The Wende Museum’s collections are a resource for learning about the vanishing cultural, political, and artistic histories of the former East Bloc countries and the Soviet Union, as well as countries with a history of socialism including China, Vietnam, and North Korea. The Wende supports emerging fields of aesthetic and academic study in visual and material culture studies as well as cultural history. The museum promotes a multi-layered exploration and discussion of the Cold War era on a global scale.

The collection focuses on:

1) materials originating from East Germany, with more than 50% of the collection from the GDR;

2) items used in everyday life and artworks capturing lived experience;

3) materials that document "Wende Moments," or junctures in Cold War history marked by extreme change—beginnings, endings, and transformative events such as the formation of the Warsaw Pact, the fall of the Berlin Wall, German reunification, and the collapse of the Soviet Union;

4) and official and unofficial artwork.

The collection ranges from consumer products (e.g., computers, radios, records, toiletries, foodstuff) to works of modern and contemporary art in all media (e.g., paintings, drawings, sculptures, graphics, photographs), iconic political symbols (e.g., statuary, medals, flags, uniforms, commemorative gifts), and archives—including a substantial gift from East German leader Erich Honecker's estate—and some 3,500 16mm documentary, animation, and educational films as well as home movies from the GDR. The museum contains large collections of furniture, flags and banners, commemorative plates, communist folk art, menus, family albums, and design items. In recent years, the museum has acquired collections of Hungarian Cold War-era artworks and artifacts, Russian hippie materials from the 1960s and 1970s, Polish solidarity materials, Soviet demilitarization albums, and artifacts from the now-shuttered KGB Espionage Museum.

The museum's East German collections are the subject of a major publication, Beyond the Wall: Art and Artifacts from the GDR/ Jenseits der Mauer. Kunst und Alltagsgegenstände aus der DDR (TASCHEN, 2014). In 2019, TASCHEN published a smaller second edition of the book, The East German Handbook, featuring text in both English and German.

The museum's collections have been exhibited in a number of other museums and institutions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Imperial War Museum (London), Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum (Independence, MO), Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (Simi Valley, CA), Gerald Ford Presidential Library (Ann Arbor, MI), the International Spy Museum (Washington, D.C.), and the Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles).

The Wende’s Online Collections are available on our website and regularly updated. If you are interested in materials that are not yet available in our Online Collections, the Museum welcomes research requests.

Research visits may take place on-site or virtually. All inquiries may be directed to research@wendemuseum.org.

The Wende Museum is pleased to invite all GSA attendees to join us for an evening of Soviet-inspired cocktails and music from the East German underground on Friday, October 1 at 9:30 p.m. in the Santa Fe Room Indianapolis Marriott Downtown. This event is an afterparty for the attendees of the 45th annual conference of the German Studies Association. Attire is evening chic or East Berlin 80s punk. Generously underwritten by Carrie and Tadzio Wellisz.