Germany 1918-1933 on the Unter den Linden, Berlin

The German Historical Museum, founded in 1987 but not in its current premises at Unter den Linden 2 until 1990, is a must for anyone interested in German history. Recently they housed an exhibition focused on the Weimar Republic. But there is also a permanent exhibition on the same subject.

"The Permanent Exhibition in the Zeughaus provides a comprehensive overview of around 1500 years of German history in its European context. The tour through the upper floor leads from the Middle Ages to the end of the First World War and, continuing on the ground floor, from the Weimar Republic to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Whereas the exhibition Weimar: The Essence and Value of Democracy deals with central challenges to democracy as seen in the example of the Weimar Republic, the Permanent Exhibition of the Deutsches Historisches Museum offers extensive insight into the historical developments and upheavals of the time. It highlights the political situation of the German Reich after the First World War and shows how the young Weimar Republic achieved a phase of normalisation despite the serious economic crises.

The great variety of objects provide evidence of the flourishing cultural scene of the 1920s as well as the battle of left-wing and right-wing extremists against the democratic order. The Permanent Exhibition depicts how the situation escalated in the face of social misery and unemployment during the global economic crisis and how the population became

increasingly politically radicalised. It records the process by which the NSDAP developed into a party of the masses to become the strongest faction in the Reichstag and by which the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of the Reich on 30 January 1933 signalled the end of the Weimar Republic."

Poster from the Christian Party, mostly Catholic

Not particularly subtle anti-communist poster from 1919

There is an audioguide in several languages : German, Chinese, ­English, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Russian and Turkish.