Invitation to the Press Tour
Wednesday, 6 May 2026 at 11 am
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,
We are pleased to invite you to the Press Tour on
Wednesday, 6 May at 11 am in the
Pei Building (ground floor) of the Deutsches Historisches Museum.
Speakers:
Raphael Gross, President of the Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum
Wolfgang Cortjaens, Curator of the exhibition and Head of the Applied Arts and Graphics Collections
Dorlis Blume, Project Manager of the exhibition
It is possible to view the exhibition starting at 10 am in the Pei Building (ground floor). The curator’s tour takes place in German.
An amber board game set from Königsberg made in 1607, Queen Luise’s dressing gown from 1806, the poster for the East Berlin exhibition “40 Years of the GDR”, and the bunk bed salvaged from a refugee shelter in Kassel in 2015 – the collection of the Deutsches Historisches Museum comprises around one million objects that bear witness to German history. From 8 May 2026 to
31 October 2027, the DHM will present a selection of some 200 items, some of which have never been shown before, including surprising finds and new acquisitions. The exhibition “Objects. History. Stories. Reviewing the Collection” in the Pei Building offers insights into the practice of collecting and examines the items on display in terms of their provenance and significance.
In the first part of the exhibition, Wolfgang Cortjaens, curator and Head of the Applied Arts and Graphics Collections, focuses on the DHM’s collection itself, which, over the course of its 150-year history, has become a historical witness in its own right. The exhibition tour follows defining eras in the institution’s eventful history between 1883 and 2006. The Zeughaus, originally built as a representative armoury for the Prussian kings in the early 18th century, housed the “Hall of Fame of the Brandenburg-Prussian Army” from 1883 onwards. Its subsequent history in the 20th century includes the building’s further utilisation, initially by the Nazi regime as a military museum, and from 1952, as the central socialist history museum of the GDR, the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte (MfDG). Following reunification in 1990, the Deutsches Historisches Museum, founded three years earlier in West Berlin, took over the Zeughaus and its collections. In 2003, the post-modern exhibition hall designed by Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei supplemented the Baroque building.
This part of the exhibition displays objects and ensembles that represent the collection’s focus and the historical perspective of the respective era. Whether a jacket from a Prussian infantry uniform, a Japanese samurai armour set given to Adolf Hitler by the Imperial Military Reservists’ Association, a socialist table centrepiece presented as a state gift from North Vietnam to the GDR, or the first print of the German-language Declaration of Independence of the United States of America – exhibits have always carried political significance. The practice of collecting was never arbitrary.
History is usually understood as a sequence and change over time. But it also tells of shifts in location. The exhibition therefore views history from a particular perspective: in the second part of the exhibition, places, locations, and regions take centre stage.
Selected object histories tell of contested spheres of influence, of court diplomacy, of colonisation, and the exploration of new trade routes, as well as of vanished places, borders, flight and exile. The tour therefore does not follow a strict chronology, but rather shows the tense changing interrelationships between the different eras.
Please send personal accreditation requests by 5 pm on 5 May 2026 to presse@dhm.de
Please note the following guidelines and the registration form:
- The press event on 6 May 2026 takes place only within the time slot of 10 am (beginning of accreditation and exhibition preview) to
2 pm. - We request you to register for the press tour. Non-accredited persons can only be permitted to attend if capacity is available.
- Individual interviews are possible after prior application. Please address requests for interviews and shootings in advance to presse@dhm.de.
- Photos and extensive press information about the exhibition: DHM-Press Room