On 31 January in Berlin the Lange Nacht der Museen, the Long Night of Museums will take place. In this special occasion, museums are open from 6 pm until 2pm. Last year 150.000 unique visitors have visited museums in Berlin.
The event is very popular with Berliners and tourist and it will be also rebroadcasted in the summer, the last Saturday of August, when visitors do not miss a chance to visit city museums in the freshness of night.
For the Long Night of Museums you can buy a combined ticket (Kombiticket) that costs 15 €. It lets you visit all the museums thanks to the good transport system of Berlin.
For the occasion free shuttle buses will transport visitors from one museum to another. But also the metro in Berlin is very good and one of the most famous in Europe thanks to its really flexible schedules. The metro remains open every night until 2 am, while on the weekend, it never closes, leaving the visitors great freedom of choice, not forcing them to take inconvenient night buses.
You can prepare your visits amongst more than 100 museums and cultural institutions that are giving access to visitors. 400 square kilometres – between Glienicke Palace, the Museum at the Waterplant Friedrichshagen and the Museum of Local History Reinickendorf – to move inside and enjoy collections, exhibitions, events.
There will also be concerts, readings, theatre and much more. To mark the start of the theme year, “Berlin – Science Capital 2010” the long night, therefore, will open research and science museums . About 60 houses that combine Science as Art in a rich program of tours, performances, musical and literary performances as usual complement the permanent exhibits.
The Logistic Center of the Long Night is the square outside the City Hall. This is also the central Umsteigeplatz for the shuttle buses. In Spätentschlossene you can to buy tickets, also available on www.museumsportal.de, the common portal for all museums in Berlin.
The program includes Bode Museum, German Historical Museum, where a documentary shows how restorers almost perfect counterfeit one portraits of the Polish Queen Maria Josepha uncovered. In the gallery it is also to know how X-rays, infrared light and neutrons used in the scientific study of paintings, can change our perspectives on art. For the first time the Rathgen research lab opens its doors, as determined with modern technology, how to protect art from damage, preserve or restore.
The special exhibition “Alfred Messel – Visionary of the city in the Art Library”, for example, is based on a joint research and restoration project with the TU Berlin. The Brohan Museum shows Glass as a science in itself. A lecture at the Anne Frank Center informs about the scientific controversy, how authentic is the famous diary.
Museum of Natural History will celebrate its 200th anniversary. Scientists will present the research collections and high-tech laboratories of the museum. In a special exhibition on the deep sea, visitors can immerse themselves in this still largely unexplored habitat.
The MachMit! Museum for Children enables us to know what science has discovered. A documentary in the museum reveals an unfinished film with the young Romy Schneider. In Kupferstichkabinett participating scientists will present an ambitious research project, in an online catalog of all 4500 drawings by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, making it available. An evening tour of the Science Library in Charlottenburg leads in the area of tawny owls, whose mating season is in full swing.
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