Jüdisches Museum

Lonely Planet review

Berlin's Jüdisches Museum, the largest Jewish Museum in Europe, celebrates the achievements of German Jews and their contribution to culture, art, science and other fields. An architectural work of art, the building and its contents are a major destination in Berlin.

Arranged in a chronological fashion, the exhibit also includes one section about the Holocaust, although this is by no means the museum's entire focus. In fact, what makes Berlin's Jewish museum different is that it looks at Jewish history beyond the very narrow context of the 12 years of Nazi rule.

Jews are not exclusively presented as victims but as vital citizens who have played enormously important roles in Germany through the centuries. One part of the exhibit also deals with the resurgence of Berlin's Jewish population since reunification.

The museum building itself is a stunning work of art designed by Daniel Libeskind and an excellent example of crisp modernism. Zinc-clad walls rise skyward in a sharply angled zig-zag ground plan that's an abstract interpretation of a star. The general outline is echoed in the windows: triangular, trapezoidal and irregular gashes in the building's gleaming skin.

The interior is designed as a metaphor for the history of the Jewish people; 'void' spaces represent the loss of humanity, culture and people, and a field of concrete columns symbolises Jewish emigration and exile.