Museum for German History

On 20 October 1951 the seventh plenary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) called for the establishment of a museum of German history "to enlighten the population and especially young people".

The formal foundation was on 18 January 1952 in East Berlin and its first displays opened on 5 July that year in what had been a business school at 26 Clara-Zetkin-Straße,[2] until the restoration of the museum's intended home, the Zeughaus, was sufficiently complete in March 1953.

[3] A team of 85 historians, curators and conservators created the initial permanent display under severe time pressure, only completing as far as 1848 by opening day and adding the rest by 1953.

It was slightly adapted to the changing times in the 1960s but even after an early 1980s renovation (reworking "From Prehistory to Liberation from Fascism" in 1981 and the section on the GDR's history in 1984) its essential character remained unchanged.

Until the 1970s they aimed to present progressive traditions in what was then West and East Germany but during the 1980s they became more internationalist, interpreting German history in the context of socialism's international development.