Lange Nacht der Museen (Long night of Museums)

  Back on January 28th, I went to The Long Night of Museums which happens twice a year. About 70 Museum's and galleries are open from 6 pm til 2 am, one ticket covers everything and transport on the U-Bahn, all for 15 Euro's! There are also performances happening at various locations.
  I hadn't been to the National art gallery before so this was an opportunity to get a preview of the collection and decide if it was worth a second look later. Its worth another visit :)

The national gallery entrance has this amazing life size sculpture.

  After that I went to the National Museum which I visited last year. It was busy but not too bad and I found a few items I didn't see last time.

A great sculpt of a stylized Octopus.

I came out of the museum to find a new layer of snow falling.

  Next up was an installation of photographs in an old bunker. Annoyingly they don't want pictures taken so you will be more inclined to buy a book. But those books never do a building justice.

The exterior of this amazing place

The front door. Rather thick walls!

Deeper inside you find a reconstruction of a check-in desk (on the left) and floor guide on the right.

Maze like hallways and rooms.

  Since I had to sneak a few pictures I couldn't get a shot of the exhibition of photographs. They were in light boxes mounted in these small rooms. The black and white photos were on one layer with a colour transparency mounted in front. The effect was similar to a Lenticular 3d image. My photo's aren't the best but it is a great building and worth a visit via the local tour website:
www.berliner-unterwelten.de/

All the hallways look like this, very disorienting.

  Next up was the Museum for German Film and Television. I didn't have time to do this justice so I went through the film side to see if it was worth visiting again. It is.

Life size robot Maria.

Not the originals but a good reproduction of these amazing designs from "Metropolis".

Maquette's of death and the seven deadly sins from "Metropolis".

The death mask of F.W. Murnau.

A fantastic way to suggest the epic scale of the futuristic cityscape, two story tall mirrors:)

  After the film museum, I met some friends at the Museum of Musical Instruments. They were playing the 1926 version of "Faust" by Murnau with live organ accompaniment. That is a stunning film, no surprise as it came a few years after "Nosferatu".
  If you find yourself in Berlin in January or August look for this event, really worth the effort. But have a plan as there is LOTS to see.
www.lange-nacht-der-museen.de

Cheers
Andy