PERMANENT EXHIBITION

Visitors in permanent exhibition looking at display

As we take you through the main exhibition you’ll notice that we don’t tell you the story of each European nation. Instead we want to explore how history has shaped a sense of European memory and continues to influence our lives today and in the future. As in our own lives, some things we want to remember, some things we like to forget. And of course, the same event can be interpreted from different perspectives.

The content shown on our website is a small selection of the permanent exhibition.

Entrance to Shaping Europe second floor

SHAPING EUROPE

Is there a shared European past? What binds the continent together? Your journey starts here!

Entrance to Europe a global power - third floor

EUROPE: A GLOBAL POWER

The call for democracy and national sovereignty, the expansion of industrialisation and imperialism, all radically change Europe's course. Europe reaches the peak of its global power. The changes fuel social tensions in 19th century Europe - their impact is still highly relevant today.

Entrance to Europe in ruins - third floor

EUROPE IN RUINS

Extreme atrocity and contempt for humanity become apparent in the different scenarios of mass war and totalitarian terror in the first half of the 20th century.

Entrance to fourth floor

REBUILDING A DIVIDED CONTINENT

A new political landscape emerges from the ashes of war, separated by an Iron Curtain. The idea of European integration is put into practice, but will it flourish?

Entrance to fifth floor - Shattering Certainties

SHATTERING CERTAINTIES

The thriving post-war economies falter. Communist regimes face systemic issues and a lack of socio-political legitimacy. Globalisation and the end of the Cold War accelerate European integration.

EUROPE NOW

What are the mutually shared beliefs that bind us together regardless of political, religious, cultural and social differences?

What will future history textbooks say about our present?