Museum der Arbeit

At the Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg you can learn everything about industrialisation history and about the typical areas of work, including for example the printer's shop, trading office, the harbour, fish processing or manufacturing of hard rubber combs.

Regardless of whether printing works, trade office, metal workshop or special exhibition: The Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg-Barmbek shows Hamburg industry, technology and social history. TRUDE, with which the 4th Elbe tunnel tube was dug, is in the museum courtyard as a technical memorial.

The home of the Museum der Arbeit is the former factory of the "New-York-Hamburger Gummi-Waaren Compagnie". At the place where hard-rubber combs used to be manufactured, the focus today is on participation and hands-on activities. The Museum der Arbeit depicts the changes in life and work in Hamburg from the 19th century up to the present day and demonstrates typical Hamburg industries. Many of the machines on display are still in operation today.

In the printing workshops, visitors can produce smaller printed matter with the assistance of trained typesetters and printers. The work of the clerks and accountants is presented in a typical business office from 1925. Provided with instruction, children can make medallions from sheets of copper using an old metal press in the metalwork factory. During "Elephant casting!“ a centrifugal casting machine is used to produce small pieces of jewellery, pendants or brooches – in this case tiny elephants.

In addition to the main building in Barmbek, the Museum der Arbeit has two locations in the Port of Hamburg, the Speicherstadtmuseum (Warehouse Museum) and the Hafenmuseum (Port Museum) Hamburg in the sheds at the 50s-numbered warehouses.