Museum für Kommunikation Berlin

The Museum for Communication Berlin is considered the oldest postal museum in the world, founded in 1872 as the Imperial Post Museum. Its treasury houses the Blue Mauritius and the world's first telephone, along with over 60,000 historical postmarks and a globally unique stamp collection on the first floor of the building.

A Wilhelminian Corner Building Approved Personally by the Emperor

The Museum for Communication is located at Leipziger Straße 16 in Mitte, and its history began in 1872 one house over: At the Post Office Leipziger Straße 15, Postmaster General Heinrich von Stephan established the Imperial Post Museum, which is thus considered the oldest postal museum in the world. Stephan commissioned Privy Councillor Ernst Hake to construct a new building, and in 1898, the Wilhelminian corner building opened to visitors. Emperor Wilhelm II is said to have approved the design with the words that it was “pure and simply dignified style”. The building has been a listed monument since 1977. During World War II, it was severely damaged by bombs, and most of the outsourced collection never returned: it ended up in Hesse and became the foundation of the Federal Post Museum in Frankfurt there. The division of the city continued in the museum; East Berlin operated a postal museum in the original building from 1958, and West Berlin operated its own in the Urania from 1966. Only in 2000 did both reunite, after a renovation by the Henze and Vahjen office.

Blue Mauritius, First Telephone, and 40,000 Years of Communication

The permanent exhibition at the Museum for Communication showcases 2,000 objects across 3,000 square meters, spanning 40,000 years of communication history, from early signs to the present. The treasury is central: there, the Blue Mauritius, the world’s first telephone, and the so-called Kosmos stamp lie side by side, three items found nowhere else in such density. The stamp collection, considered globally unique, is located on the first floor, along with a collection of over 60,000 historical postmarks. The museum is supported by the Museum Foundation for Post and Telecommunications, a federal public law foundation established in 1995 after the postal reform and financed by Deutsche Post and Deutsche Telekom. Admission is relatively low at 8 Euros regular and 4 Euros reduced; children and young people up to and including 17 years enter free of charge. The museum can be reached via subway lines U2 and U6 to Stadtmitte, and U2 to Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße.