DAM - German Architecture Museum

The German Museum of Architecture (DAM) in Frankfurt am Main was founded in 1979. However, discussions about establishing an architectural museum in Germany date back to 1906. It was only with the "boom" of museums in the 1980s that the idea to build it as part of the museum promenade in Frankfurt was born. The museum was created according to the design of O.M. Ungers in a double house from 1901. The historical villa was reconstructed until 1984 when the museum was completed, and almost immediately the famous image of postmodernism was born: in the middle of a completely demolished historical building, a white cubic structure emerged - a "house within a house." DAM is understood as a discussion forum for current architectural issues. Four to six exhibitions take place here each year, addressing biographically, stylistically, or typologically organized themes of 20th and 21st-century architecture. In 2001, the third floor of DAM was transformed into the Aktuelle Galerie, hosting small exhibitions responding to current issues. The exhibition program is accompanied by symposia, congresses, and numerous lectures complemented by exhibition catalogs and its own publication series. The permanent exhibition "From Shack to Skyscraper" consists of 25 panels with an overview of the most significant periods in the history of architecture and habitation, spanning from the Stone Age to the present day. As of today, the entire DAM archive holds 300,000 drawings and architectural sketches, approximately 900 models, and the legacies of 40 significant architects, including Hannes Meyer, Mart Stam, Heinz Bienefeld, and Rob Krier. To enable comprehensive research work, the museum also houses a library with important publications on the history and theory of architecture since 1800, monographs on architects, and the most important architectural journals. The publicly accessible library is located in the DAM branch in the former press building on Hedderichstrasse, which was reconstructed by Ungers' collaborator Max Dudler.