The DDR Museum

The DDR Museum is the place to understand what life was actually like in the German Democratic Republic, the East German state that existed from 1949 to 1990, and it does it in the most engaging way of any history museum in Berlin. Rather than glass cases and long panels, the exhibition is built to be touched, opened and tried: you can climb into a Trabant, the plastic-bodied little car that East Germans waited years to buy, and take a simulated drive through a concrete housing estate; open drawers and cupboards to find school books, toys, clothes and food packaging; and wander through a full-size reconstruction of a flat in a typical prefabricated tower block, complete with its brown furniture, kitchen and television showing East German programmes. The museum covers the good memories many East Germans had, from holiday camps and nudist beaches to youth clubs and full employment, alongside the reality of a one-party dictatorship: surveillance by the Stasi, the secret police, with a listening station where you can eavesdrop on a flat, a reconstructed detention cell and interrogation room, propaganda, shortages and the Wall itself. The museum sits on the bank of the Spree in the Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse, directly opposite Berlin Cathedral and a minute from Museum Island, in a basement-level space that can feel crowded at peak times, which is part of the reason to book a ticket ahead. Admission is moderate, in the low to mid teens in euros for adults, with reductions for students and children, and the museum is open daily, with long hours. Texts are in German and English, and an audio guide and app add detail. It is privately run and popular, so the best times are first thing in the morning or in the evening.

How to visit: allow about an hour and a half. The exhibition is divided into themes, from public life and the state to private life and ideology, and you can move freely between them, but most people end up spending longest in the prefab flat and at the Trabant. The Stasi section is serious and well done, and the cell and interrogation room give a chilling sense of what it meant to fall foul of the state. If you are interested in the darker side, combine the visit with the former Stasi prison at Hohenschoenhausen or the Stasi Museum in the old headquarters in Lichtenberg, both further out but very powerful.

Who it suits: teenagers and families with children over about eight love it, because everything can be touched, and adults who grew up in the West or outside Germany find it fascinating to see the textures of daily life in the East. Some historians have criticised the museum for being too nostalgic, too much about Ostalgie, the affectionate memory of East German products and habits, but it is honest about the dictatorship, and it works best as a complement to the Berlin Wall Memorial, which shows the border, and the East Side Gallery, which shows the celebration. Visitors with mobility issues should note that the museum is on a lower level close to the water.

Around it: the museum is part of a cluster of sights in the old centre. Berlin Cathedral is directly across the river, Museum Island and the Lustgarten are a few minutes' walk, and the TV Tower, the great symbol of the GDR's ambitions, rises a few hundred metres east. Combination tickets with the TV Tower, Museum Island and other attractions are available, and many Spree cruises leave from the riverbank close by. For lunch, walk to the Nikolaiviertel or Hackescher Markt, both a few minutes away.