[HN Gopher] The Buchstabenmuseum Berlin is closing
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The Buchstabenmuseum Berlin is closing
Author : t-vi
Score : 151 points
Date : 2025-10-04 11:58 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.buchstabenmuseum.de)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.buchstabenmuseum.de)
| weinzierl wrote:
| Sad to hear.
|
| Berlin is a modern typography hub, the influence Spiekermann has
| in the DACH region and maybe even beyond is hard to overestimate.
|
| Apart from that if you come to Berlin and you are the kind of
| person that would have liked the Buchstabenmuseum you should try
| to get an opportunity to visit the crashed space station.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-base
| hnhg wrote:
| The Museum Der Dinge is also worth a visit:
| https://museumderdinge.org/
| pluc wrote:
| Berlin is an open air museum for typography
| MomsAVoxell wrote:
| As is Vienna. Definitely a typographers dream.
| croisillon wrote:
| https://www.stadtschrift.at
| kcaseg wrote:
| Probably the money gambled away on slop AI startups in a single
| week could sustain thousands of museums like this for decades
| aetherson wrote:
| Money spent on startups isn't charity, you do it in the
| expectation of (in aggregate) profit -- so it's not rivalrous
| with charities. People who might support museums earn money on
| investments that they can then use for charities.
|
| If you believe that you are better at picking winners (slop
| startups vs non-slop startups) than the rest of the investment
| world, then that's a valuable skill that you could use to earn
| a lot of money that you could then use to support museums if
| you choose.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| It's a deeply capitalist perspective to respond to a
| criticism of the excesses and inefficiency of wild, unfounded
| capital speculation with 'Well if you so smart, why ain't you
| rich?!?'
| aetherson wrote:
| It's a deeply non-capitalist perspective to demand that
| everyone respond to dumb posts with sentiment instead of
| analysis.
| ribasushi wrote:
| > a deeply non-capitalist perspective
|
| This seems to have been said as if it is a bad thing. Is
| it, or did I misread what you meant?
| pessimizer wrote:
| It turns out they were being triggered by sentiment to
| respond with more sentiment, but they think their
| sentiment is "analysis."
| aetherson wrote:
| Well, let's go with a learning exercise. Do you think
| that you should dismiss the fact that someone said
| something dumb because you perceive them as being on the
| right side? Then I guess it's good for you.
| andriesm wrote:
| Well if you are very against capitalism, that would be
| pretty bad, but ONLY if you are then also a hypocrite
| working for amounts of money that would make anyone not
| in the top 20 percent of the world population's eyes pop;
|
| Deduct extra points if you ever accepted stock options,
| ever tried to start a startup or did a side hustle
| because you wanted MORE than the bare minimum you need to
| survive. (Like those capitalist pigs do!)
|
| Or if you are typing this from a mobile phone or laptop
| computer that costs an amount of money that would be
| unimaginable to the typical person for most of human
| history.
|
| Otherwise you're golden. Socialism truly is the superior
| moral position. It's so obvious we can all agree. And you
| should lead by example by giving away everything that you
| might need less than some other random poor person out
| there.
| WalterBright wrote:
| Is that so unreasonable? Lots of people post that Wall
| Street corporations are dominated by short term, next
| quarter thinking. If that were true, then shorting those
| stocks would be a profitable plan. It seems reasonable to
| point out that if one is so sure corporations were going to
| tank because of short term thinking, they could get rich by
| shorting the stock.
| thequux wrote:
| Alas, the market can remain irrational longer than I can
| remain solvent.
| tempfile wrote:
| I agree completely. Museums, culture, and other
| wasteful/pointless excesses should be deducted from profits -
| at the discretion of the profiteer - only after the actually
| useful work of poisoning the drinking water to generate
| pornography is complete.
|
| Long live the overlords.
| CrzyLngPwd wrote:
| Or the money they sent to Ukraine.
| mnot wrote:
| Oh no! We were just there a couple of months ago. I hope they
| find a good home for their collection.
| hentrep wrote:
| This is a bummer - headed to Berlin for the first time in a few
| weeks and hoped to visit. Any recommendations for similarly geek-
| oriented side trips in Berlin?
| bhaak wrote:
| The Computerspielemuseum is worth a visit.
| https://www.computerspielemuseum.de/
| ghosty141 wrote:
| 100%, you can play a lot of retro arcades for free after u
| paid the 5EUR entry fee. 10/10 experience
| kamma4434 wrote:
| Totally! Dont miss it.
| nanoxide wrote:
| Technikmuseum [0] has many different technology-related
| exhibitions. And the Spectrum (separate building) has a lot of
| physics- and science experiments you can actively try out.
| Loved it as a kid.
|
| [0] https://technikmuseum.berlin/en/
| askl wrote:
| Not sure if it counts as geek-oriented but take a look at the
| guided tours by Berliner Unterwelten [1]. They are really good.
