Jewish Museum, Berlin

The first Jewish Museum in Berlin was founded on the 24th of January 1933, six days before the Nazis officially gained power, and was built next to the Neue Synagoge on Oranienburger Straße. In addition to curating Jewish history, it also featured collections of Jewish art. The current Jewish Museum Berlin (Jüdisches Museum Berlin) was opened in 2001 and is one of the largest Jewish Museums in Europe. In three buildings, two of which are new additions specifically built for the museum by architect Daniel Libeskind, two millennia of German-Jewish history are on display in the permanent exhibition as well as in various changing exhibitions. German-Jewish history is documented in the collections, the library and the archive, in the computer terminals at the museum's Rafael Roth Learning Center, and is reflected in the museum's program of events. The museum is one of Berlin’s most frequented museums (almost 720,000 visitors in 2012).Opposite the building ensemble, the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin was built – also after a design by Libeskind – in 2011/2012 in the former flower market hall. The archives, library, museum education department, and a lecture hall can all be found in the academy.Princeton economist W. Michael Blumenthal, who was born in Oranienburg near Berlin and was later President Jimmy Carter's Secretary of the Treasury, was the director of the museum from 1997 to 2014; Peter Schäfer was appointed as the new director in September 2014.