Jewish Museum Munich: Exhibitions, tours, program

Why the Jewish Museum Munich is worth a visit:

The Jewish Museum Munich offers an insight into Jewish culture in Munich, past and present. You can experience the diverse spectrum of Jewish history, culture and art.

What to see? With a unique selection of objects, photographs, videos and contemporary witnesses, the permanent and temporary collections draw a multi-layered picture on Jewish history, culture and religion and are willing to put them up for discussion.

What's special? As part of a special architectural ensemble on Sankt-Jakobs-Platz, the museum, synagogue and the Jewish community center form a unit in terms of design language. The cultural institution was created to be a place for open dialogues: The visitor assistants at the museum are happy to answer all questions and discuss topics with individual visitors.

From Hanukkah to Bar Mitzvah: Permanent exhibition "Voices_Places_Times"

The permanent exhibition "Voices_Places_Times" in the basement provides an insight into the culture and history of Munich from a Jewish perspective. It addresses the wide range of Jewish identities in seven installations:

• The first installation "Voices" highlights Jewish families and individuals who arrived in Munich over the past 200 years. Each of the audio tracks introduces the story of a person’s life which led them to Munich, even if only for a few years.
• The installations "Places" and "Pictures" illustrate the different lifeworlds and activities which Munich’s Jews developed for themselves – ranging from a Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry to emigrants and the congregation’s rabbis.
• The exhibition section "Rituals" provides an introduction to religious traditions in the family and in the synagogue by means of Jewish ritual objects and takes a look at Jewish festivals and religious holidays as well.
• A Comic by the illustrator Jordan B. Gorfinkel focuses on the beginnings of a new Jewish life after 1945 up to the present day.

Through the exhibition, the Jewish Museum Munich strives to be in constant dialog with its visitors. Munich's Jewish history is made visible as an integral part of the city, while also focusing on the subjects of migration and inclusion.

Temporary exhibitions and publications

In temporary exhibitions, the Jewish Museum Munich explores the Jewish culture, history and art from different angles and discusses new aspects in the fields of art, history, and culture. The museum is also known for its collaborations and publications. Two well-known examples:

• The Memorial to the 1972 Munich Massacre is a collaboration between the Jewish Museum Munich and the City of Munich with the State of Bavaria. The memorial site is dedicated to the victims of the terrorist attack at the 20th Summer Olympics – eleven Israeli athletes and one German policeman.
• More than 70 years after Kurt Landauer’s return to Munich, the letters of the long-standing president of FC Bayern are being publishing by the Jewish Museum Munich with Suhrkamp/Insel-Verlag.

Guided museum tours

• Every Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.: München Displaced. Der Rest der Geretteten (in German, 08.07.2023-17.03.2024)
• Every Saturday and Sunday at 3:00 p.m.: The Museum as a Whole. Highlights of the Jewish Museum Munich
• Tour at the Olympic Park: Memorial to the 1972 Munich Massacre (in German, next dates: 2. Juli 2023, 16. Juli 2023, 6. August 2023, 20. August 2023, 3. September 2023, 9. September 2023, 24. September 2023, 1. Oktober 2023, 15. Oktober 2023)
• Regular tours for senior citizens
• Individual visitor service in German, English, other languages are subject to availability

Offers and programs for children and adolescents

For children and young people, the Jewish Museum Munich offers art projects, workshops, tours and children's programs:

• The digital Creative: "Let's Celebrate!" focuses on the festivals of Judaism. While crafting a holiday calendar, children learn more about Hanukkah, Passover and Rosh Hashanah.
• On the tour "Fragments from the past and present", children aged 10 and older learn about the individual stations in the history and present of Jewish Munich residents and find out exciting facts about their contribution to our city's history.
• "Being Jewish in Munich Today" is a workshop for young people aged 14 and older. Among other things, they learn about everyday Jewish life in Munich through interviews.
• Further offers for children and families can be found on the official website.

Café, bookshop and reading room

• The Coucou Food Market conjures up freshly prepared, healthy food for its customers, all day long. You can look forward to French croissants and coffee from the Munich roastery “Man Versus Machine”, authentic pinsa romana, and salads and bowls fresh from the market.
• The bookshop "Literaturhandlung" at the Jewish Museum Munich offers a selection of specialist literature and fiction, as well as contemporary ceremonial objects. Exhibition catalogues, postcards and CDs are also available.
• On the second floor you can study selected literature on Munich's Jewish history, Jewish religion and culture, children's books and comics, as well as biographical studies and exhibition catalogs of other international Jewish museums in the reading room.

Admission prices

• Adults: 6 Euro
• Concessions: 3 Euro
• Free for children and young people up to the age of 18

The Jewish Museum Munich online

• Museum Blog: Here, the museum provides information about current exhibitions and publishes blog posts. (in German)
• Online workshops: Find out more about selected topics.
• Social media: On Instagram, Facebook and Twitter you can find news and catch a glance behind the scenes.

Special architecture: cubic buildings from travertine stone

On St. Jakobs Platz, in the immediate vicinity of the city’s central square – Marienplatz – and the market – the »Viktualienmarkt« – is a unique architectural ensemble which makes a decisive contribution to the vitality and multiplicity of Munich’s urban community: The "Jewish Center", comprising the main synagogue, inaugurated in 2006, the "Gemeindezentrum der Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde München und Oberbayern"  – the Jewish Community Center – and the Jewish Museum Munich, opened in 2007, administered by the City of Munich.

The competition design, with its three independent, cuboidal buildings, submitted by the team of architects, Wandel, Hoefer, Lorch, ultimately convinced the jury. The skillful creation of one architectural entity, despite being made up of three separate buildings, was made possible through the use of travertine, quarried in the Swabian Jura, which visually links the complex. The impression of uniformity is underlined through the successful articulation created between the individual design elements and enlivened by visual axes and openings between the three buildings which are accessible to the general public.

Looking back: 50 Years Olympic Massacre Munich – Commemoration Project "Twelve Months – Twelve Names"

50 years after the Munich Summer Olympics, the Munich Massacre of September 5-6, 1972 was commemorated throughout 2022. Every month was dedicated to one victim. A variety of different actions in public spaces were planned, ranging from installations lasting the entire month to activities on one specific day. This commemoration project has been conceived and coordinated by the Jewish Museum Munich in conjunction with the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism and the Consulate General of the State of Israel.