Museum für Kommunikation

The Museum für Kommunikation Nürnberg is located in the historic rooms of the Verkehrsmuseum at Lessingstraße 6 and shares the building with the DB Museum. Its origins trace back to the Royal Bavarian Postal Museum; today, together with the museum sites in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main and the Archiv für Philatelie in Bonn, it belongs to the Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation, whose patrons are Deutsche Post and Deutsche Telekom.

The collections originate in 19th-century initiatives, when the Kingdom of Bavaria retained its own postal and railway systems after 1871. An exhibition on railway history opened in 1899 and was supplemented in 1902 by a department on the Bavarian post and telegraph. The present building was begun in 1914; delayed by the First World War, it was completed in 1925. After the First World War, post and rail were integrated into overarching state systems; since then two independent museums have existed under one roof, supported by their respective successor organisations. The Second World War led to closure and losses of exhibits; the Postal Museum reopened in 1955. Following extensive renovation from 1988 to 1991, the building became part of the Museumsstiftung in 1995; it has borne the name "Museum für Kommunikation Nürnberg" since 2000. In addition to the permanent exhibition, changing displays, museum and media-education programmes and events are offered.

The permanent presentation was reconceptualised in November 2010 and places people and their forms of communication—from the first cry to the Internet—at its centre. In four thematic rooms, around 400 objects demonstrate how communication works; interactive stations such as a writing workshop, pneumatic post and a television studio invite participation. The first room is devoted to hearing and speaking: dimmed lighting, acoustically shaped spatial design and exhibits from drum to telephone illustrate language, animal communication, signaling instruments and telephony. The second room focuses on visual communication: films on facial expression, gesture and fashion, pictorial signs, photography and television, as well as guided hands-on stations, address visual understanding. The third room traces writing in a linear spatial arrangement; tall stelae display early scripts, there is a secret workshop on encryption, presentations on the impact of the printing press and areas on the transport and logistics of historical shipping routes. An elaborately reconstructed Egyptian burial chamber with texts from the Book of the Dead emphasises the role of image and script in cult. The area "Netzwelten", created in 2013, links the analogue themes with digital communication: technical components and forms of use are shown, as is the importance of media literacy in the role of the modern prosumer.