If you want to visit museums in the Speicherstadt in Hamburg, then this is a fabulous idea. Because a visit to Hamburg without a tour of the historic Speicherstadt is unthinkable. The huge warehouse complex with its red-brown brick facades is currently the most exciting district in the Hanseatic city and offers an impressive range of restaurants, bars, cafés, museums, studios and many varied leisure activities. As we ourselves run our OPOLUM in this incomparable ambience, we present some of the museums in Hamburg’s Speicherstadt – right in our immediate vicinity.
In case you don’t know us yet: OPOLUM ‘s escape room theater is the future of escape rooms in Hamburg. Because we haven’t just strung together tricky puzzles and wrapped them up in an exciting story. We have made our escape rooms in the Speicherstadt as realistic as possible and taken them to a whole new level. By using actors who actively intervene in our stories, you completely forget that it’s just a game. Our size is also unique – we are by far the largest escape room in Hamburg and one of the largest in Europe!
Museums in Hamburg’s Speicherstadt:
Our top 5
#1: Speicherstadt Museum
To help you understand how the unique Speicherstadt was created and how things used to be there, let’s start with the Speicherstadt Museum. Here, in the authentic setting of 1888, you can see how warehouse workers used to store and process valuable imported goods such as coffee, tea, cocoa, rubber, spices etc.. You will also find numerous historical photos and plans of the history of the Speicherstadt. This self-defined “largest of the small museums in Hamburg” is also particularly child-friendly, as many of the exhibits can be played with and there is also an exciting and fun puzzle rally to complete throughout the museum.
#2: German Customs Museum in the Speicherstadt warehouse district
Hamburg’s Speicherstadt was a duty-free zone until 2003, so it is only logical that there is also a museum here that deals with the development of the customs system and its dark side – smuggling. The building that houses the museum was built in 1900 and is appropriately located on the customs canal, right next to the Kornhausbrücke bridge. Until 1984, it served as a customs office for the import customs clearance of carpets.
The ground floor is dedicated to the present and deals with the customs regulations of the European Union and world trade. But problem areas such as drug and arms trafficking, product piracy, species protection etc. are also addressed here. The exhibits range from old uniforms and confiscated objects to curious and sometimes highly creative smuggling hideouts. On the upper floor of the customs museum, the historical development of the customs system – from Roman times to the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era – is vividly presented.
#3: Burg Coffee Museum in Hamburg’s Speicherstadt warehouse district
Every morning you ask yourself the anxious question “Is there life before coffee?” If that’s the case – but of course not only then – you shouldn’t miss the Burg Coffee Museum in the Speicherstadt! The Burg family’s coffee shop and roastery have been in existence since 1923. Over the course of a century, many interesting things have been collected that it would be a shame to carelessly dispose of.
This gave rise to the idea of dedicating a museum to this popular crop. The Genuss-Speicher at St. Annenufer 2, where the museum is housed, has the only vaulted cellar in the Speicherstadt, where you can learn all about the world’s favorite roasted beans – from cultivation and harvesting to processing. But you can and should not only study the coffee here, but also taste it in the adjoining coffee house and – of course – buy it right next door. 😎
But if you’d rather treat your taste buds to exquisite teas, then visit the most beautiful and most photographed building in the Speicherstadt – the famous moated castle. It is also run by the Burg family, who have set up the no less famous Teekontor there, where you should be able to find the right blend for your exquisite taste from over 250 types of tea. And by the way: exquisite tea or coffee is always a welcome gift – you can find ideas here!
#4: International Maritime Museum Hamburg in the Speicherstadt warehouse district
Hamburg has been one of the world’s most important ports for as long as people have been going to sea. This is why a Maritime Museum is a must in this city. This is also housed in a special building, namely the oldest preserved brick building in the Speicherstadt, which was built in 1878.
There are more than 50,000 (!!!) ship models from the 20th century alone to marvel at in the Naval Museum. But there are also older models, plans and a very rare collection of hand-carved bone ships made by French soldiers in captivity during the Napoleonic Wars. You will also find dioramas of naval battles and harbors, countless historical paintings, photographs and books dealing with seafaring, a huge collection of equipment, weapons, uniforms, decorations and much more. In fact, there is almost nothing you won’t find here on the subject of seafaring! More than 150,000 visitors a year agree.
#5: The Hamburg Dungeon
The spooky rooms of the Dungeon are also located in another warehouse close to the OPOLUM. Around 600 years of creepy history await brave visitors to Hamburg here. But the Dungeon is not a traditional museum. Here you can learn about history and stories by experiencing the eerie historical events first-hand, as if you were right in the middle of the exciting situation. This is because actors make the event particularly lively and terrifying – similar to our Escape Room Hamburg.
In the creepy ambience of the dungeon, you will encounter the legendary headless pirate Klaus Störtebeker as well as a merciless torturer. You will also experience the terrible fire of Hamburg in 1842 “live” once again. Here, too, you are in the middle of eleven different hair-raising and often bloodthirsty stories, which are presented with elaborate technical effects so true to life that your breath will stop and your blood will freeze in your veins.
And after the museum? A visit to the Escape Room Hamburg
Only our OPOLUM escape room theater offers another level of adrenaline rush within the Speicherstadt. Here, the characters in the stories also stress you out in the form of actors, but you are now suddenly part of the action yourself and have to master a series of tricky tasks under time pressure – and if you don’t get rid of the lone culprit in our Escape Room Hamburg in time, it’s game over for you! 😱☠️
