The Ethnological Museum in Berlin (German: Ethnologisches Museum; until 1999 Museum für Völkerkunde) is one of the largest ethnological museums in the world. It houses half a million pre-industrial objects, acquired primarily from the German voyages of exploration and colonialization of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is famous for its reconstructed houses from around the world, its boats, and its many Benin bronzes.
The museum is located in the Dahlem neighborhood of the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Berlin. It shares a building with the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, and the Museum Europäischer Kulturen. It is one of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin).
The museum includes one of the first ethnomusicology collections of sound recordings (the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv), a film archive, a children's museum, and a museum for the blind.
Famous quotes containing the words museum and/or berlin:
“A fine-looking mill, but no machinery inside.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 1702, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)
“Won’t you play a simple melody
Like my mother sang to me—
One with good old fashioned harmony.
Play a simple melody.”
—Irving Berlin (1888–1989)