One of my favourite museums in Frankfurt, well worth a visit for the changing exhibitions and the…read morepermanent displays of design, furnishing and applied arts.

While a new building is being constructed to replace the old Gutenberg Museum since 2024, part of…read moreits collections are exhibited in the Natural History Museumin Mainz. This fact is so well known that when a fellow bus passenger overheard us talking about the Gutenberg Museum, he insisted that we get off a stop earlier than planned because there was a shortcut there that didn't appear on GoogleMaps. Gratitude! The exhibit is held in the left wing of the museum in what was the Reichklara, or the Poor Clare Monastery of St. Clare. Admissions includes a plain white card with an embedded chip in it which can be placed at various stations throughout the exhibit. The chip informs the station which language in which to present its visual information. Audio information is "only" available in German or English, but that is already pretty amazing. Both are interactive and save the exhibition space from being cluttered by lengthy summaries. The card also works at a selfie station which transforms your likeness as if it were a black & white print and add it to a medieval background setting. Was very impressed to hear during the presentation that movable type had already been invented in China in the 11th century. There is no evidence that Johannes Gutenberg was ever in that part of the world, which means he independently came up with the invention as well as a number of related innovations in the mid-15th century. As a goldsmith, he created an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony to cast his type pieces, an alloy with a low melting point. This alloy would remain in use for printing for the next 500 years. His type pieces were fashioned for an alphanumeric which made it efficient to cast mutiple pieces from the same mold. Finally, his black ink was a mixture created from linseed oil and coal. Unfortunately, there was no protection for his invention or innovations in the 15th century. His investor walked away with Gutenberg's workshop as well as his apprentice, who was the investor's son-in-law. Gutenberg's famous bible was printed only in black ink. He eventually innovated a way to add a second color, but in the original series of 180 bibles, he left spaces for illustrators to add color. The pages were sold for buyers to engage their own illustrators and bookbinders, so no two copies are identical. Only 49 copies are known to still exist, with only 25 copies of the 2-volume edition complete. They were styled after the handwritten manuscripts of the day, written in two columns. They were known as B42 because they had 42 lines of text per page. The printing press made written work available relatively rapidly. In the past, a monastery could provide one bible every 3 years. With the printing press, 180 copies could be produced in the same period. Sadly, this probably led to the eventual decline of the monastery.

The Gutenberg museum has moved to this location. The Gutenberg exhibit was excellent. Learned a…read morelot about him and his inventions. They also have one of several copies of the Bible's on display. The rest of the museum was ok, but not a large museum as we have in the US. Still good for kids.

A very interesting structure and it houses very interesting art. Much of the "contemporary" art…read moregoes right past me but I found several pieces here in the MMK1 that I fully enjoyed looking at and spending time with. Some of them, not as much. But that's art, right? Karl Otto Götz's "Bild vom 15.12.1952" was interesting and the Armand Pierre Fernandez "White Orchid / Gesprengter Sportwagen" on the wall certainly was different. And some artists that I had seen before including Jasper Johns' "Targets" and the Warhol "Dance Diagram" were very nice. A great opportunity to see art.

Very cool building/architecture. The art is definitely contemporary and it's nice to see an…read moreestablishment that isn't so restricted in what they can present.

For fans of the Office, this museum has particular significant meaning. In the "Bring Your…read moreDaughter to Work Day" episode, Dwight mentions the name Struwwelpeter--a cautionary tale written by Heinrech Hoffmann, who was born in Frankfurt. While in Frankfurt, yelper Sigourney W. and I decided to take a look at this Struwwelpeter Museum as it was a fairly short distance from the hotel we were staying at. The museum has many levels, and each level has different exhibits, mostly showcasing some of the originals of Hoffmann's works and very ancient copies of Struwwelpeter. What I found to be amazing was that Struwwelpeter has been translated into many languages--and there are just a few samples of these translated books showcased at this museum. The lady who works here was really friendly and welcoming. She didn't speak much English, so she and I had to speak German (well, I tried my best). She even gave me a souvenir Struwwelpeter postcard, free of charge, for which I was very grateful. She also gave us a mini tour, in Spanish (because Sigourney W. didn't speak German, and the lady happened to know some Spanish), which was really nice. This museum caters to families and children, as on the top floor there is a children's activity area. This is where I found pieces of paper where you could color in Struwwelpeter (Sigourney and I did this; it was a nice, therapeutic group activity!) And even better...there's an image of Struwwelpeter with his face cut out, so that you can put your face through and take a picture. It was totally AWESOME!!! Admission is a few euros, so it's a good deal for the history and the family-friendly atmosphere you get. A lot of the exhibits are not written in English, but I was able to read for the most part with the German I knew. I don't think many tourists come here, hence the lack of English materials available. All in all, I highly recommend this place as it was definitely a unique experience. I always lamented that Frankfurt didn't have much to do, but after coming here, at least I know there's this quaint museum that's worth anyone's time to visit. Come check it out! :)

