

Nuremberg Museums

Nuremberg is the second-largest city in the state of Bavaria after Munich and lies about 170 kilometers (110 mi) north of Munich.

The first documentary mention of the town was in 1050 when Nuremberg was identified as the location of an Imperial castle.

From 1050 to 1571, the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade routes.

Germanisches Nationalmuseum

The Germanisches Nationalmuseum houses an extensive collection relating to German culture and art, extending from prehistoric times through to the present day.

The Germanisches Nationalmuseum is Germany’s largest museum of cultural history. With a collection of over 1.3 million objects, about 25,000 are exhibited.

The museum is situated in the south of the historic city center along the medieval city wall.

Its entrance hall is located on Kartäusergasse, which was transformed by the Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan to the Way of Human Rights.

Cologne Museums

Cologne is the fourth most populous city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. Centered on the left bank of the Rhine, Cologne is famous for the Cologne Cathedral and the University of Cologne, one of Europe’s oldest and largest universities.

Cologne was founded in the 1st century AD as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, the first word of which is the origin of its name.

“Cologne,” the French version of the city’s name, has become standard in English as well.

Wallraf–Richartz Museum

The Wallraf–Richartz Museum is an important art museum in Cologne, Germany, and houses a collection of fine art from the medieval period to the early twentieth century.

The current museum building dates 2001 and is located near the Cologne City Hall.

The museum dates back to 1824 when the comprehensive collection of medieval art from Franz Ferdinand Wallraf came to Cologne by inheritance. Johann Heinrich Richartz donated the first building, and the museum was opened in 1861.

In 2001, Swiss collector Gérard Corboud gave his impressionist and post-impressionist collection of over 170 works to the museum as a permanent loan. The museum then added “Fondation Corboud” to its name.

Karlsruhe Museums

Karlsruhe is located on the right bank of the Rhine and lies near the French-German border. It is the seat of the Federal Constitutional Court, as well as of the Federal Court of Justice.

Karlsruhe was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Baden (1806-1918), and the Republic of Baden (1918-1945). Its most remarkable building is Karlsruhe Palace, which was built in 1715.

Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

The Staatliche Kunsthalle (State Art Gallery) is an art museum in Karlsruhe, Germany. The museum is housed in a neoclassical building next to the Karlsruhe Castle and the Karlsruhe Botanical Garden.

The museum’s collection covers the 14th to the 19th century while the 20th century is displayed in the nearby building of the Botanical Gardens’ former orangery.

Hanover Museums

Hanover or in German, Hannover is the capital of Lower Saxony and lies at the confluence of the River Leine and its tributary Ihme.

Before it became the capital of Lower Saxony, Hanover was the capital of the Kingdom of Hanover (1814–1866), the Province of Hanover of the Kingdom of Prussia (1868–1918), and the Province of Hanover of the Free State of Prussia (1918–1946).

From 1714 to 1837, Hanover was by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Sprengel Museum

The Sprengel Museum in Hanover houses a collection of modern art in Germany.

Bernhard Sprengel donated his collection of modern art to the city of Hanover in 1969, as well as financially supporting the construction of the museum.

In addition to the works donated by Sprengel, the museum also houses 20th-century artworks owned by the state of Lower Saxony and the city of Hanover.