The tripto catalogue lists 104 museums – from art collections and technology museums to hands-on places for children. All of them are indoors, so they work in any weather.
Museum Island in Berlin is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: five historic museums, from the bust of Nefertiti to Caspar David Friedrich, with one day ticket for all of them. The Deutsches Museum in Munich is one of the largest technology museums in the world, with aviation, space travel and hands-on stations. In Hamburg's Speicherstadt, Miniatur Wunderland shows the world's largest model railway, complete with an airport and a day-night cycle every 15 minutes. In Dresden's Royal Palace is the Green Vault, the Baroque treasury of Augustus the Strong. The Jewish Museum Berlin, in Daniel Libeskind's zigzag building, has a permanent exhibition with free entry, and the Ozeaneum in Stralsund has giant aquariums, life-size whale models and penguins on the roof.
Most museums in the catalogue are in Berlin (a dozen), Saxony (about 10), Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia (close to 10 each) and Hamburg. Among cities, Hamburg and Dresden follow Berlin.
In practice: allow two to four hours for a large museum. Tickets usually cost €10–24, and under-18s enter many state museums for free. Look out for cheap days: the Alte Pinakothek costs €1 on Sundays, and the Hamburger Kunsthalle is free on the first Thursday of the month from 6 pm. For Miniatur Wunderland and the Green Vault, book a time slot online.
Museums
Berlin
Museum Island in Berlin is one of the world's great museum complexes and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. On the northern tip of an island in the Spree River, five historic museums stand side by side, spanning thousands of years of…
Museums
Munich
The Deutsches Museum in Munich is one of the world's largest museums of science and technology and one of the top things to do in Munich, especially with kids or on a rainy day. Set on an island in the Isar River just outside the old town,…
Museums
Hamburg
Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg is the world's largest model railway and one of the most popular attractions in Germany. Inside a historic red-brick warehouse in the Speicherstadt district, twin brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun and their…
Museums
Dresden
The Green Vault in Dresden (Grünes Gewölbe) is one of the richest treasure chambers in Europe and a highlight of any trip to eastern Germany. Housed in Dresden's Royal Palace, it displays the jewels, gold work, ivory and rock crystal amass…
Museums
Berlin
The Jewish Museum Berlin in the Kreuzberg district is one of the most visited museums in the German capital and among the largest Jewish museums in Europe. It traces Jewish life in Germany from medieval communities to the present day, insi…
Museums
Stralsund
The Ozeaneum in Stralsund is one of northern Germany's most popular museums: a large aquarium and marine museum on the Baltic coast, with life-size whale models and Humboldt penguins on the roof. Its striking white, sail-like building stan…
Museums
Berlin
Museum Island in Berlin is one of the world's great museum complexes and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. On the northern tip of an island in the Spree River, five historic museums stand side by side, spanning thousands of years of…
Museums
Hamburg
Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg is the world's largest model railway and one of the most popular attractions in Germany. Inside a historic red-brick warehouse in the Speicherstadt district, twin brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun and their…
Museums
München
The Deutsches Museum in Munich is one of the world's largest museums of science and technology and one of the top things to do in Munich, especially with kids or on a rainy day. Set on an island in the Isar River just outside the old town,…
Museums
München
The BMW Museum in Munich is one of the top things to do in the Bavarian capital for anyone who loves cars, motorcycles or bold architecture. Housed in a silver "bowl" next to BMW's four-cylinder headquarters tower and opposite BMW Welt, it…
Museums
Stuttgart
The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart is one of Germany's great car museums and a must for anyone interested in how the automobile was born. It sits in the Bad Cannstatt district beside the company's Untertürkheim plant and tells the brand…
Museums
Dresden
The Green Vault in Dresden (Grünes Gewölbe) is one of the richest treasure chambers in Europe and a highlight of any trip to eastern Germany. Housed in Dresden's Royal Palace, it displays the jewels, gold work, ivory and rock crystal amass…
Museums
Frankfurt am Main
The Städel Museum in Frankfurt is one of Germany's most important art museums and the star of the city's Museum Embankment along the Main River. Its collection spans some 700 years of European art, from medieval altarpieces and Botticelli…
Museums
Berlin
The Humboldt Forum in Berlin is a vast museum and cultural center housed in the rebuilt Berlin Palace, right across from Museum Island in the historic heart of the city. Behind its reconstructed baroque facades you'll find world cultures c…
