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The collections of Berlin’s 170 museums span time from antiquity to the present and reflect Germany’s past. 19th-century German archaeologists played a leading role uncovering some of the ancient world’s greatest treasures, a selection of which can be seen here. In the 20th Century, Germany’s Bauhaus was the center of high modernism before the Nazi’s expelled its founders and closed its school.

Berlin also played a role in the biggest moments of the 20th century: World War II, the Holocaust and the construction and destruction of the Iron Curtain. You’ll find museums in Berlin dedicated to those events, too. Here’s a preview:

Alliierten Museum
From 1945 to 1990, Berlin was occupied by the victors of World War II and divided into four zones overseen by the US, Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. The Allied Museum, located in the movie theater of the former U.S. Army post, documents the role of the Western Allies in the post-war period and the life of allied troops in Berlin.

Altes Museum

photo credit: *hoodrat*

Berlin’s oldest museum was burned down in the Second World War, rebuilt in 1960 and reopened six years later. Home of Frederick William III’s Prussian antiques and the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, the museum is one of several landmark buildings in the area known as Museum Island. Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Berlin’s most prominent architect at the time, based the design on the Pantheon in Rome.

One of the biggest attractions at the museum is the bust of Queen Nefertiti, which was discovered in 1912.

Alte Nationalgalerie

photo credit: bortescristian

Known for its fine collection of 19th century paintings, the “old” gallery is also home to the world’s largest collection of works by the city’s native son, Adolph von Menzel. There is an impressive collection of 19th century art to be seen here, with paintings by Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne and sculptures by August Rodin, Anselm Feuerbach, Arnold Böcklin, Hans von Marees, Max Liebermann and Louis Corinth.

Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung

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This Berlin landmark building was designed by Walter Gropius in 1976. Inside the famous curved exterior is the world’s largest collect of objects from the modernist school of design, art and architecture. Items include furniture, ceramics, photography, metalwork and stage pieces from the Bauhaus school’s students and teachers. Also included are objects from the estates of modernist masters Walter Gropius, Georg Muche and Herbert Bayer.

Brücke-Museum
Devoted to works by the “Brücke” group of artists–among them Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff–the founders of the Expressionist school who sought to use color and form to express inner feelings. The collection includes 400 paintings and even more drawings, watercolors and wood engravings.

Charlottenburg Palace

photo credit: Zemzina

The largest palace complex in Berlin took more than 100 years to build and served as the summer residence of the Prussian kings. The palace was severely damaged in the Second World War, but it has now been completely restored. The main building with its reconstructed rooms is used as a museum, and various collections are also housed in the side wings, including the Romanticism Gallery. The extensive grounds and gardens surrounding the palace offer visitors a great place for a stroll.

Deutsches Historisches Museum

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The Zeughaus was originally an arsenal and later a military museum until it was destroyed in the Second World War. It has housed the German Historical Museum since 1990. The collection includes posters and documents of the history of the workers’ movement and objects from the arsenal. The museum also owns many pieces of Communist art formerly owned by the now-defunct state of East Germany.

Filmmuseum Berlin-Deutsche Kinemathek

photo credit: *hoodrat*

The museum’s permanent exhibition, “A journey through film history,” goes from the first moving images, to silent films and the films of the Weimar Republic. It looks at movies under National Socialism, the exile in Hollywood of major figures from German cinema, to the post-war years and contemporary cinema. An exhibition on Marlene Dietrich is a major draw. An exhibition on television takes visitors through the development of the medium in both East and West Germany.

German Museum of Technology

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The museum’s most prominent exhibit is a bomber used in the Berlin Airlift, which is attached to the front of the museum. Collections center on the history of air travel, railways and cars. At the science center SPECTRUM you can learn about optics, thermodynamics and optical perception with the help of around 250 physical experiments. The museum also holds regular workshops on a variety of technical subjects. A new extension documents the history of shipping and aviation.

Jüdisches Museum

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Founded in 1933 and closed by the state in 1938, the idea for the Jewish Museum of Berlin was resurrected in 1971 and became a reality in 1975. The museum documents the history of Germany’s Jews from the Middle Ages through today.

The museum’s “new building” is as much an attraction as the museum’s collection.Daniel Libeskind based his design for the building on the five-pointed Star of David. Central to the design are Libeskind’s voids and axes. The voids are large vertical caverns with bare concrete walls that visitors can see from the upper levels of the building. Libeskind says they represent “that which can never be exhibited when it comes to Jewish Berlin history: humanity reduced to ashes.” The axes are underground passageways that represent the three realities of Jewish life in Germany: Continuity, emigration and the Holocaust.

Mauermuseum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie

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The history of the Berlin Wall, the world’s most famous border crossing point, is documented here. Films, original recordings, photos and texts are on display, along with objects that tell the story of sometimes spectacular escapes. Also on display are objects from the history of nonviolent protest, including Mahatma Gandhi’s diary and the typewriter used by members of the Czech Velvet Revolution to write Charta 77, the initiative’s founding document.

Neue Nationalgalerie

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The “light temple of glass” designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe houses 19th- and 20th-century European painting and sculpture from classical modernism to the art of the 1960s and interesting special exhibitions. The 19th century collection concentrates on French Impressionists. The 20th-century collection includes works by Max Beckmann and Edvard Munch as well as paintings by Bacon, Picasso, Ernst, Klee, and American artists such as Barnett Newman.

Pergamon Museum

photo credit: Zemzina

With 850,000 visitors a year, the Pergamon is Berlin’s prime museum. The museum houses three collections under one roof: the Antiquity Collection, the Museum of the Near East and the Museum of Islamic Art.

Top attractions include: The Zeus Altar, a frieze that took over 20 years to reassemble from thousands of fragments uncovered in modern-day Turkey; the Ishtar Gate, one of eight gates of the inner city of Babylon; and the Martket Gate of Miletus.

Stiftung Topographie des Terrors

photo credit: edwin.11
Between 1933 and 1945, the central institutions responsible for the repressive and criminal policies of National Socialism were located here, an area that encompasses the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS.

The Allies destroyed most of the original buildings in an effort to eradicate Germany’s evil past. But excavations in the early 1980s uncovered the buildings’ foundations. The open air exhibit explains the secret state police and intelligence organizations that planned and executed Nazi crimes against humanity. The fates of both perpetrators and victims are included in the free, open-air exhibit.

Story of Berlin

photo credit: jwalsh

A trip through 800-years of Berlin’s history from its founding in 1237 to a hypothetical future. Features 20 theme spaces on four floors with multimedia high-tech presentations that really bring the history to life. Highlight of the trip: A completely functional nuclear shelter.