Ethnological Museum of Berlin Museum

Address: Ethnologisches Museum, Museum Island / Humboldt Forum area, Berlin (check current site as displays have been moving)

Website: https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/ethnologisches-museum/

Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00am-6:00pm, closed Mondays (hours vary seasonally)

Admission: Adult €10-€12 (approx.); concessions and combined passes with other Staatliche Museen collections available

The Ethnological Museum of Berlin (Ethnologisches Museum) is a major German museum housing extensive collections of non-European cultural material and ethnographic artefacts. The institution forms part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and plays a central role in the city’s ethnographic exhibitions and research.

The museum’s collections grew from 19th-century ethnographic acquisitions and have been developed, researched and expanded by successive curatorial and academic programmes. Over time the institution has reorganized displays and shared objects across Berlin museum sites to support new exhibition concepts and the city-wide museum network.

The museum’s Dahlem campus sits in the southwestern Berlin district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf and forms part of a university and cultural quarter; collection management and exhibition activities are distributed between Dahlem and other Berlin museum sites.

• Museum network: Part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin network, with collections displayed across multiple sites in the city including showings at the Humboldt Forum and the Dahlem campus.
• Collection size: Collections comprise hundreds of thousands of objects and are a major resource for ethnographic research and exhibitions in Germany.

What to See#

• Permanent collections: Collections covering cultural material from Africa, Oceania, the Americas and parts of Asia, used for rotating displays and research by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
• Research and storage areas: Research and storage facilities where object conservation, cataloguing and scholarly work on ethnographic material are carried out; these support exhibitions across Berlin institutions.

The Ethnological Museum is located in central Berlin; transport options depend on which building houses the current displays (the collections have been transitioning into the Humboldt Forum). Use S-Bahn or U-Bahn to central stations (Berlin Hauptbahnhof or Museumsinsel area) and walk or take local buses.

• Photographing inside some rooms may be restricted-ask before using flash
• Allow time for the non-European collections; they include striking carved objects and textiles often missed by visitors focused on the palace rooms
• Combine a visit with the nearby Humboldt Forum and Neues Museum to see complementary ethnographic displays