Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin

The Deutsches Technikmuseum stands on the former freight yard of the Anhalter Bahnhof in Kreuzberg, and the site itself is the largest exhibit. Two roundhouses (Lokschuppen) dating from 1874 survive from the depot that served Berlin's grandest terminus, together with several office buildings and an outdoor turntable. The Anhalter Bahnhof was wrecked in the Second World War and closed to traffic in 1952; its engine sheds were rebuilt to house the museum's railway department, which opened in 1987-88.

The museum itself was founded in 1982 as the Museum fuer Verkehr und Technik and renamed Deutsches Technikmuseum in 1996, continuing the tradition of the Royal Museum of Traffic and Construction that opened in Berlin in 1906. Today it runs 20 permanent exhibitions plus the Science Center Spectrum, but the railway halls remain its heart: roughly 6,000 square metres (about 65,000 sq ft) of exhibition space across the two engine sheds, laid out on 33 tracks, holding around 40 original rail vehicles.

The current permanent railway exhibition, "Eisenbahn: Revolution und Alltag" (Railway: Revolution and Everyday Life), opened on 21 March 2024. Its first construction phase fills 1,700 square metres of Lokschuppen 1 and covers the story from the beginnings of the railway to 1914; a revision of the second section in Lokschuppen 2, extending the account towards the present, is planned but has no announced date. The displays are labelled in German and English throughout, and they do not skirt the darkest chapter: the role of the Reichsbahn in wartime deportations is documented inside the same sheds.

The roundhouses are the picture. The radial layout puts locomotives nose-in around the turntable pit, so a wide lens from the centre of Lokschuppen 2 gives you the whole fan of machines in one frame; the turntable outside one of the sheds is the cleanest exterior subject on the site.

Light indoors is low and mixed, as it is in any preserved engine shed. Private photography and filming are permitted without a tripod, monopod or external flash, which means a fast lens and a high ISO rather than a long exposure - plan for it before you arrive. Commercial and editorial shooting needs written permission in advance (presse@technikmuseum.berlin) and carries a fee.

Two other subjects are worth the walk: the H0 Anhalter Bahnhof model during one of its running demonstrations, and the Douglas C-47 "Raisin Bomber" displayed at the main building, which is the museum's most photographed object and a useful landmark for finding the entrance.

The vehicle list is the reason to come. An open third-class passenger car of 1843 from the Breslau-Schweidnitz-Freiburger Eisenbahn is one of only two of its kind preserved anywhere. Beside it sit a double-deck horse-drawn tram of 1865, Berlin's oldest surviving streetcar, and the electric railcar ET 183 05 of 1899. Steam is represented by a Prussian S 10 express locomotive of 1911, built by Berliner Maschinenbau AG - 202 of the class were constructed between 1910 and 1914 - and by a DRB Class 50 2-10-0, number 50 001, from a class of more than 3,000 built from 1939.

The electric and diesel eras are just as strong. The streamlined E 19 of 1938, built by AEG, was designed for 180 km/h (112 mph), a startling figure for its date; the Krauss-Maffei V 200 018 shows the bulbous diesel-hydraulic look of the early Bundesbahn. Older curiosities include a Prussian T 0 "Omnibuslokomotive" of 1883 by Henschel & Sohn and a replica of the 1844 "Beuth".

Two things repay a slow look. Apprentices built display models of locomotives and carriages to 1:5 scale around 1900, and the detail on them is extraordinary. And an H0 model of the Anhalter Bahnhof track layout is demonstrated at intervals with miniature 1930s stock, showing how the throat of the terminus worked when the sheds outside were still in daily use.

The museum reckons an average visit at about two and a half hours, and that is honest for the whole site; a railfan who lingers in both engine sheds will use most of that on the trains alone. The route through the railway exhibition runs roughly chronologically, starting in the smaller section and opening out into the larger roundhouse where the bulk of the locomotives stand under the radial roof.

This is an indoor museum with an outdoor extension. Beyond the halls the museum park holds a brewery, several mills and a cafe by the museum pond, and visitors may bring their own food to eat there. The site occupies two addresses a short walk apart - the main building at Trebbiner Strasse 9 and the Ladestrasse with the Science Center Spectrum at Moeckernstrasse 26 - so allow for the transfer if you want both.

Expect company. Berlin school holidays, rainy weekends and the free Friday afternoon each month all fill the halls; Tuesday to Friday mornings from 09:00 are the calmest. Last admission is 17:00 and the museum is closed on Mondays.