Lange Nacht der Museen

Last Saturday (I am a little behind on my posts, I know) was die Lange Nacht der Museen (the long night of museums) here in Berlin.  This event happens twice a year, once in both summer and winter, where almost every museum in Berlin stays open until 2 am.  For 10 Euros you can have access to almost every museum for 8 hours, such a great deal.  We started our night off at the DDR Museum.  This museum features all the "great"/"different" aspects of life in East Berlin during the Cold War.  This museum was very interactive, with tons of little artifacts hiding in drawers and even a interrogation room.  The first thing I noticed was how crowded everything was.  People were everywhere despite the below freezing temperatures.

Next we hit the up the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) to see the Hitler und die Deutschen Volksgemeinschaft und Verbrechen (Hitler and the German People's Community and Crime).  This was a well designed, powerful exhibit.  It provided information on how it was possible for Hitler and the Nazi's to rise to power after the First World War.  It was frightening to see all the propaganda and pictures of violence that occurred during this time.

After seeing so many images of Hitler I needed something a little lighter to finish the night off.  We decided to go the Deutsche Kinemathek Museum Fur Film und Fernsehen.  Everywhere in this museum there are artifacts from when motion pictures started until after WWII.  Also there are short movies playing in every room, it was really nice to stop in each room and watch these old relics.  All the information was presented in chronological order, which made it cool to see how films developed over the ages.

Even with 8 hours to work with we barely scratched the surface of Berlin's museums.  The major disappoint of the night was the Pergamon, for it was closed for this long night.  When we started out I never thought we would stay in museums until 2 am but these exhibits were so engaging it was easy to lose track of time. I thought this was a really cool way to encourage people to actually expand their minds on a Saturday night, without heading to the bar.  It would be nice to see something like this in America.