A New Beginning Behind the Curtain
Münchner Stadtmuseum isn’t closed, nor is it asleep, and we didn’t all head off on vacation. It’s true that we shut the building entrance on St. Jakobs Platz in January 2024 (excluding the film museum and the temporary exhibition “What the City: Perspectives of Munich”, which remains open until 2027), cleared out everything, moved to temporary quarters in Maxvorstadt, and erected a massive construction fence. Nevertheless—or precisely because of this—everyone is hard at work on a metamorphosis into the NEW Münchner Stadtmuseum.
I won’t immediately reveal all that will be new: those changes will be covered on this blog over the coming years. For now, we’re hitting the road, reporting back here on our goals, what we meet along the way, and everything happening in the interim. We’ll share our successes and setbacks; the peaks we reach, but probably also the seemingly endless valleys we encounter. We would be delighted to have you along for the ride—one that will last into 2031. Along the way, we’ll be devising new ideas for our permanent collection and for events, staging participatory and collaborative projects, digitizing museum collections, and developing new modes of communication.
In this, our blog is not simply a witness to but also a product of this process of development. Although the museum building is anchored to St. Jakobs Platz, it is itself in motion. We’re changing it into an open space at the heart of the city for encounters, exchanges, and discussions between the city’s specialists—that is, Munich’s residents. Münchner Stadtmuseum will become a place in which art and culture intersect with the urban community, inspiring and offering new impulses. It will be a museum that entertains people and allows them to experience knowledge firsthand, and one that not only speaks but also listens, creating a space to be heard: a place where people feel at home.
We’re very excited about what comes next and don’t yet know how the next five years will develop, or what we’ll face. But we’re excited about the tasks at hand and are embracing the responsibility of being the generation that has the chance—130 years after the museum’s founding—to reinvent Münchner Stadtmuseum and give it not just a new shape in a revamped building but also a new mission.
Dr. Markus Speidel studied European ethnology and the history of technology in Berlin. After working in museums in Munich, Stuttgart, and Waldenbuch, he returned to Munich in October 2024 to head up the City Culture Collection at Münchner Stadtmuseum. He has served as the museum’s director since July 2025 and is working with the museum team to reenvisage the museum’s future after major renovations have been completed.
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Plan Your Visit
Opening hours
Interim exhibition What the City. Perspectives of Munich in the former armory
Tuesday – Sunday 11am – 7pm
Free Admission
Filmmuseum München – Screenings
Tuesday / Wednesday 6.30 pm and 9 pm
Thursday 7 pm
Friday / Saturday 6 pm and 9 pm
Sunday 6 pm
The rest of the museum is currently closed due to the general refurbishment.
Contact
St.-Jakobs-Platz 1
80331 München
Phone +49-(0)89-233-722370
E-Mail stadtmuseum(at)muenchen.de
E-Mail filmmuseum(at)muenchen.de
Cinema ticket reservation Phone +49-(0)89-233-724150