Stiftung Domäne Dahlem - Landgut und Museum

Description

In southwest Berlin, Domäne Dahlem is the historically evolved manorial estate of the former village of Dahlem and today serves as an open-air museum for agricultural and food culture with an ecological focus. Agriculture has been practised on the site for over 800 years; this historical continuity shapes the complex to the present day.

Several heritage-listed buildings from different periods stand on the farm: the manor house dating from 1560 with fully preserved living quarters, a horse stable from 1830, a wheelwright’s workshop from the early 19th century, as well as a well and an ice cellar from 1709. An alliance coat of arms is mounted above the main entrance. After alternating use by members of noble families, the village was sold in 1841 to the Prussian domain treasury and continued to be operated as a state domain.

From the turn of the 20th century parts of the extensive fields were systematically converted into building land and repurposed for scientific institutions; the Botanical Garden was relocated at that time, and new sites for institutes and archives were established in the vicinity. War and post-war events changed the plans: the settlement of a larger science centre only began decades later with the founding of the Freien Universität and additional research institutions and museums in Dahlem.

Despite increasing parceling, an agricultural operation was preserved; the present museum ensemble is located at Königin-Luise-Straße 49. After the Second World War a citizens’ initiative saved the site and initiated its development into an ethnographically oriented open-air museum. Sponsoring bodies changed over time; since 2009 an independent foundation has operated Domäne Dahlem as a museum.

The museum’s exhibition programme includes displays on agriculture and food. In the manor house historic shop and butcher’s fittings from the 1920s and a laboratory on consumer protection are on view. In 2015 the Culinarium opened; under the motto “From Field to Plate” it presents, on several levels, exhibits, media and hands-on stations on food culture since 1850, with an attic specially designed for children. The estate is certified as a Bioland operation and, as the only farm in Germany, has a direct U-Bahn connection (Dahlem-Dorf, line U3).