Since industrialisation, we have lived in an age of fossil-fuel dependency: coal, oil and gas have become the foundation of our economy, society and culture. But what does it mean to live in this "carbon culture"? Drawing on 24 objects from the Deutsches Technikmuseum, this volume explores how deeply fossil resources permeate our lives, the price we pay for them-and asks: How can we shape a future that is no longer based on the thoughtless exploitation of fossil resources?

Selina Heidschwager, Eike-Christian Heine, Jörg Rüsewald, Nora Thorade (ed.)
2026, 60 pages
Print-ISBN: 978-3-00-086059-1
PDF-ISBN: 978-3-00-086060-7
 

This volume explores the fascinating world of bicycle posters. It examines how the bicycle, as a technological object, became a cultural phenomenon; how advertising used it to convey dreams and fears; and how it continues to shape our ideas about mobility today. The posters are not only historical documents, but also reflect a society in transition—then and now.

Bernd Lüke, Gerhard Rammer, Jörg Rüsewald, Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin (Hg.)
2025, 80 Seiten
8,50 Euro
ISBN: 9783000851971

Available in print from the museum shop. All the articles and posters from the volume are also available in the digital museum magazine.

Whether in clothing, the home or cars, textiles are everywhere. This booklet accompanying the exhibition Hidden Structures explores the diversity of historic fabrics through microscopic detail photographs by Berlin-based photographer Heiner Büld. The images reveal the lost techniques and unique structures of textiles from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The fabric samples come from the collection of textile engineer Wieland Poser and offer a fascinating insight into the history and aesthetics of textile production.

Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin (ed.)
2024, 48 pages

Rapidly changing product generations, short-lived fashions and the cult of novelty shape the technological world of mass consumer society, obscuring the fact that repairing, maintenance and improvisation are essential practices in technologically advanced societies. The Deutsches Technikmuseum believes it is high time to change this-and in this book explores the multifaceted world of repairing, maintenance and improvisation. Drawing on 22 selected examples, it examines the upkeep of everyday objects, changing approaches to repair in crafts, trades and industry, the essential role of maintaining and repairing technical infrastructures, and the social and environmental significance of repair practices in our society. The essays make one thing clear: repair and maintenance have always been, and continue to be, ubiquitous. And they have the potential to make our future more sustainable.

Heike Weber, Astrid Venn, Jörg Rüsewald, Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin (ed.)
2023, 208 pages
24 Euro
Print-ISBN: 978-3-00-076383-0
PDF-ISBN: 978-3-00-076382-3

Available in print from the museum shop.

Many museums and collections are facing public criticism because of their entanglements with colonial contexts. It is long overdue that they examine their own histories and exhibition practices. Three Berlin museums have embarked on a self-critical examination of their coloniality: the Brücke-Museum, the Deutsches Technikmuseum and the Stadtmuseum Berlin. The contributors offer insights into this process of reflection, the possibilities for change and the resulting consequences for museum practice. In doing so, they provide impetus for the long-term and in-depth examination of this subject—an example that may inspire other museums.

Brücke-Museum, Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin, Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Daniela Bystron, Anne Fäser (ed.)
transcript
2022, 240 pages
39 Euro
Print-ISBN: 978-3-8376-6427-0
PDF-ISBN: 978-3-8394-6427-4

Available in print from bookshops.

Smoking chimneys, people in work smocks and blue overalls-the industrial heart of the workers' and peasants' state beat in the GDR. Photographer Günter Krawutschke knew the world of East Berlin's and the GDR's many small and large industrial enterprises like no one else.
His photographs offer candid, and at times intimate, glimpses into a world that has long since disappeared. They document emotional moments and strong characters against the austere backdrop of hard-working everyday life. Many of the more than 160 striking photographs were never published during the GDR era.

Joseph Hoppe, Bernd Lüke, Jörg Rüsewald (ed.)
be.bra verlag
2020, 208 pages
26 Euro
ISBN: 978-3-89809-183-1

Available from bookshops and the museum shop.

Berlin is the capital of industrial culture. Its rapid growth, its exhilarating periods of upheaval, but also its brutal declines and destruction can today be read as expressions of the city’s dynamic industrialization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Industrial culture played a decisive role in shaping Berlin’s history as a space of urban planning, everyday life, and politics.
The contributions to this book trace the visible and invisible, the forgotten and newly discovered traces of Berlin’s industrial culture. Richly illustrated, the volume tells the story of technological innovations, entrepreneurial spirit, and pioneering figures; reflects on the darker sides of history; and asks the question: How can Berlin continue to harness the potential of its industrial culture in the future?

Joseph Hoppe, Heike Oevermann (ed.)
be.bra verlag
2020, 272 üages
24 Euro
ISBN: 978-3-89809-167-1

Available at bookstores and in the museum shop.

Ships were never more magnificent or lavishly decorated than during the Baroque period. The stern in particular provided a prominent space for displaying the sovereign’s wealth and asserting his claim to power through gilded figures and ornaments.
This volume focuses on the mutual influence between palace architecture and shipbuilding in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Accompanied by numerous illustrations, the essays offer fascinating insights into a hitherto little-noticed chapter in the history of architecture and seafaring.

Maike Priesterjahn, Claudia Schuster (ed.)
be.bra verlag, 
2018, 159 pages
24 Euro
ISBN: 978-3-89809-153-4

Available from bookshops and the museum shop.

A life without technological connectivity? Hard to imagine! Information and communication networks have been an essential part of our everyday lives since long before the age of the internet. This book brings together 30 historical and contemporary objects that people have used to connect and communicate with one another-from telegraph cables to data glasses. Extraordinary stories about these "networked things" shed light on the cultural and technological background of connectivity.

Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin (ed.)
be.bra verlag
2018, 172 pages
16 Euro
ISBN: 978-3-89809-143-5

Available from bookshops and the museum shop.

Whether it is a lobster's shell, a potato or a tree trunk, they all contain sugar compounds. As structural materials, sources of energy and carriers of information, sugars are ubiquitous. Without them, there would be no life on Earth. Richly illustrated, this book tells the story of sugar in all its forms across the biological kingdoms and human societies. While sugar as a sweetener is increasingly coming under criticism, as a substitute for fossil raw materials it offers hope for medicine, industry and energy production.

Volker Koesling, René Spierling (ed.)
be.bra verlag
2017, 256 pages
20 Euro
ISBN: 978-89809-142-8

Available from bookshops and the museum shop.

What do an ancient Germanic timber trackway, a Second World War dive bomber and a set of billiard balls have in common? They are fascinating witnesses to the cultural history of technology and form part of the permanent exhibition at the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin. Alongside many other significant exhibits, they are presented in this volume. The authors explore the social dimensions of technology, technological utopias and moral implications. This fascinating journey of discovery through the renowned Berlin museum offers a new perspective on technology.

Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin (ed.)
Koehler & Amelang
2013, 200 pages
ISBN: 978-3-7338-0395-7

Available from antiquarian booksellers.