Prussian Museums

Berlin: I would start with the DHM (German Historic Museum), Prussia was existing through few epochs of German history.

Also a walking tour through the eastern center of Berlin will help you to explore some of the buildings which were built by Prussian kings.

In and around Berlin you will find a lot of Prussian palaces and historic buildings. Remarkable are Charlottenburg Palace with exhibition "The Prussian Royal House" as well as the Neues Palais in Potsdam - some also like Sanssouci.

A lot of relevant links and tips you will find on the page of Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

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Until 1866 Hanover was a kingdom on its own for a long part of the history (proceeding the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg).

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Therefore the next Prussian "branch" was in Westphalia and Ruhr area. Still today some well known football clubs wear the name "Borussia" which is Latin for Prussia, e.g. Borussia Dortmund. Still today there is something like an emotional axis between Berlin and the Ruhr area.

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Also Hamburg and Lübeck were independent cities for a long time. In Lüeck definitely worth a visit - even not Prussian - is the Hanse Museum.

Hi,

There are several Prussian museums in North Germany. How far do you want to go?

In Potsdam about 15 mins from Potsdam Hbf, once you cross the bridge is the Brandenburg-Preußen Museum.. I have only seen this museum once.

In Wustrau/Brandenburg is the Preußen Museum, I saw it once, very good, compare and contrast it with the one in Potsdam. Have a rental car to get out here.

In the Hamburg area...there are two, one in Pinneberg bei Hamburg,... take the S-Bahn from Hamburg Hbf. This museum focuses on a peninsula that was part of East Prussia, ie the Samland peninsula.

The second one is in Lüneburg... the East Prussian Landesmuseum on Ritterstrasse 10, three floors on history, flora and fauna, life, 1914 and the horrors of WW2, culture, plus special exhibits.

West of Hannover is the town of Minden an der Weser. The Preußen in Westfalen Museum is within walking distance from the train station, shows a lot of the history going back to the 1600s since Prussian lands were fragmented in the west.

I've only listed those museums within the geographic area you list. There are still other Prussian museums further afield not in the areas you list.

How much time are you devoting to seeing these museums?

f you had to pick one in the greater Berlin area, then I suggest the museum in Wustrau/.Brandenburg. The Tourist Office in Potsdam Hbf has the museum's brochure...only in German.

In the Hamburg area, I would suggest the museum in Lüneburg. Be prepared to spend some time there , all the more so if you intend on reading all the explanations, if you have a good reading level of German.

The museums I listed above all have their explanations given only in German, unlike the Ger. History Museum (DHM) which has English and German explanations adjacent to each other.

Prussia was comprised of many historical states and territories. Most of them have their own Landesmuseum (state museum), even the territories that were lost after WW2 (Silesia in Görlitz, Pomerania in Greifswald, East Prussia in Lüneburg). Your husband's ancestors most probably had a shared identity. Prussian and Silesian for example. Being Prussian was more like a state of mind.
A dedicated Prussian museum, of the same standards and size as the state museums, doesn't exist, as far as I know. Which is a shame. The history museums of Berlin, located on the territory of (historical) Brandenburg, the heartland of Prussia, partly cover the history of Prussia, but won't tell you much about the life in Silesia or Pomerania, for example.

I would highly recommend two days in Potsdam. Despite the destructions of WW2 this is still the most Prussian city of the country. You can find the humble beginnings (weaver's quarter in Babelsberg), the ascent to a European superpower (Sanssouci), the Prussian virtues that made it happen (modesty: Sanssouci palace, tomb of Frederick II, two-storey houses in the old town; tolerance: Dutch, Russian, Bohemian quarter, French church), the enlightened state of the 19th century (simple neo-classical buildings like Charlottenhof or Glienicke palace, the Roman Baths, Belvedere on Pfingstberg), and the pomp of the Wilhelminian era (the villa quarters in the northern part of the city, once owned by rich industrials, the nobility and higher officers of the army).

Thank you all for the information and recommendations. We will only be in Berlin for 3 days and will plan to see the DHM and take a day trip to Potsdam. We will pick up a rental car when we leave Berlin and drive to our rental in Domitz. We will do day trips from Domitz via car or train. We will definitely visit the museum in Luneberg. So much to see, but so little time!

Hi,

Do you know your husband's ancestors' home town or region they came from...as suggested above, Pomerania, Silesia, West Prussia, East Prussia, Brandenburg, Memelland, or Posen ?

Or, was it Prussia on the Rhine (which it received in 1815)? Any identifying geographic landmark, eg, a river, etc.

With that rental car in Berlin, you can go out to Wustrau/Brandenburg to see the Preußen Museum, closer but much smaller than the East Prussian museum in Lüneburg. That has expanded over the years.