Fodor's Expert Review Museum der Dinge

The Museum der Dinge or “Museum of Things” is exactly that—a collection of stuff that represents the best, the worst, and the quirkiest in 20th-century and contemporary design. Although there are a lot of things here, a museum for hoarders this is not. The objects come from the archive of the Deutsches Werkbund (DWB), a hundred-year-old, quasi-utopian consortium that sought perfection in everyday construction and design. The thousands of things are housed in a former factory building on Kreuzberg’s busy Oranienstrasse and arranged beautifully by color, material, or use. Browsing the exhibition, one is hit not only by the sheer volume of what was created in the last century, but also by the impressive range—Soviet kitsch toys stand near mobile phones, delicate dishware next to industrial tools. Don’t miss the so-called Frankfurt Kitchen a space-saving prototype kitchen from the 1920s that was meant to be replicated over 10,000 times in various housing estates.