| (Tours in English are available)
|
| [1] https://www.berliner-unterwelten.de/en/index.html
| lysace wrote:
| https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchstabenmuseum
|
| It opened in 2016.
|
| This post is likely the most attention it has ever received.
| phillipharris wrote:
| It opened in 2005 and moved in 2016
| Symbiote wrote:
| In a similar vein there's the Neon Museum in Warsaw.
|
| https://www.neonmuzeum.org/english
| tethys wrote:
| As for why they are closing:
|
| > Fixed costs and a lack of financial support are forcing us to
| take this step. In addition, the general cultural situation in
| Berlin is very precarious. It was a very difficult decision for
| us.
|
| Via Deepl, original here:
| https://www.instagram.com/p/DLuAW5DIANV/
| ajkjk wrote:
| What cultural situation are they referring to?
| trenchpilgrim wrote:
| I believe they mean "funding for culture," i.e. public grants
| for museums.
| vishnugupta wrote:
| > cultural situation in Berlin is very precarious
|
| Can someone please elaborate this for someone who is absolutely
| clueless about Berlin?
| ido wrote:
| Municipal/state government cutting budgets.
| worldsayshi wrote:
| Partial explanation: Gentrification + increased costs because
| of inflation is my understanding.
|
| Berlin has been relatively underpopulated ever since WW2
| which seems to have contributed to a de-gentrified situation
| which allowed an unique culture to grow. But time's are
| changing.
|
| Look at this pop graph:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_population_statistics
| Still hasn't caught up with the peak in the 1930:s.
| scoofy wrote:
| >a de-gentrified situation
|
| What does this even mean? Does this mean "low cost of
| living"? I feel like gentrification due to post-war
| generational housing shortages is now just a catch all term
| for increasing cost of living in general.
| worldsayshi wrote:
| Sure it's mostly about cost of living but also relatively
| good access to abandoned buildings (and perhaps other
| services) that could be used for non housing purposes. A
| lot of Berlin clubs and art venues started in buildings
| that were abandoned if I understand correctly.
|
| I recall that there were interesting similarities after
| depopulation events like the black plague. Suddenly
| there's a surplus of built infrastructure.
| oezi wrote:
| Berlin lost over 1.5m inhabitants in the time since 1945
| to its lowest point after reunification (due to being a
| divided city without much industrial jobs).
|
| At it height 1 in 5 apartments were empty in Berlin which
| pushed rents down below 4 EUR per square meter. A 3
| bedroom apartment for less than 500 EURs a month. This
| was de-gentrification the parent mentioned.
|
| Since 2010 population grew and now Berlin has housing
| shortages like every other capital in Europe. Rents now
| top 20 EUR per sqm.
| immibis wrote:
| Berlin is the best proof that capitalism destroys culture.
| We should probably find a way to prevent that from
| happening. The current German and Berlin government would
| rather accelerate it though - besides the funding thing,
| they're currently ramming a highway expansion straight
| through a cultural area.
|
| To answer the question in replies, good East Berlin
| developed in the relative anarchy when the Soviet Union
| collapsed and _no_ new system was really established yet.
| (Being able to exchange deutschemarks for groceries is
| _not_ capitalism - they had that in communism too.) The
| western end of Berlin, by contrast, wasn 't culturally
| interesting in the same way, and didn't change much when
| the wall fell. Not that symphony orchestras and painting
| galleries _aren 't_ culture, but they're not the kind we're
| talking about here, the kind that develops bottom up when
| people are given the freedom to do what they want.
|
| dang informed me by email that this is a bad comment and I
| deserve to be, and have been, punished for posting it.
| Thorrez wrote:
| Did the prior good Belin culture develop under a economic
| system other than capitalism?
| worldsayshi wrote:
| Yeah I don't agree that this proves something about
| capitalism but it does indicate that an abundance of
| cheap housing/buildings makes culture thrive.
| pantalaimon wrote:
| It's politics that prevents the construction of cheap
| housing, not capitalism.
| lukan wrote:
| "but it does indicate that an abundance of cheap
| housing/buildings makes culture thrive."
|
| Not on its own, though. Plenty of
| abandoned/underpopulated cheap places in europe that do
| not thrive. But it certainly is beneficial.
|
| (in the case of Berlin, there was for example a special
| effect, that all germans living in west berlin did not
| had to go to the army (to not having to shoot their
| relatives in east berlin) - so lots of counterculture
| people evading the army came to Berlin and they created
| culture)
| tchalla wrote:
| Start here, you can use a translator
|
| https://www.rbb24.de/politik/beitrag/2025/02/chialo-
| einsparu...
| cyberax wrote:
| Berlin, like other large cities, suffers from cancerous
| population density growth. It's sucking the life away from
| nearby cities, while the cost of living keeps skyrocketing.
| not--felix wrote:
| It's sad. I did not know this exists, where do people find
| locations like this?
| macinjosh wrote:
| Why do they need a museum dedicated to back stabbing?
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(page generated 2025-10-04 23:00 UTC)