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Futurium Berlin

Florian Buechting Museums & Exhibitions No Comments

Futurium Berlin

free entry
Futurium Berlin
4.2

Rating

 4.2/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very analytic approach
  • More scientifically approach
  • Free entry

Flyctory.com Cons

  • A touch of bias in the museum

For the second part of my “review battle” of museums dealing with visions around the future, we leave the Museum of the Future in Dubai and go to the Futurium in the German capital Berlin. The centrally located museum is in fact driven by the Federal Ministry of Education and Reseach of the Federal Republic of Germany, together with some other public and industry partners. Let’s have a look inside.

 

Futurium Berlin – Location & Admission

I had a couple of hours during my visit in November 2023, transferring from the EuroNight night train from Budapest to Dresden. The Futurium is an excellent choice, as it is just a five to ten minute walk from Berlin Main Station, which is in fact also the best point to connect to the museum by local and national transport. There is also the bus station Futurium (bus 245) and the bus and tram station Invalidenpark (bus 142, 147, tram M5, M8, M10), which may be useful as well. Due to the station nearby, there are multiple parking options in case you arrive by car.

For individuals, families and small groups without a guided tour, access to the Futurium is free. The museum is closed on Tuesdays. On Thursdays, times are 10:00 to 20:00. On all other opening days, times are 10:00 to 18:00. There may be special opening times on public holidays. I stayed at the Futurium for some 90 minutes. You should, however, at least plan with two hours. The more you reflect about the museum, the longer the visit will become, though.

 

Futurium Berlin – The Visit

While the ground level of the Futurium Berlin is just used for services, meeting rooms, educational rooms and similar facilities, your visit at the museum majorly splits into two halves. On basement level, there is the interactive Futurium Lab, while the main exhibition of the museum is located on the first floor. I started my visit at basement level. The lab offers a lot of experiments, which are focusing on younger visitors, but are also interesting for adults. For example, there is a Sim City-alike station, where you lean about city planning and implications. But you also run into innovtions like the SensorBike, which is full of environtal-measuring equipment. The museum is in German and English in parallel.

Futurium – Main Exhibition

The main exhibition  deals with the future. Questions for the Future is for example a large screen which is teasing some key questions. Another very impressing area is Rethinking Nature, a large area, which deals with the changes to the environment, but also how to create green cities, artificial worlds or natural conflicts. You get a wristband, on which you can store and mark topics, which you felt to be especially interesting and later receive some sort of analysis about it.

Overall, the exhibition is rather unbiased and presents a lot of interesting ideas. However, I did not like some ideas. In my point of view, you should for example discuss nuclear power as a carbon-neutral technology in my point of view – regardless about its current social acceptance in Germany. Another idea describes making building materials out of plants, without discussing their water and energy consumption. The section Common Cause Human describes a global passport, so that everyone can travel like you wish. This would have massive social and poltical consequences, which the museum discusses a bit too thin in my point of view. Nonetheless, I feel that the museum teases a lot of topics in a very interesting way.

In summer, you can also visit the Skywalk, which comes with a lovely view of the German Government District. As I visited the Futurium in November, though, I cannot share a view from there with you.

 

Futurium Berlin – Services

On ground level, Futurium Berlin drives a museum store, which is having a lot of experiments and other items, especially for kids. Of course, there are also souvenir items for adult visitors. In one corner of the ground floor, there is also a lovely (but rather pricey) cafeteria, which is a nice place to hang out and relax.

 

Futurium Berlin – My View

I really like the Futurium Berlin, even though it does have some bias issues, which I explained above. It tries to make you think about the future and define your own thoughts about it. The presentation is good, even though it might not be as posh as in the Museum of the Future, for example. A nice feature is the free entry, so that nobody is blocked from being part of this discussion. Thus, if you are not only concentrating what the museum is presenting, but also doing own thoughts, you will have a great time there.

 

Museum of the Future vs. Futurium Berlin – My Thoughts

The two museums have a very different philosophy. The Museum of the Future is posh, but also feels like a show. You are rather impressed by your visit than think about what you saw and draw a conclusion. On the downside, some exhibits are not working at all, as the museum is not enforcing its sensible behavior rules. Finally, there is a 149 AED / 37 EUR difference between the two museums, as the Futurium is free admission.

Museum of the Future (Dubai)

I really like the Futurium for making you think. The wristband idea allows you to set priorities. It also covers a much wider range of topics than the Dubai peer. However, presenting so many topics in a limited space does come with a risk of being biased, which is ehre and there happening. Nonetheless – maybe also as I am a mathemetician – I favor the more analytic approach of the Futurium, which I feel to be significantly superior in its role as a museum and educational space.

 

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