Wintertime is museum time
Museum Nikolaikirche
In the heart of the Nikolai district, you can learn exciting facts about medieval Berlin in the permanent exhibition “Berlin’s Center” thanks to many treasures from the city’s history and models of the city. And of course, under the motto “From fieldstone to brick”, you can learn all about the building history of the Nikolaikirche, which is the oldest surviving church building in Berlin.
→ Nikolaikirchplatz • Open daily from 10 am – 6 pm (also on public holidays) • Website
Museum Ephraim-Palais
If you are interested in the history of Berlin, we recommend a visit to the Ephraim-Palais Museum. There is currently a permanent exhibition entitled “BerlinZEIT” (Berlin TIME), which sheds light on 800 years of the city’s history, from its founding to the diverse Berlin of today. The photo exhibition “Berlin im Blick” is also on display on the 3rd floor.
→ Poststraße 16 • Open Tue – Sun from 10 am – 6 pm • Website
Museum Knoblauchhaus
Here you can immerse yourself in the Biedermeier period and experience the living culture and lifestyle of this era in the former home of the Knoblauch merchant family. Famous contemporaries such as Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt were also regular guests at the Knoblauchhaus. Completed in 1761, it is one of the few Berlin town houses to have survived the Second World War largely unscathed.
→ Poststraße 23 • Open Tue – Sun from 10 am – 6 pm (also on public holidays) • Website
Zille-Museum
Hardly any other artist can convey the real life of Berliners in the period around 1900 as vividly as Heinrich Zille, because the social hotspots of his time were his milieu: the working-class districts, the pubs and the backyards of the tenements. In the Nikolai quarter, an entire museum is dedicated to the life and work of the “Pinselheinrich”. After renovation and redesign, the Zille Museum will reopen its doors on December 1, 2024.
→ Propststraße 11 • Open Wed – Sun from 12 – 7 pm (also on public holidays) • Website
Hemp Museum
Everything you always wanted to know about hemp: here you can get a comprehensive picture of this ancient cultivated plant. A valuable raw material from the stalk to the seed: thousands of years ago it was indispensable for the production of ropes and canvasses and in modern times it is used as a building and insulating material, in textile production and for medical applications. And of course there are also interesting facts about the development of the legal situation of hemp containing THC.
→ Mühlendamm 5 • Open Tue – Fri from 10 am – 8 pm & Sat – Sun from 12 – 8 pm • Website
Gedenkbibliothek
The memorial library in honor of the victims of communism offers exhibitions and lectures on coming to terms with the GDR past and education about totalitarian power structures of the former Eastern Bloc – with a focus on the GDR and the Soviet Union. Particularly interesting for students and school classes: the Gedenkbibliothek also organizes guided tours of memorial sites with contemporary witnesses.
→ Nikolaikirchplatz 5-7 • Open Mon – Thu from 10 am – 6 pm (and by appointment) • Website
So there really are plenty of exciting places to explore in the Nikolaiviertel, enough for several afternoons in a museum, but if your thirst for knowledge demands even more, there is much more in our neighborhood, which can also be reached within a few minutes on foot – for example:
The Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection
The Neues Museum on Museum Island is home to the world’s most important collection of Egyptian high culture. Among the most famous exhibits are the bust of Queen Nefertiti, the portrait of Queen Teje and the original manuscript of Homer’s “Iliad”.
→ Am Lustgarten • Open Tue – Sun from 10 am – 6 pm (closed on Mon) • Website
Ethnological Museum
On Schlossplatz, on the other side of the Spree, the Ethnological Museum presents around 500,000 ethnographic, archaeological and cultural-historical objects from Africa, Asia, America and Australia, supplemented by sound recordings, photographic documents and films.
→ Schloßplatz • Open Wed – Mon from 10 am – 6:30 pm (closed on Tuesdays) • Website
DDR Museum
Opposite Berlin Cathedral, you can take an interactive journey into a bygone state: Trabi, FDJ, Plattenbau and co. – at the DDR Museum, visitors get an insight into all facets of life in the GDR. Speaking of “interactive”: there is even a Trabi driving simulation here.
→ Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 1 • Open daily from 9 am – 9 pm • Website
Körperwelten Museum
Located under the television tower at Alexanderplatz, the Körperwelten Museum exhibits human and animal bodies that have been preserved using a process known as plastination. Plastination is a process invented by Dr. Gunther von Hagens that provides truly profound insights into the inner workings of humans and animals.
→ Panoramastraße 1a • Open daily from 10 am – 7 pm• Website