THE BUCHSTABENMUSEUM
Preservation and documentation of letters
The Buchstabenmuseum is the first museum in the world to collect letterforms from public spaces and display them as part of urban history. We preserve and document three-dimensional letters and signage, and their history, as well as providing information about their origins and construction. Our collection has captured the imagination of visitors from all around the world for over 10 years. Hundreds of letters have been saved from being battered by the elements or ending up on the scrap heap. A selection of what we offer can be found under » COLLECTION
SPECIALS
SHOP BUCHSTABENMUSEUM
The Buchstabenmuseum font:
Selected objects from the museum have been made into a unique font (OTF) by LucasFonts. We’ve made it available for you to download free here:
Literally discover!
Discover our museum and the stories behind the lettering: literally click through our virtual tour.
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COLLECTION
EXHIBITION AND EVENTS
Exhibition – Alphabetic Hansaviertel
In the first special exhibition at the new location, striking signs from the world-famous Hansaviertel can be seen from 22 November 2019. Exhibition opening: Thursday 21.11.2019, 18:00 to 21:00
We have moved
Dear Friends of the Buchstabenmuseum, we would like to extend a heartfelt invitation to all our members, to the best volunteer helpers, as well as to all typophiles who contributed both openly and behind-the-scenes , in a nutshell: to all those who are passionate about the Buchstabenmuseum – to come and visit our new home!
Temporary Shop in Bikini Berlin
The Berlin Buchstabenmuseum is taking a different approach in a bid to raise funds for a new home and for the preservation of their collection: a temporary shop and a fund-raising campaign on betterplace.org have been set up to secure the continued existence of this unique museum.
PEOPLE & MUSEUM
The Buchstabenmuseum looks in detail at an extremely interesting subject matter: the collection, which also contains some very large letters and signage, focuses on and documents a variety of phenomena and developments in a range of historic and contemporary cultural and artistic fields – for example in the areas of architecture and urban landscaping, which are shaped by illuminated letterforms, particularly at night.
The move to a new location offered the Buchstabenmuseum the chance to display its exhibits in a new way and explore the informative elements of the exhibition in greater detail. For the exploding ‘R’ installation, I set out to research the construction processes behind the individual pieces, which were all so wonderfully displayed. I then created a display board to illustrate the individual steps.
I have long been exploring the topics of architecture and lettering through my studies. I think the idea behind the museum is great – what appeals to me the most are the stories behind the objects. During our first move the museum became a kind of baby for me, and I ended up basing much of the work for my diploma around it.
I have a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature. Though I still love my subject I wanted to get involved in a project that dealt with a range of different disciplines, and the Buchstabenmuseum embodied all the things I’m passionate about: typography and handwriting, urban history, collective memory, industrial and product design, abstract art and sculpture.
It was thanks to my two parrots that I discovered a lovely, old-school pet shop at Frankfurter Tor, which could be seen from miles away because of its illuminated “Zierfische” shop sign. A few years later, having kept up-to-date with news in the typo-world whilst working for United Designers, I discovered this illuminated sign was once again making the headlines: The shop would be closing and the wonderful lettering was in grave danger of landing on the scrap heap.
Despite having international status, Berlin is still a small city, and so it was that I discovered the Buchstabenmuseum through word of mouth before I actually met those involved in the museum at a Typodarium event. Everyone there is open to new ideas, and that makes getting involved in their projects a lot of fun.
SUPPORT
The Buchstabenmuseum has a new location!
For our new exhibition we need urgently your help.