Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin

The Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin is part of the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, the largest non-university research institution for musicology in Germany. The museum collects instruments of European art music from the 16th to the 21st century. The collection currently includes around 3,600 instruments, many of which are in playable condition. Around 800 instruments are on display in the exhibition collection. Highlights include the Naumburg wind instruments, the almost complete set of instruments from a Central German town pipe workshop from around 1600. Other highlights include the famous Bach harpsichord and its replicas, transverse flutes owned by Frederick the Great, Sophie-Charlotte of Prussia's travel harpsichord, Carl Maria von Weber's fortepiano, an English church organ from John Gray's workshop and the largest cinema and theater organ on the European continent, the four-manual Mighty Wurlitzer, which is also regularly played in concerts. The State Institute for Music Research and the Museum of Musical Instruments are both places of historical and theoretical reflection as well as places of lively communication to a broad audience interested in music. A wide range of events appeal to a broad spectrum of music enthusiasts: from academic symposia to discussion concerts with early music on historical instruments from the collection to interactive sound installations. The listed building in which the institute and museum are housed was designed by Edgar Wisniewski based on sketches by Hans Scharoun. It is located at Berlin's Kulturforum between the Philharmonie and Potsdamer Platz.