Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting There:
Take the U-Bahn to Hallesches Tor, find the exit marked
Jüdisches Mu-
seum,
exit straight ahead, then turn right on Franz-Klühs-Strasse. The museum is a five-
minute walk ahead on your left, at Lindenstrasse 9.
Eating:
The museum's restaurant, Liebermanns, offers good Jewish-style meals, albeit
not kosher (€9 daily specials, lunch served 12:00-16:00, snacks at other times, tel. 030/
2593-9760).
Visiting the Museum:
Designed by American architect Daniel Libeskind (the master
planner for the redeveloped World Trade Center in New York), the zinc-walled building has
azigzagshapepiercedbyvoidssymbolicoftheirreplaceableculturallosscausedbytheHo-
locaust. Enter the 18th-century Baroque building next door,then gothrough an underground
tunnel to reach the museum interior.
Before you reach the exhibit, your visit starts with three
memorial spaces.
Follow the
Axis of Exile to a disorienting slanted garden with 49 pillars (evocative of the Memorial to
theMurderedJewsofEurope,acrosstown).Next,theAxisofHolocaust,linedwithartifacts
from Jews imprisoned and murdered by the Nazis, leads to an eerily empty tower shut off
from the outside world. The Axis of Continuity takes you to stairs and the main exhibit. A
detourpartwayupthelongstairwayleadstotheMemoryVoid,acompellingspaceof“fallen
leaves”: heavy metal faces that you walk on, making unhuman noises with each step.
Finish climbing the stairs to the top of the museum, and stroll chronologically through
the 2,000-year
story of Judaism
in Germany. The exhibit, on two floors, is engaging, with
lots of actual artifacts. Interactive bits (you can, for example, spell your name in Hebrew, or
write a prayer and hang it from a tree) make it lively for kids. English explanations interpret
both the exhibits and the design of the very symbolic building.
The top floor focuses on everyday life in Ashkenaz (medieval German-Jewish lands).
The nine-minute movie “A Thousand Years Ago” sets the stage for your journey through
Jewish history. You'll learn what garlic had to do with early Jews in Germany (hint: It's not
just about cooking). The Middle Ages were a positive time for Jewish culture, which flour-
ished then in many areas of Europe. But around 1500, many Jews were expelled from the
countryside and moved into cities. Viewing stations let you watch nine short, lively videos
that pose provocative questions about faith. Moses Mendelssohn's role in the late-18th-cen-
tury Jewish Enlightenment, which gave rise to Reform Judaism, is highlighted. The Tradi-
tion and Change exhibit analyzes how various subgroups of the Jewish faith modified and
relaxed their rules to adapt to a changing world.
Downstairs, on the middle floor, exhibits detail the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Ger-
many through the 19th century—ironically, at a time when many Jews were so secularized
that they celebrated Christmas right along with Hanukkah. Berlin's glory days (1890-1933)
were a boom time for many Jews, though it was at times challenging to reconcile the re-
formed ways of the more assimilated western (German) Jews with the more traditional
