Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day.

Its entrance hall is situated on Kartäusergasse which was transformed by the Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan to the Way of Human Rights (German: Straße der Menschenrechte).

The Germanisches Museum, as it was named initially, was founded by a group of individuals led by the Franconian baron Hans von und zu Aufsess, whose goal was to assemble a "well-ordered compendium of all available source material for German history, literature and art".

In 1846, German linguists and historians, amongst them the Brothers Grimm, Leopold Ranke and Jacob Burckhardt, had met in Frankfurt, and decided to use "Germanistik" as a comprehensive term embracing all the fields of their academic disciplines related to the culture of German-speaking regions.

The work of the institution is guided by the principle of respect for all cultures, so that all human beings can understand what the museum communicates, independent of their upbringing, education, and religious beliefs.

It incorporates the remaining structures of the former Nuremberg Charterhouse (German: Kartäuserkloster), dissolved in 1525 and thereafter used for a variety of secular purposes until in 1857 what was left of these premises, by then badly dilapidated, was given to the museum.

Some random examples of the collection are shown here: The Germanisches Nationalmuseum is a public law foundation supported by the Federal Republic of Germany, the state of Bavaria and the city of Nuremberg.