Other in Berlin

Comprehensive guide to Berlin Germany with information on Other.

Classical Music

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Musical Instrument Museum (Musikinstrumenten-Museum)

Tiergartenstr. 1, 10785 Berlin - Tiergarten | Tel: 25 48 10, Fax: no fax | S+U Postdamer Platz, Bus 142, 148, 129, 248, 341, 348, 200. | Price: DM4, DM2 concession, free under 6s, free first Sun of each month. Concerts and guided tour at 11 on Sat free for under 12s.| Times: Tue-Fri 9:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-17:00.

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Fancy yourself as the next Beethoven? Used to play the bassoon (or should we say, Fagott) in the school orchestra? Have a passing interest in the internal workings of a piano? Do we have a museum for you! The Musical Instrument Museum brings together over 2,200 instruments dating back to the 1500's. CD installations near the exhibits provide recordings of some of the more unfamiliar sounds, and if you´re there on a Saturday, a tour guide will be on hand to demonstrate everything from a 1930's pianola to the largest Wurlitzer organ in Europe. On any other day, attach yourself to the end of a school group for a similar effect. For the engineers, working models illustrate the mechanics and construction of the piano and various other instruments. And for those with a yearning to perform, there are demonstration instruments a-plenty, as well as a studio in the basement to play out your more private musical fantasies. Just lucky that music is an international language, as all the explanations are in German.

Gay Museum, Archive and Library (Schwules Museum)

www.schwulesmuseum.de
SchwulesMuseumeV@aol.com
Mehringdamm 61, 10965 Berlin - Kreuzberg | Tel: 693 11 72, Fax: 693 40 37 | U6 + U7 Mehringdamm | Prices: 7 € , 4 € (conc.) | Times: (Library) Wed - Sun 14:00 - 18:00, (exhibit) Mon, Wed-Fri 2-6pm, Sat 2-7pm, tour: Sat 5pm

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Located in the courtyard behind Melitta Sundström is the gay museum. The exhibitions vary in content. "The Association for the Reform of Sexual Laws" and "Berlin in the 1950s" are the themes of the current exhibit (14th July -18th Nov. 2001). The archive and library are upstairs from the museum. The collection of English fiction is big, and it´s free to read. The only drawback is that you can´t check the books out. The staff are helpful and speak English. Both the museum and archive are good resources for learning more about gay cultural history and current happenings in the gay world.

Beate Uhse Erotic Museum (Erotik-Museum)

Joachimstaler Str. 4, 10623 Berlin - Charlottenburg | Tel: 886 06 66, Fax: no fax | S+U Zoologischer Garten | Times: 9-24 | Price: € 10, conc. € 8.

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Standing proudly on the corner of the seediest looking block in Berlin is the Beate Uhse Erotic Museum. Starting on the third floor and working down (draw your own parallels), the exhibition opens with a collection of 18th Century Oriental drawings of sex scenes accompanied by sexual accessories and virility charms. However, the eroticism is kept in check by the guilt of being there as it all comes across as a bit of a male dominated "sport". Small sections of the museum are dedicated to the artist Heinrich Zille and the sexual scientist Magnus Hirschfeld but are under-sized, presumably to make way for the chastity belts and large models of penises. "But what about the Queen of the Rubber Willy herself?", I hear you ask. Yes, Beate Uhse gets her own shrine informing us about all we ever wanted to know about her extremely privileged life including everything from documents of her Luftwaffe days to pictures of her at the helm of a large speedboat. All in all, one gets the impression that the museum was put in place only to justify a visit to the video cabins and sex superstore on the lower floors which are, to reinforce an old stereotype which the exhibition had attempted to destroy, full of middle-aged men in raincoats.

Ethnological Museum (Ethnologisches Museum)

Lansstrasse 8, 14195 Berlin - Dahlem | Tel: 830 1438, Fax: no fax | U2 Dahlem Dorf | Tickets: DM4, DM2 Concs.| Times: Tues.-Fri. 10:00-18:00, Sat.-Sun. 11:00-18:00.

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The recent addition of an American Indian exhibit to the Ethnological Museum's rather dusty collection has been the subject of international attention. The exhibition explores the depiction of Native American Indians, ranging from the tomahawk-wielding redmen in Karl Mai's popular Winnitou stories, to the much older stereotypical image of whisky-slugging sloths. Explanations are in English and German. Other notable exhibits include the collection of (Mayan) gold and the South Sea collection of sea vessels. In some sections English information sheets are available for DM0.10, in others sections explanations for non-German speakers have to come from the imagination.

Filmmuseum Potsdam

Marstall , 14467 Potsdam | Tel: (0331) 710 319, Fax: no fax | Transport: S7 Potsdam Stadt | Times: Tues - Sun 10am - 6pm | Tickets: DM4, € 2 concs.

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Situated in the former royal stables, excellent museum documenting the history of German Cinema. Good cinema too, and cafe.