Berlin Musical Instrument Museum

About

The Berlin Musical Instrument Museum (German: Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin) is located at the Kulturforum on Tiergartenstraße in Berlin, Germany. The museum holds over 3,500 musical instruments from the 16th century onward and is one of the largest and most representative musical instrument collections in Germany. Objects include a portable harpsichord once owned by Prussia's Queen Sophie Charlotte, flutes from the collection of Frederick the Great, and Benjamin Franklin's glass harmonica.

History: The museum was founded in 1888 at the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin from a collection assembled by Philipp Spitta and Joseph Joachim. Thirty-four instruments from the Museum of Decorative Arts, which had once been heard at the state court of the Kingdom of Prussia, formed the basis of the collection. By 1890 the museum had purchased hundreds more from Leipzig publisher and music dealer Paul de Wit. The world famous "Bach Cembalo" is one of these. The largest acquisitions were made by Oskar Fleischer, first director from 1892 to 1919, with financial support from Wilhelm II. In 1902 over 1,400 instruments from the private collection Ghent Attorney César Snoeck were acquired, including...