Trabi Museum
The car of East Germany, up close
The Trabi Museum on Zimmerstraße shows the Trabant in all its versions: saloon, estate, open “Kübel”, racing version and conversions. Plus original adverts, brochures and stories about waiting years for your own car.
The Trabant was built in Zwickau from 1957 to 1991, more than three million of them. The Duroplast body, the two-stroke engine and waiting times of often more than ten years made it the symbol of everyday life in East Germany. In November 1989 thousands of Trabis rolled across the opened border, many of them right here on Friedrichstraße.
The museum is small and can be seen in half an hour, ideal between Checkpoint Charlie and the Weltballon. Next door the Trabi safaris start, where you drive a Trabi through Berlin yourself.
From us, walk east along Zimmerstraße, about five minutes. Children like the museum, adults remember the smell of two-stroke fuel.
Our tip
With children? Trabi Museum first, then a chocolate Berliner with us. It works.
Opening hours and prices change; current details are on the official website.
Frequently asked
How long does the Trabi Museum take?
About 30 to 45 minutes. It is a compact exhibition directly on Zimmerstraße.
Where is the Trabi Museum in relation to the Weltballon?
Both are on Zimmerstraße, about 350 metres apart. Our café at Wilhelmstraße 42 lies in between.
Also nearby
- right next door
Weltballon (World Balloon)
Tethered balloon, 150 metres above Berlin
The Weltballon is the big white tethered balloon you can see from half of Berlin. It takes off at the corner of Zimmerstraße and Wilhelmstraße, right next to our café.
Read more - approx. 5 min walk
Checkpoint Charlie
The most famous crossing point of the Wall
From 1961 to 1990 Checkpoint Charlie was the crossing point for foreigners, diplomats and Allied soldiers between East and West Berlin. Today a replica of the guard house stands on Friedrichstraße, with the famous sign “You are leaving the American sector”.
Read more - approx. 5 min walk
Topography of Terror
Documentation centre on the former Gestapo and SS site
Between Niederkirchnerstraße and Wilhelmstraße stood, until 1945, the headquarters of the Gestapo, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office. Today a documentation centre with open-air grounds tells the story of the perpetrators of National Socialism. Admission is free.
Read more - approx. 5 min walk
asisi Panorama “The Wall”
360-degree view of divided Berlin in the 1980s
In a rotunda right at Checkpoint Charlie, artist Yadegar Asisi shows a panorama of divided Berlin on a fictional autumn day in the 1980s. You stand in Kreuzberg and look over the Wall into East Berlin.
Read more
Coffee before, cake after
Typisch Berlin, Wilhelmstraße 42, right at the Weltballon. Daily from 09:00, two floors, Wi-Fi, toilets, terrace. Berliner from €2.20.
