German Historical Museum

The Deutsches Historisches Museum (DHM) is Germany's national museum of its own history, right in the historic center of Berlin on the grand boulevard Unter den Linden. Its main building is the Zeughaus, the old arsenal begun in 1695 partly to designs by Andreas Schlüter, making it the oldest surviving building on the street. The museum itself was founded on October 28, 1987 for Berlin's 750th anniversary, and it has been run as a public foundation since 2008.

Directly behind the Zeughaus stands the glass annex designed by the world-famous architect Ieoh Ming Pei and completed in 2003. Across four floors and roughly 29,000 square feet (2,700 square meters), the Pei building hosts rotating special exhibitions devoted to major themes and figures in German and European history. The annex's sweeping glass staircase has become a landmark of modern Berlin architecture in its own right and is worth seeing on its own.

One thing to know before you plan: the Baroque Zeughaus, with the large permanent exhibition "German History in Images and Artifacts," has been closed since June 2021 for a comprehensive renovation, and as of 2026 no reopening date had been announced. The Pei building with its temporary exhibitions is open and running normally. Check the official website to see which exhibitions are on, and budget roughly two to three hours depending on the program.