Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin

The Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) in the baroque Zeughaus (Arsenal) on Unter den Linden in central Berlin traces two thousand years of German and European history through one of the most comprehensive permanent collections in the country. The Zeughaus is the oldest surviving building on Unter den Linden, constructed between 1695 and 1706 as the Prussian Royal Arsenal and later used by the German Democratic Republic as the Museum of German History before transitioning to the Deutsches Historisches Museum after reunification in 1990. The building's elaborate baroque facade and the keystones carved by Andreas Schlüter — depicting the agonised faces of dying warriors — in the inner courtyard are among the most significant examples of early eighteenth-century Prussian architecture in Germany. The permanent exhibition, spread across two floors of the Zeughaus, covers German history from approximately 100 CE to the present in a sequence of thematic and chronological galleries. The collection encompasses paintings, sculptures, documents, weapons, uniforms, propaganda posters, everyday objects, and multimedia installations tracing migrations of peoples in late antiquity, the medieval Holy Roman Empire, the Reformation, the Thirty Years' War, Prussian militarism, the unification of Germany in 1871, World War I, the Weimar Republic, National Socialism, World War II, the post-war division of Germany, and reunification in 1990. A glass-and-steel extension building designed by I.M. Pei, opened in 2003, houses temporary exhibitions and connects to the historic Zeughaus via a glass bridge over the courtyard. The museum presents German history with critical scholarly rigour, maintaining a strong focus on the Third Reich period and its crimes within the broader narrative of German civilisation. Admission for visitors under 18 is free; the permanent collection costs €12 for adults.