My partner and I had an awesome day visiting Experiminta! Four floors of funny experiments and…read moreinstallations to play with, you can easily spend more than 3 hours there if you want to interact with everything in detail. The only thing I missed was the explanations and descriptions of the experiments translated into English. A very good place to spend some funny hours with family or friends.

Terrible, a living nightmare. Me and my partner went there, because we've been to Ontario Science…read moreMusem, and that was awesome. Unfortunately this place is nothing like it, it's like a science fare at some school. Everything is really shallow, and the only explanations available are in German. In my opinion it's just enough to entertain a 5 year old. We stayed less then 15 minutes, and we saw the 3 floors (the last floor was closed). Terrible experience.

Grounded in 1899 as an artist's colony, here is a bit from the Darmstadt web site to whet your…read moreappetite:) Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Glasgow, Barcelona and Darmstadt! This Hessian city made a name for itself among the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) metropolises of Europe. In 1899, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig founded the first artists colony with seven artists, architects, painters and sculptors: J. M. Olbrich, P. Behrens, P. Huber, H. Christiansen, P. Bürck, L. Habich and R. Bosselt. Their first task was to design and build their own living and working quarters and present them to the public. So works of art surround you here as the houses, park and other buildings all belong to the total concept.

The Mathildenhohe is one of the highlights of Darmstadt. There's an interesting permanent…read moreexhibition of Art Nouveau in the museum with a nice little gift shop, and regular more contemporary art exhibitions are held in the main building (I had my first introduction to Hundertwasser here), but they don't always provide English translations. The romantic Russian chapel is in the grounds, and talking of romance many people get married in the Hochzeitsturm (the symbol of Darmstadt), as long as a wedding isn't on you can pay to go to the top of the tower and get a view of Darmstadt. In the summer you can even play petanque in the shade of the plane trees. If you're hungry or thirsty there's a small bistro, with an outside seating area in the summer (you don't have to pay to get into the bistro). It's also worth leaving the grounds and exploring the area a bit, as there are some stunning houses with unique architectural features. Basically if you're in Darmstadt, you must go here.

We had a hard time finding this place, because it's located in a very big building with little…read moreadvertisement. This was built on a former Jewish ghetto dating back to the 1200's. The original brick is still there, showing the damage from the bombings during WWII. They do have inscriptions in English, though they are grey and difficult to see without better lighting. There are also pieces from where they excavated and the reamins of a damaged synagogue. The the left side of the interest, or located in the back is the brick memorial. Rows and rows of bricks are inscribed with names of Jewish people who were deported during WWII. There are 12,000+ bricks. You can find Anne Frank's brick here as she was born in Frankfurt. They are in alphabetical order. In order to go into the old Jewish cemetery, you will need a key. Closed on Jewish holidays. Use your Frankfurt card for a discount.

Very cool Jewish museum. The building is built around extremely old Jewish ghetto and to see the…read moreoriginally bricks and rocks is something amazing. The English on the plaques are very hard to read since it was a light color on a light-color'd plaque. There's not a whole lot to see but what they do have is pretty cool.

Ok. I honestly didn't have any background on Goethe, but a friend did and said I should come here…read more It was close to my hotel so I checked it out. I found this very Interesting and can see why there is so much admiration and respect from fellow Germans. It is worth a visit if you are in the area.

It's 5 euro to enter. I would recommend getting the audio guide too for 3 euros…read more Nice 4 story house with paintings, clocks, furniture and really old books including some first edition Shakespeare works. Goethe was well educated and privileged and it helped him to be one of the best German writers ever in history. If you come during the summer time, the rooms are a bit warm, since they do not have air conditioning.