Schwules Museum
Schwules Museum
3
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Monday
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Friday
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
2:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Sunday
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
About
This museum chronicles the history of gay culture, both in Germany and internationally.
Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listingTours & experiences
Explore different ways to experience this place.
Full view
Top ways to experience Schwules Museum and nearby attractions
The area
Address
Neighbourhood: Mitte (Borough)
How to get there
- Kurfürstenstraße • 8 min walk
- Nollendorfplatz • 9 min walk
Reach out directly
Best nearby
Restaurants
5,084 within 5 kms
Attractions
1,480 within 10 kms
Contribute
Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
3.0
127 reviews
Excellent
24
Very good
24
Average
33
Poor
20
Terrible
26
These reviews have been automatically translated from their original language.
This service may contain translations provided by Google. Google disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to translations, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from forgery.
John R
20 contributions
Apr 2022 • Friends
Spent 10 minutes here look around 4-5 different show rooms and it's not a kind of museum but more an art gallery with abstract arts rather than anything relating LGBTQ things. 9 euros the entrance and the desk staff doesn't speak English at all. Waste of time.
Written May 2, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
katariinakuum
Tallinn, Estonia16 contributions
Dec 2021 • Friends
Wonderful museum that chronicles the history of the LGBTQI+ community in Germany through the 20th century, II WW and its aftermath. All of the translations of the main texts into English are available through a QR code and additional QR codes throughout the museum provide extra materials and information. Also loved the multimedia exhibits and we especially enjoyed the Stephen Varble exhibition.
Written December 23, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Henrike R
4 contributions
Aug 2024 • Solo
I was at the Gay Museum as part of the Long Night of Museums. And was positively surprised! Unlike the reviews I had read, the visit was absolutely worthwhile! And there were definitely more than two rooms to visit. The exhibition is designed to address the visitor directly, take them by hand and guide them through the exhibition in a sorted, structured and vivid way. In doing so, the goal of providing information has been absolutely successful. It is linked to long-running views/images and corrected. Very informative. The comparison drawn between then and now. The rooms are beautifully designed, unlike here in the pictures, very colorful and colorful. I think the exhibition was completely successful!
Automatically translated
Written August 25, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Adrian H
Brighton, UK41 contributions
Feb 2014 • Couples
What a shame. A museum that offered insight and bite has become a poor art installation. My partner and I visited the museum yesterday and were very sadly disappointed. Having visited the museum at its old site a few years back we were shocked to find that despite the new home and the funding it had lost all chance to offer an insightful history of the LGBT community. The UK has nothing and the only beacon was the Schwules Museum and that now has seemed to have been lost. For example the old museum offered that after the liberation of the concentration camps the West German authorities re-imprisoned the gays. The new museum nothing! Just nice photos of Rock Hudson. Be a museum and teach us - not an art installation!
Written March 2, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dear Adrian,
I totally understand that for many people German history and Third Reich is a verry impotant topic, especially if you're a visitor from abroad. That is why it's still a part of our permanent exhibition. But our Museum is dedicated to both: history and art, and must care for a variety of topics. When you visited us we also showed the installation art "If the sand could speak" about "corrective rape" of women in South Africa, we showed a big collection of rediscovered private photos by gay German director F. W. Murnau ("Nosferatu") and furthermore we showed new artwork and documents from our archive, recently given to us. Until 9th. of september we presented the exhibition "lesbisch.jüdisch.schwul" ("lesbian - jewish - gay"), that explicitly dealed with beeing gay and jewish in Third Reich. The exhibition is now shown in Stuttgart. Next in march will be the painter Sascha Schneider ("Art and Homoeroticism around 1900") in collaboration with Jonathan David Katz from Leslie Lohman Art Foundation New York, and famous South African Artist Zanele Muholi "Photography" in collaboration with Amnesty International. I just want to point out, that a museum for LGBTQI community can not deal with one topic only. Thank you for your appreciation.
Written March 7, 2014
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
t a
London, UK16 contributions
Dec 2018 • Solo
I had high hopes for this the only gay museum I am aware of in Europe. I was incredibly disappointed. Berlin has such a rich gay history, since the roaring 20's and the debauchery of the 30's, through gay liberation, clause 175, Magnus Hirschfeld, until today. I found none of that. What I do remember is some random art and a lot about LGBT in video games. What a complete waste of time and money! Berlin could do so much better than this. What about Rosa Von Praunheim? Charlotte Mahlsdorf? Ralf König?