Museums
Berlin
The Jewish Museum Berlin in the Kreuzberg district is one of the most visited museums in the German capital and among the largest Jewish museums in Europe. It traces Jewish life in Germany from medieval communities to the present day, insi…
Museums
Berlin
The DDR Museum in Berlin brings everyday life in communist East Germany (the GDR, or DDR in German) to life through hands-on exhibits. Sit behind the wheel of a Trabant, open the drawers of a fully furnished prefab apartment, and step into…
Museums
München
The Alte Pinakothek in Munich is one of the world's great art museums, home to European Old Master paintings from the Middle Ages to the Rococo. In the city's museum quarter, the Kunstareal, you can stand in front of works by Dürer, Leonar…
Museums
Hamburg
The Hamburger Kunsthalle is Hamburg's great art museum, set right beside the main train station, with eight centuries of art from medieval altarpieces to contemporary installations. It is home to Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer above th…
Museums
Hamburg
The International Maritime Museum Hamburg (Internationales Maritimes Museum, IMMH) fills nine floors of a historic red-brick warehouse with ship models, paintings, navigation instruments and naval history. It sits between the UNESCO-listed…
Museums
Stralsund
The Ozeaneum in Stralsund is one of northern Germany's most popular museums: a large aquarium and marine museum on the Baltic coast, with life-size whale models and Humboldt penguins on the roof. Its striking white, sail-like building stan…
Museums
Dresden
The Old Masters Picture Gallery (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister) in Dresden is one of the great art museums of the world. Housed in the Semper Building at the Zwinger palace complex, it displays around 700 masterpieces from the 15th to the 18…
Museums
Köln
The Museum Ludwig in Cologne is one of Europe's leading museums of 20th- and 21st-century art, set right between Cologne Cathedral and the Rhine. It holds the largest Pop Art collection in Europe, the world's third-largest Picasso collecti…
Museums
Köln
The Chocolate Museum in Cologne (Schokoladenmuseum Köln) is the city's most visited museum and one of the most popular museums in Germany. Set in a ship-shaped glass building at the tip of the Rheinauhafen harbor peninsula, it follows coco…
Museums
Frankfurt am Main
The Goethe House (Goethe-Haus) in Frankfurt am Main is the family home where Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's most celebrated writer, was born and grew up. Furnished with period pieces, paintings and household objects, the elegant tow…
Museums
Frankfurt am Main
The Senckenberg Natural History Museum (Senckenberg Naturmuseum) in Frankfurt am Main is one of the largest natural history museums in Europe and a favorite with families. A replica Tyrannosaurus rex greets you outside; inside are dinosaur…
Museums
Leipzig
The Bach Museum Leipzig occupies the Baroque Bose House on St. Thomas Churchyard, right across from the church where Johann Sebastian Bach served as cantor for 27 years. Original manuscripts, a historic organ console and interactive media…
Museums
Leipzig
The Leipzig Panometer is a former gas holder in the south of Leipzig where artist Yadegar Asisi displays his gigantic 360-degree panoramas. You climb a viewing tower in the middle of the round hall and find yourself surrounded by a strikin…
Museums
Leipzig
The Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig (Museum der bildenden Künste, or MdbK) is one of Germany's major art museums, housed in a striking glass cube in the middle of the old town. Its collection runs from late medieval art and Old Masters such as…
Museums
Nürnberg
Albrecht Dürer's House in Nuremberg is the former home and workshop of Germany's most celebrated Renaissance artist. Dürer lived and worked in this striking half-timbered house by the Tiergärtnertor gate for almost two decades. Today it is…
Museums
Berlin
The Altes Museum (Old Museum) on Berlin's Museum Island is Karl Friedrich Schinkel's neoclassical masterpiece, facing the Lustgarten, and the oldest building on the island. Behind an 87-meter colonnade you will find the Antikensammlung, th…
Among the most visited are Museum Island in Berlin, the Deutsches Museum in Munich and Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. The BMW Museum, the Mercedes-Benz Museum and the Green Vault are also popular.
The permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin, the House of History in Bonn, the Contemporary History Forum in Leipzig and the Palace of Tears in Berlin are all free.
The Deutsches Museum, Miniatur Wunderland, the DDR Museum with its Trabant simulator and the Ozeaneum in Stralsund. At Miniatur Wunderland, children under 1 metre tall go free.
Usually €10–24: Deutsches Museum €16, Miniatur Wunderland €22, Museum Island day ticket €24, DDR Museum €13.90. Reductions for children and families are available almost everywhere.
Updated: · Opening hours and prices can change — check the attraction page before you go.