The museum was founded on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the city of Berlin on 28 October 1987 in the Reichstag building in the then West Berlin. After the great success of the Prussian exhibition "Prussia - an attempt at a record", which was shown in the Martin Gropius Building in 1981, the then mayor of West Berlin Richard von Weizsäcker commissioned four prominent historians - Hartmut Boockmann, Eberhard Jäckel, Hagen Schulze and Michael Stürmer - with the development of a memorandum, which was published in January 1982 under the title Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. The project was intensively supported by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who founded a German Historical Museum (DHM) in Berlin in his speech on the situation of the nation, which he held before the German Bundestag on February 27, 1985, as a national task of European rank designated. [4] A committee of experts, composed of 16 leading historians, art historians and museum directors, worked out the conceptual design for the museum in 1985/1986 and presented it in public hearings in 1986. The final version was the basis for the foundation of the museum. German history in the international context became the core of the museum's task. Multiperspectivist perspectives are intended to provide an understanding of the view of others in order to reflect at a higher level in the internationalization of everyday life and the globalization of business and work, history and culture. On September 1, 1986, the Berlin Senate announced that the location of the planned German Historical Museum was to be built next to the Congress Hall. On 28 July 1987, the shareholder agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Land of Berlin was signed as a provisional sponsor with limited liability for the establishment of the German Historical Museum Society.
Originally, the Spreebogen should be near the Reichstag the site of the museum. In 1988 the Italian architect Aldo Rossi won the architectural competition. In 1989, however, the fall of the Wall changed the plans. On the day of German reunification on October 3, 1990, the Federal Government handed over to the DHM the collection and the grounds of the Museum of German History, which had been commissioned by the last GDR government in September 1990 DHM. Thus the Zeughaus from 1695 - the oldest building Unter den Linden - became the seat of the German Historical Museum. In September 1991 the first exhibitions were shown in the Zeughaus.
Shortly after its foundation the collection started. Since 1994, the permanent exhibition of pictures and testimonies of German history with more than 2000 exhibits has presented a first cross-section.
Between 1994 and 1998, the façade of the Zeughaus was renovated according to historical principles. The Zeughaus was closed in 1998 and renovated by the Architekturbüro Winfried Brenne until 2003. The Schlüterhof, the inner courtyard with the masks by Andreas Schlüter, received a glass roof in the course of the new building from the exhibition hall of the architect Ieoh Ming Pei built between 1998 and 2003. Since 2003 the new building has been opened as an exhibition hall for special exhibitions with an area of 2700 square meters on four floors. The permanent exhibition of German History in pictures and testimonies in the Zeughaus was opened on 2 June 2006 by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Since December 30, 2008, DHM has been the legal form of a public-law foundation of the Federation. [2] She is also the bearer of the foundation, expulsion, reconciliation set up in 2009 to set up a reminder and documentation center for escape and expulsion.
