Museumsdorf Düppel

Winterleben in the Düppel Museum Village: Advent in the Medieval Open-Air Museum

The Düppel Museum Village is located in southwest Berlin within a landscape conservation area at Krummes Fenn, surrounded by forests and meadows. The site measures approximately the size of ten football fields, and those arriving by bus walk the last few meters along a forest path before the roofs become visible behind the fence. From the 1960s onwards, archaeologists uncovered traces of a 12th-century settlement here, and systematic excavations have been ongoing since the 1970s. Based on these findings, a village has been created that reconstructs the conditions between 1170 and 1220. A supporting association founded in 1975 continues to maintain the site voluntarily to this day, and since 1995, the open-air museum has been part of the Berlin Museum. Since 2025, the Düppel Museum Village has held the “Reisen für Alle” (Travel for All) certificate, valid until 2028, and leashed dogs are welcome throughout the entire site. On December 6, 2026, the Düppel Museum Village will open one last time this season and transform into “Winterleben” (Winter Life). Admission will then cost 8.00 Euros, with children and young people under 18 entering for free.

Striking Fire, Candle Making, and Participatory Blacksmithing for Children

Behind the fence, medievally dressed villagers inhabit the reconstructed houses, cooking over open fires, carving, and spinning wool. A campfire burns in the village square, the fairy tale witch Silberzweig tells wintery stories, and soup, flatbread, and mulled wine come from the village kitchen. Several hands-on stations are distributed across the site for children. At the fire-striking station, staff demonstrate how a spark and then a flame are created from iron, stone, and tinder. At the wax station, families pour their own beeswax candles, and pine cones are transformed into Christmas decorations for home. Blacksmith Frank Odebrecht brings his mobile forge and lets both adults and children swing the hammer themselves. The Düppel Museum Village also includes old livestock breeds such as the endangered Skudden sheep and the Düppel pasture pig, an already extinct breed being re-bred here. Medieval useful plants, some of which still have their place in natural medicine today, grow in the museum garden.