Industriesalon Schöneweide

Current exhibitions

About the museum

From the late 19th century onward, Schöneweide developed into a center of Berlin's electrical industry with the plants of AEG and its successors. The largest enterprise of the GDR era was the Werk für Fernsehelektronik (WF), with around 9,000 employees, which produced picture tubes, special-purpose tubes, and later semiconductors. In the 1980s, plant employees assembled a collection of the company's own products, which was displayed as the factory museum "Technik im Turm" in the Peter Behrens Building until 1993/94 and then placed in storage.

When the objects were in danger of ending up in the trash during the sale of the property in 2009, the association Industriesalon Schöneweide was founded in June 2009. It rescued the collection and moved it to a nearby hall on Reinbeckstraße, which until German reunification housed the preliminary workshop of the Transformatorenwerk Oberschöneweide (transformer plant).

Today the hall serves as an exhibition space, visible storage, event venue, and visitor center for the area all at once. On display are workstations and machines from tube production, display cases with electron tubes, and curiosities such as an early electronic organ and the prototype of a microwave oven. A permanent exhibition traces the history of the industrial area up to the companies based there today. The holdings also include development reports and around 30,000 photos from the WF. The association offers numerous guided tours of the listed industrial complex and presents changing exhibitions on local history.

Highlights

• Toccata organ from 1954, an early electronic organ built with more than 250 tubes
• Prototype of an East German microwave oven with a magnetron from the WF
• Workstations and machines from electron tube production
• 18 wall display cases with tube families from WF production
• Guided tours of the Schöneweide industrial complex (Elektropolis tour)

Permanent exhibitions

• Sammlung Werk für Fernsehelektronik – The rescued WF factory museum, with production machines, tube display cases, and products that reflect the tension between high-tech ambitions and the GDR's economy of scarcity.
• Industriegebiet Schöneweide – Overview of the industrial site's development from the Gründerzeit (late 19th-century boom years) to the companies operating there today.

Founded

2009

Operated by

Industriesalon Schöneweide e.V.

Director

Albert Markert

Admission & discounts

Admission is free.

The exhibition is free; guided tours, bike and bus tours, and rallies are fee-based (vouchers available).

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible: no information
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The event room is accessible via a wheelchair ramp; the association does not publish any further information on accessibility.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide

Family scavenger hunt "Spot the Difference!" ("Finde den Unterschied!"): using historical photos, you look for the buildings and answer questions (1–2 hrs depending on pace). School scavenger hunt for 11- to 15-year-olds as a group offering.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

• Museum shop
• Coat check
• Wi-Fi

The visitor center counter offers brochures, vouchers, and tourist information on Treptow-Köpenick. Repair café on the first and second Wednesday of every month (17:00–20:00).

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent
• Private parties
• Corporate events

The entire hall (approx. 650 m² with gallery; exhibition space 350 m², 7 m high) or just the 100 m² event room with stage, bar counter, and outdoor terrace can be rented; equipment includes 100 chairs and sound and projector systems. Private use is restricted depending on the current exhibition; guided tours, bike tours, or city rallies can be added, and there is a boat landing stage right in front of the building.

Plan your visit