Museums for the Money
Berlin Offers one of the World's Best Selections

Dateline: 9/09/01

When you think of places with great museums, I'm sure Paris, Rome, London, and New York spring to mind immediately. There are a few other cities you might put near the front of the line, too: Washington, Florence, or maybe Amsterdam.

I'm suggesting you add Berlin to that list.

There are few cities in the world where you can visit a greater variety of exhibitions. In fact, if you decided to spend one full day at each of Berlin's museums, you'd need to budget for six months worth of food and lodging!

That might be a bit much for most of us. But Berlin has enough museum space to interest just about anyone for a day or two.

To make matters even more attractive, Berlin has just opened what promises to be one of Europe's best new attractions.

Jewish Museum: The Holocaust and More

It has been in the planning stages for years--a museum dedicated to the rich history of Jews in Germany.

There are many sites in the country where holocaust victims are remembered: the former Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps are two examples. The new Jewish Museum in Berlin will cover that horrific subject in great detail, and well it should.

But the museum also strives to document roughly 2000 years of Jewish history in Germany.

"I find it very fitting that this is a place of memory, not only for those killed but also for life over many centuries," museum director Michael Blumenthal recently told CNN.

That life includes some of the world's great composers, writers, and thinkers.

To get to Jewish Museum, Take U-Bahn trains U1, U6, or U15, to the Hallesches Tor stop, or U6 to Kochstraße. Bus 129 arrives there, too, on the Oranienstraße./Lindenstraße route. If you're driving or on foot, the address is Lindenstraße 9-14.

Admission is a modest 10 DM ($4.65 USD) for adults, 5 DM ($2.32) for children six and older. A family pass that admits two adults and up to four children is 20 DM ($9.27).

Off to the Island

Beyond the Jewish Museum, there is much to see at other Berlin exhibits. Many people start at Museum Island.

Unlike Jewish Museum, the collection of buildings between the Spree River and Kupfergraben is not new. The project was started in 1830, and the buildings were built to resemble Greek temples. They've survived war literally at their doorsteps. In fact, if you look closely at the outside walls of the buildings, you will see bullet holes from battles of World War Two.

If you're an Indiana Jones fan, you know the Germans have been among the world's greatest archeologists. Their impressive work is displayed in four astounding museums: Altes Museum, Bodemuseum, Neues Museum and Pergamon Museum.

Altes (Old) Museum houses a large collection of classical antiquities. Even the facade is an imposing, impressive Romantic-classical work of art.

Bodemuseum, at this writing, is largely closed for modernization. Some of the displays have been moved to other nearby buildings.

Neues (New) Museum took the brunt of war damage, and has been under restoration since 1986. Remember, much of this work was delayed for decades because the city and its resources were divided. Neues will house Egyptian and Pre-Historic treasures.

Perhaps the most talked-about of the island group is the Pergamon, which stands as a tribute to archeologists and their work in Greece. The Germans excavated an entire Greek city in the early part of the 20th century.

Among the amazing displays is Pergamon's city altar, built to honor the Greek god Zeus. It was carefully extracted, moved and then reconstructed inside the building, with careful attention to detail or simulation of whatever was missing. This site alone is worth the trip to Museum Island.

Years ago, I visited the Deutsches Museum in Munich and was greatly disappointed to find many exhibits only described in German. That is not a problem here: the museum provides an audio device that plays descriptions in a number of languages. You only need to punch in the number of each exhibit and then listen.

You can reach Museum Island via U-Bahn and S-Bahn station Friedrichstrasse; S-Bahn station Hackesche Markt, Bus numbers 100, 157, 348 (Lustgarten), 147 (Universitätsstrasse).

Bus 100 is the famed "tourist bus" that makes a large circle of major sites in the city. Fares are cheap, but bring your money belt. Pickpockets have been known to ply their sordid trade here at times.

Admission is free to the Pergamon the first Sunday of each month. At other times, they charge 8 DM ($3.75 USD).