Leipziger Platz 9. Tel.: +49 30 398200451, email: info@deutsches-spionagemuseum.de
The German Spy Museum is a private museum in Berlin's Mitte district, which was first opened on September 19, 2015 as the Spy Museum Berlin. It is located in the Leipziger Platz 9 building, directly at the Potsdamer Platz underground station. In an interactive and multimedia exhibition, the museum shows the history of espionage and intelligence services worldwide. Particular emphasis is placed on the history of espionage in Berlin during the Cold War and current developments.
On around three thousand square meters, the museum shows more than
five hundred exhibits from its own collection, which includes more than
1,200 items, as well as items on loan. Exhibits include two original
Enigma cipher machines, rare CIA and KGB spy cameras, and props from
James Bond films. The exhibits are mostly original and are complemented
by replicas. The presentation of the exhibits is supported by multimedia
installations. Most of the exhibits can be experienced 360° on
touchscreens, and transparent liquid crystal displays containing
information are used in the majority of the exhibition showcases. In
addition, interactive stations offer visitors the opportunity to try out
espionage techniques themselves.
The exhibition includes the
following thematic priorities:
The history of espionage from
antiquity to modern times
First World War
Second World War
cryptology
Cold War (intelligence services in East and West Germany)
Agent Equipment
Dead mailboxes and containers
listening devices
reproduction devices
camera hides
spy cameras
Animals as Spies
conspiracy theories and espionage
Glienicker Bridge (agent exchange)
Intelligence and Love ("Honey Traps")
weapons and poison
Espionage
in Fiction
double agents
Intelligence Operations
Espionage in
the present and future
In addition, there are the following
installations:
Spywatch (simulated surveillance in the entrance area)
agent portraits
Contemporary witness steles (hanging elements with
contemporary witness interviews)
lie detector
crack safe
Ancient encryption techniques (Skytale, cipher disk)
Interactive
message encryption station
Password hacker
Observation Trabant
(vehicle with infrared camera)
morse station
Model of the
Glienicke Bridge
Spy Map (digital map for locating espionage
activities in Berlin during the Cold War)
Laserparcours (an obstacle
course made up of laser beams)
bug search
Cryptographic Laboratory
Hacker station (website hack simulation)
Ball track (interactive
installation for evaluating big data)
After twelve years of planning, development and conception by the founder Franz-Michael Günther, the Berlin Spy Museum was opened in the public building on Leipziger Platz on September 19, 2015. After the operating company Welt der Spione GmbH went bankrupt in April 2016, the museum was finally taken over in July 2016 by a new operating company headed by Robert Rückel, founder of the DDR Museum Berlin, and renamed the German Spy Museum. 2018 saw the start of a complete overhaul of the permanent exhibition, adding new interactive installations, rare exhibits and media content. On August 14, 2019, the museum welcomed its one millionth visitor. The revision of the exhibition was completed in November 2019. In total, the museum now has more than 30 interactive installations. In 2020 the German Spy Museum was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award.