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Jewish Museum Berlin
Address:
Lindenstra?e, 9-14
The idea to establish a Jewish Museum
was voiced in 1971, the year in which Berlin's Jewish community
commemorated its 300th anniversary. At the community's suggestion,
the exhibition "Achievement and Destiny" was displayed
in the Berlin Museum.
The "Association for a Jewish Museum" was founded
in 1975. Towards the end of 1978, the Berlin Museum first displayed
an exhibition of the new acquisitions for a future Jewish Museum.
1983 saw an historical exhibit on Berlin synagogues. From 1986
to 1998 three additional galleries were opened on the third
floor of the Martin-Gropius-Bau (the former museum of design,
now named after its architect).
For additional exhibition room in the Jewish Department of the
Berlin Museum, it launched an architecture competition for an
extension of the Berlin Museum. Competing against 165 other
architects, Daniel Libeskind won the competition in June 1989.
The foundation stone for the extension building was laid in
November 1992 and the topping-out ceremony celebrated in May
1995. The Libeskind Building was finished in 1998.
The zinc-panelled Libeskind building is an unusual structure.
It sets new architectural standards by creating a close relationship
between the museum's themes and its architecture. The richly
symbolic building visualizes German-Jewish history and appeals
its visitor's senses and feelings. The tragic history of deported
and murdered Jews and emigrants becomes as substantial as the
vitality of contemporary Jewish life in Germany.
On 9 September, 2001, the opening of the museum with its exhibition
"Two Millennia of German Jewish History" was celebrated
with the German president and chancellor and a further 850 prominent
guests from Germany and abroad.
The permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin offers
visitors a journey through German-Jewish history and culture,
from its earliest testimonies, through the Middle Ages and up
to the present.
The Jewish Museum Berlin has proved to be a focal attraction
with nearly 660.000 visitors in 2002 and just as many in 2003,
making it one of Germany's most visited museums. Offering guided
tours, temporary exhibitions, and a diverse calendar of events
including scientific symposia, concerts, talks, workshops for
kids and teens to name but a few, the museum has secured its
reputation as a lively center for Jewish history and culture.
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