Typically Berlin

This room provides an unconventional prelude to Berlin – and literally draws you in. Staggered backdrops with large-scale photos show images of the exhibition’s seven themes: Revolution, Free Space, Boundaries, Entertainment, War, Fashion and Interconnection. You’ll walk through these themes as if on a stage and begin to ask whether they are characteristic or simply clichés. The reverse sides of the backdrops suggest other possible perspectives.

Free space opens and closes

Berlin is known for diversity, tolerance and freedom of expression. Think of the many abandoned spaces and empty buildings after the fall of the Wall, and the way residents typically put them to provisional use.

Berlin offers opportunities for all manner of new uses and ideas – although limited in time, because the city is constantly changing and its free spaces appear and disappear. This room’s photographic projections will lead you to Potsdamer Platz, which changed extraordinarily rapidly after the Wall fell. You’ll feel surrounded by walls that move towards you and then away. Spaces will seem larger and then smaller, and you’ll sense contraction and expansion. You’ll also smell some of the city’s typical aromas, such as its earth, lavender, grasses and dog faeces.

Making boundaries visible

The illuminated map on the floor shows Berlin’s roads and waterways. Tall glass cases containing remarkable historical objects stand on the map: they indicate boundaries that surrounded, divided and were determined in Berlin in the past. Media stations in the form of surveying instruments also stand on the map. Their screens show you something about boundaries in Berlin today. Videos, animations and illustrations tell of racist exclusion, of places like the TV tower’s viewing platform that cannot be accessed by wheelchair users, and of parts of the city where residents can no longer afford to live.

A great pleasure, or no pleasure?

Entertainment cultures have thrived on international influences since the 19th century. Explore the wooden kaiserpanorama that delighted viewers 120 years ago with its 3D scenes of cities, landscapes and events in faraway places. For a high-volume experience, take a headset, enter the disco sphere and dance to the beats of Berlin. They will transport you to musical cultures of the past century, from foxtrot to hip-hop. Today global music corporations are headquartered in Berlin. In the early 20th century companies like Lindström AG popularised jazz, tango and samba in the city. You can play songs from old shellac records on a converted portable player. Four sparkling copper walk-in spheres present different aspects of entertainment culture. The displays also take you behind scenes and onto fine lines between entertainment and exclusion: who can enjoy what where, and who is not allowed in? And who decides what is entertainment and what is not?

City of decisions

Berlin unleashed wars of conquest that shaped the 20th century. Wars in the German colonies and the First World War were launched from Berlin. The Second World War started here and ended in the destruction of large parts of the city as well as of the world. The walls of this room contain illuminated glass cases set in a restless pattern of protruding and receding grey felt squares. The objects, audio recordings and videos tell of war, violence and captivity. Digital stations show some of the traces of war in Berlin, such as street names and the number of pavement “stumbling stones” that recall individuals persecuted and murdered by the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. What are the signs of today’s wars? LED displays also show updated numbers of new refugees in the city.

People in Berlin

The visuals of this room are dominated by a multicoloured sculpture suspended from the ceiling. It was inspired by 15 sound portraits of Berliners who were born here, chose the city as their home, fled here or ended up here by chance. The portraits tell of Berlin and of very different connections to other parts of the world. Take a headset and sit down on a long bench to hear their stories and examine details of the sculpture. A collection of objects illustrates these Berliners’ relationships to places they love or miss. The room also features a media station that lets you display your own interconnections with the world.