Written December 25, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
SEAMUS.R
Ireland35 contributions
Nov 2013 • Solo
I've been to Berlin may times but had never visited the Schwules Museum. First of all this is not what I would class as a museum, it's a small exhibition space, no more. It comprises of 4 rooms (one which was closed), with a couple of dozen pictures (many just photocopies and couple of painting. Some are of the usual suspects that may have been gay but nothing of interest. I was expecting a more detailed history of homosexual life in different cultures down through history but no. In one room they had an "exhibition" on a some Berlin drag queen, tacky doesn't even begin to describe it.
My advice would be to spend the €6.50 entry fee on coffee and cake in Cafe Einstein, just around the corner.
My advice would be to spend the €6.50 entry fee on coffee and cake in Cafe Einstein, just around the corner.
Written December 2, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dirk R
Vancouver, Canada17 contributions
Oct 2019 • Solo
With a well known historical reference this is a very poor museum. Extremely disappointed. You have pre WW1 then Nazi occupation then post WW 2 then East/ West Cold War. A city of 4 Million can’t do better than this. Embarrassing. Give it a pass!
Written October 24, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
LindaL502
London, UK1,635 contributions
Jul 2019 • Friends
I have been to Schwules three times over the years and despite my desperation to support and enjoy a gay museum it's always been a huge disappointment. The staff are always incredibly rude and hostile (not sure if it's because I'm a woman, because I'm a lesbian, because I'm not German, or if they're always like that). They also have crazy strict rules which no other museum has. For example you are not allowed to take in a water bottle, I've never seen a museum that bans water before, even at major museums with priceless works of art that are thousands of years old you are allowed water! When I visited it was 35c and staffers were demanding everyone throw away their water bottles so if you had brought your own expensive flask or planned to go on somewhere else you couldn't really go in. I visited with an elderly disabled relative, it was too dangerous to deny her access to water in a heatwave so we had to leave and come back another day without her.
The museum itself is very small, only three small rooms. One was dedicated to "protest" and was mainly a lot of T-shirts with protest slogans hung on coat hangers with a few info signs. One was dedicated to Christoper Isherwood and Don Bachardy containing maybe a dozen Bachardy paintings, a lot of photos, and some info panels. The last was an archive of Polish gay history with a few photos, a glass display case with VHS cases, and lots of cases containing vintage gay porn magazines and other magazines. There was not one word in the entire museum about women, and nothing about trans people except perhaps one or two of the T-shirt slogans. The museum exhibitions change a lot, so it's luck of the draw whether you get good ones or not.
The museum itself is very small, only three small rooms. One was dedicated to "protest" and was mainly a lot of T-shirts with protest slogans hung on coat hangers with a few info signs. One was dedicated to Christoper Isherwood and Don Bachardy containing maybe a dozen Bachardy paintings, a lot of photos, and some info panels. The last was an archive of Polish gay history with a few photos, a glass display case with VHS cases, and lots of cases containing vintage gay porn magazines and other magazines. There was not one word in the entire museum about women, and nothing about trans people except perhaps one or two of the T-shirt slogans. The museum exhibitions change a lot, so it's luck of the draw whether you get good ones or not.
Written July 29, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Edward Q
Logan, UT311 contributions
Jun 2019 • Couples
wasn't at all what I was expecting. But, I was pleasantly surprised at the artistic representation of queer history through the lens of this museum. While it was a bit pricey for what I was expecting, I also recognize the niche topic and it appears that the content is delivered in a way that unfolds stories and helps drive better understanding of the challenges faced by gays and lesbians in Berlin. Didn't stay too long as it's fairly small and my German reading skills are near zero. But, I still say to go anyway.
Written July 2, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
oxfred66
Alzey, Germany6 contributions
Aug 2014 • Couples
Went with my husband to the new museum...what a huge dissapointment. We've been to the old one many times and loved it. Very informative ,great exhibitions and you could get an idea about the lesbian and gay community. But now- we were shocked by the poor art installation. Rober Lamberth might be important but there was no introduction to the subject....videos were played-that's it! And what was the story about Norbert Zimmer and his boots????? I missed a concept and the message even to non gay people of what the history and gay live has produced in all these years. You could see pictured of men in womens cloth...how exciting!? We payed 6 Euro each and it was not worth the paper the receipt were printed on. A waste if time and a waste on public money which is funding this museum
Written August 11, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
No questions have been asked about this experience
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing