Bezoek aan het Museum für Kommunication Berlijn

Museum für Kommunication Berlin

Stickers on a lamp post
Stickers on a lamp post

Today I visited the Museum for Kommunication in Berlin. I had been looking forward to this and expectations were high. They have a marvellous collection and I hoped to learn and see a lot.

But I must say I was a quite disappointed. On entry they noticed my reflex camera and told me I was not allowed to take pictures.

SAY WHAT! That was my first and biggest disappointment. What a silly rule! And this was a first for the many museums I visited in Germany so far. This information was not on their website.

ZBSA 11
ZBSA 11

After buying my ticket the man at the shop went on to tell my I could not take my backpack inside, and I had to leave it at the cloak room.

Upon arrival there I noticed there were no lockers and I pointed out I had a very expensive camera and I did not want to leave it in an open area. So I was told I had to go to another part of the building where there were lockers. After some searching I found them near the toilets, but they were not easy to find and sofar this museum was failing big time on its main subject, communication.

Fasse dich kurz
Fasse dich kurz

I had intended to take a lot of pictures for reference and study, so not being able to take pictures freely meant my learning opportunity was over. Please mind that I took the good camera to the museum while my wife and kids were of to the LEGO discovery centre near the Potsdammer platz.

So I had to resort to taking pictures secretly with my mobile phone. And that meant playing cat and mouse games with the museum staff.

I caught one having a nap on a chair in the corner, but before I could take his picture he opened his eyes. Pity. 🙂

Hildesheim telephone
Hildesheim telephone

The museum itself? Well it has a nice collection on display in a very beautifull grand old building. But the way the collections was displayed was not very informative.

Museum für Kommunication telephone collection
Museum für Kommunication telephone collection

They also tended to put the older things up the wall quite high, so they were very hard to see in detail. Some of the objects were 3,5 mtrs high!

Why do you put mr Siemens’ revolutionary butterstamp telephone so high up, behind glass with bright lights on it so nobody can really see it for the reflection?

And I missed the story about how they related to each other. How did these things develop and what did that mean to the way we live, our society, our history. They were just grouped together, number and given some information that was sometimes inaccurate. By the way, being limited in taking pictures I cannot substantiate that last remark, so you’ll have to take my word for it. 🙂

Siemens & Halske system 22 exchange
Siemens & Halske system 22 exchange

Instead there were some exhibitions about more conceptual things, like getting older (?) and some vague touch and feel installations the purpose of which was unclear, but great amusement to the smaller children, while their parents tried to keep them from shouting through the echoing high ceilinged corridors.

And there were some retro robots moving around in the main hall, talking to themselves. I am sure it is all communication, but it seems the museum does not really know what to do with their beautifull collection.

On dating Siemens telephones
On dating Siemens telephones

The shop was full of trinkets and expensive designer stuff. Not much on their collections.

So, I had a nice after time, but learned little and what I learned I could not take with me.

I did buy one of the museums magazins with a great article about dating Siemens phones. Now that is more like it!

Dallmayr lunch
Dallmayr lunch

Did have a very nice, very German lunch at the Dalmayr connected to the museum. White sausages with bretzel, sweet mustard and a very decent cup of cofee. 🙂

2 Comments

  1. Sad to hear about your Berlin experience, but Berlin is known not to be the most friendliest city in Germany. Even we Germans know that “Berliner Schnauze”. Next time try to visit Bavaria (München and Region), there things will be much easier!

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