Berlin Musical Instrument Museum

Objects include a portable harpsichord once owned by Prussia's Queen Sophie Charlotte, flutes from the collection of Frederick the Great, and Benjamin Franklin's glass harmonica.

Thirty-four instruments from the Museum of Decorative Arts, which had once been heard at the state court of the Kingdom of Prussia, formed the basis of the collection.

In 1902 over 1,400 instruments from the private collection Ghent Attorney César Snoeck [fr] were acquired, including four 17th century Ruckers harpsichords as well as one of the few original transverse flutes by Jean Hotteterre.

[5] In the immediate aftermath of the war, what was left of the museum and institute was directly administered by the government of West Berlin and in 1949 moved to temporary quarters at Charlottenburg Palace.

In 1950, on the 200th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, the institute held its first chamber concert on the museum's historical instruments in the Oak Gallery of the palace.

Alfred Berner, director until 1975, largely succeeded in rebuilding the museum and in addition a comprehensive library focusing on organology.