BallinStadt - Emigrant Museum Hamburg

2 Anka1610 - 6 months ago

Given the less than positive attitude of many German people towards modern emigrants to Germany, I think it would be beneficial for the museum to stop looking back to the past exclusively and to actively address the present. Use the past to build sympathy and then confront the visitor with what brings people to Germany today.

I find it darkly amusing that the signs are mostly in proper German that an actual immigrant might have trouble reading before learning the language well, and that the English signs are inadequate.

The whole experience makes me feel that Germans have a lot of historical events they haven't processed well.

5 Sheila Forrest - 3 years ago

Amazing place so much history, great staff ,you could spend the whole day there.

4 Benjamin Fritz - 2 years ago

Beautiful museum about migration. The core is about german and east European migration through Hamburg.

The museum is located in 3 halls that were part of the emigrant way station established by mr Ballin who is also featured in the exposition for his efforts to improve the conditions of emigrants.

In hall one the exhibit presents emigration via Hamburg and the achievements of mr Ballin.

The second hall treats migration in general with exhibits grouped by stages of a migrants journey. At each stage exhibits show migrants experiences and hopes. It is nice to see a past and present migrant experiences together.

In hall 3 there is another exposition that was closed for refurbishment at the time of my visit.
Also in hall 3 is the museum shop and cafe.
The cake was tasty and the staff is friendly.

The museum is mostly barrier free. Exceptions may be the cobblestone pavement between the 3 halls that - while rather smooth - may be difficult for some.
In hall 2 there is an entry turnstile where im not sure how you can pass in a wheelchair.

Sadly the labels tend to be in german only but the exhibits are still visually very interesting

5 Firas Dal - a year ago

I recommend this museum, it's quite big, and they abord the emigration question from different aspects, history, geography, social. I enjoyed my visit. Personal is very kind

PS : I don't speak German, so I was given an English book where the majority of the text was translated.

5 Utkarsh Gajpal - 3 years ago

Good overview of Emigration of Europe.
English booklet was helpful but numbers written were not always visible.
You should spend 2 hours in hall 1 and 2. Hall3 can be skipped or you can visit it in lile 10 mins.

5 English Pages Germany - 4 years ago

Nice, helpful staff. Well thought out museum.

2 Daryl Sinclair - 11 months ago

Very basic museum with a collection of outdated information and mistakes in the presentation of many of the quotes and information.

A clear focus on historical migration with very little information about the modern-day and more recent migrations or the impact of the internet and remote-work on migration patterns.

Despite being in Hamburg, this museum focuses on migration events such as Mexico to USA and simply feeds stereotypes of migration through lazy research and sourcing of complex information.

It is a migration museum but the museum does not have translations of the information on the displays and the museum is only fully accessible to a fluent German speaker - this is a real shame and it is disappointing how many years the museum has been like this.

A lack of celebration of diversity, diasporas and the long-term positive effects on countries from migration.

This can be an interesting location to start off learning about migration but if you are looking for a more contemporary look then you should do your own research.