Family Matters

Father, mother, child? Surprising perspectives on the traditional family model in the past and present.

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Museum Knoblauchhaus   

‘Family Matters’ is the title for the joint theme year of the cultural institutions at the Humboldt Forum. The Knoblauchhaus Museum in the Nikolai Quarter is also taking part. The exhibition of the same name provides insights into the traditional family model between 1815 and today.

Location
Museum Knoblauchhaus
Poststraße 23
10178 Berlin

Opening Hours
Tue – Sun | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Mon closed

Additional Opening Hours
see Info & Service

Admission
5 euros (single ticket) | 15 euros (combi-ticket*) | free admission (under 18 years or with reduction)

*Valid on two consecutive days for the Museum Ephraim-Palais, the Museum Nikolaikirche and the Museum Knoblauchhaus.

From 3 October 2025 to 12 July 2026, the Humboldt Forum Ticket is also valid at the Museum Knoblauchhaus (see ‘Tickets’).

The family plays a central role in human coexistence. The term ‘family’ encompasses a wide variety of forms of relationships. Family binds and separates, provides support and is subject to rules; it can open up freedom and impose constraints. What does it mean to be related? Love or burden? Tradition or trauma? Rock or surf? The family always reflects the community as a whole. Who belongs, who doesn’t? And what is it that holds us together?
Family with children, Central Bus Station (ZOB) Berlin, Charlottenburg, July 1969
© Stadtmuseum Berlin | Photo: Ludwig Binder
Berliner Bürgerfamilie, Portrait von Suzette Henry, um 1794
© Stadtmuseum Berlin, Foto: Oliver Ziebe | Reproduktion: Michael Setzpfandt

The middle-class family model in focus

For a long time, Western industrial societies were characterised by the nuclear family consisting of parents and biological children. The Knoblauchhaus Museum is dedicated to this bourgeois family model. In the former residence of the Berlin merchant family Knoblauch, interventions present different aspects of family life: from table manners and family trees to violent fathers. The migration experiences of the Knoblauch family, who fled Hungary, are contrasted with the experiences of people who work in the museum today.
The self-image of young, middle-class women in the Biedermeier period is documented by a historical object that is being exhibited for the first time: an album created between 1838 and 1860 by the Berlin woman Ottilie von Graefe (1816 – 1898) contains drawings of young women in poses reminiscent of today’s selfies on Instagram. At the same time, it shows that they did not just want to wait for the ‘man for life’, but were also creatively engaged with literature, art and music.
Mathilde Graefe, portrayed by Ottilie von Graefe, 1851
© Stadtmuseum Berlin | Photo: Sten Fischer

Family in BERLIN GLOBAL

Interventions in the exhibition BERLIN GLOBAL at the Humboldt Forum complement the theme year. They examine the extent to which Berliners experience their families as a space of freedom. The focus is on current aspects of family life in the city against the backdrop of housing shortages, leisure activities and revolutions.

About the project

‘Family Matters’ is a project involving all cultural institutions working at the Humboldt Forum. Participants include the Humboldt Forum Foundation in Berlin Palace, the Ethnological Museum and Museum of Asian Art (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation / Berlin State Museums), the Berlin City Museum Foundation and Humboldt University of Berlin. Special exhibitions and interventions in the permanent exhibitions take an in-depth look at the various forms of family life. Events in the participating museums accompany the project.
© Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss | Foto: Getty Images / Dean Davies

Info & Service

Opening Hours

Tue – Sun | 10 am – 6 pm (also on public holidays)
Mon closed

Differing opening hours:
Wed | 24.12. (Christmas Eve) | closed
Thu | 25.12. (Christmas Day) | 12 – 6 pm
Fri | 26.12. (Boxing Day) | 12 – 6 pm
Wed | 31.12. (New Year’s Eve) | closed
Thu | 01.01. (New Year’s Day) | 12 – 6 pm

The visitor rules of the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin apply.

Directions

Poststraße 23
10178 Berlin

Google Maps
Bus & Train
Contact

Infoline
+49 30 24 002-162
Mo – Fri | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Write E-Mail

Accessibility

not barrier-free

Tickets

Admission

Combi-Ticket
15 euros
Valid for our three museums in the Nikolaiviertel (Museum Nikolaikirche, Museum Ephraim-Palais, Museum Knoblauchhaus) on two consecutive days (please note opening hours)

Single Ticket
5 euros
Day ticket for the Museum Knoblauchhaus

Free admission
With proof of reduction
for children and adolescents under 18 years of age, students, trainees, FSJ/FÖJ/BFD volunteers, Berlin Ticket S holders, severely disabled persons (at least 50% GdB) and their Personal Assistant, refugees (with a valid work or residence permit/eAT and a Ukrainian passport or valid residence permit from Ukraine), recipients of transfer payments (Bürgergeld, ALG I), holders of the Berlin-Brandenburg Ehrenamtskarte, holders of the Super-Ferienpass / Berliner Familienpass, ICOM members, members of Deutscher Museumsbund, Verein der Freunde und Förderer des Stadtmuseums Berlin e. V. (except for the Museumsdorf Düppel), Förderverein Museumsdorf Düppel e. V., and Förderkreis Museum Knoblauchhaus e. V., media representatives with a valid press card.

Humboldt Forum Ticket
15 euros | 7 euros (with proof of reduction)
From 3 October 2025 to 12 July 2026, the Humboldt Forum ticket will also be valid at the Knoblauchhaus Museum. It can be purchased at the Humboldt Forum ticket office on site or online at the Humboldt Forum ticket shop.

The Museums