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Museum for German History

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Exhibition marking the 20th anniversary of the Democratic Women's League of Germany.
Youth lesson in the Museum during the 1964 exhibition "Germany of 1933-1945".

The Museum for German History (Museum für Deutsche Geschichte or MfDG) was the central historical museum of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), established in 1952 and closed in 1990.

History

The plans for the foundation of a historical museum date back to the formation of the GDR out of the Soviet Occupation Zone. Its official foundation dates to the 7th plenary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which on 20 October 1951 called for the establishment of a museum of German history "to enlighten the population and especially young people". The first concept of what it should contain was the brainchild of the historian Eduard Ullmann, scientific secretary of the Institute for Marxist-Leninism for the Central Committee of the SED. It was founded on 18 January 1952 in East Berlin and opened its first exhibition on 5 July that year in the building of the former business school at 26 Clara-Zetkin-Straße, until its intended home, the Zeughaus, was completed in March 1953.

Its first director was Alfred Meusel, with Ullmann as his deputy. He was followed by Walter Nimtz from 1963 to 1967. Wolfgang Herbst ran the museum next. All these men belonged to the SED, whilst an academic council ensured that the displays were always based on the Marxist-Leninist view of history. With the end of the GDR, the Council of Ministers of East Germany closed the Museum in 1990 and transferred its collections to the German Historical Museum, which also took over the armoury as its headquarters. This also included the objects from Velten Furnace and Ceramics Museum, which had been displayed offsite there from 1970 to 1994.

Displays

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Permanent

Temporary exhibitions

Bibliography

  • (in German) Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: Legitimation eines neuen Staates. Parteiarbeiter an der historischen Front. Geschichtswissenschaft in der SBZ/DDR 1945–1961. Links, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-86153-130-5, S. 175 ff.
  • (in German) Stefan Ebenfeld: Geschichte nach Plan? Die Instrumentalisierung der Geschichtswissenschaft in der DDR am Beispiel des Museums für Deutsche Geschichte in Berlin (1950–1955). Tectum, Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-8288-8261-7.
  • (in German) Museum für Deutsche Geschichte. In: Hartmut Zimmermann: DDR-Handbuch. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Köln 1985, Bd. 2, S. 919.
  • (in German) Ein neues Museum. In: Berlin-Kalender 1987, Hrsg. Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein, 1997, ISBN 3-89542-089-1, S. 34–35.
  • David E. Marshall: Das Museum für deutsche Geschichte – A Study of the Presentation of History in the Former German Democratic Republic (= Studies in Modern European History. Bd. 56). Peter Lang, New York 2010, ISBN 0-8204-7274-3.

External links (in German)

References

  1. (in German) Stefan Ebenfeld: Geschichte nach Plan? Die Instrumentalisierung der Geschichtswissenschaft in der DDR am Beispiel des Museums für Deutsche Geschichte in Berlin (1950–1955). Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2001.
  2. (in German) Detlef Brunner, Udo Grashoff, Andreas Kötzing (Hrsg.): Asymmetrisch verflochten? Neue Forschungen zur gesamtdeutschen Nachkriegseschichte, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86153-748-9, S. 23.
  3. (in German) Regina Müller: Das Berliner Zeughaus. Die Baugeschichte. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89488-055-4, page 282.
  4. (in German) "Review by Stefan Nies, 15 March 2003".
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