World's First Computer Game Museum

Opened in 1997

In the year 1997 our museum was the first institution ever to present a permanent exhibition on the theme of digital entertainment. Since then we have accompanied the development of the medium with more than 30 exhibitions shown in Germany or an international scale. Our new permanent exhibition “Computer games. The evolution of a medium” saw its premiere on January 21st, 2011. You will find more than 300 exhibits on our premises for playing and exploring the cultural history of these games. We cordially invite you to join an entertaining time travel presenting the theme of Mankind at play in the 21st century.

Our many rare original exhibits, playable classics and a number of media installations allow you to explore the world of the homo ludens digitalis.

The exhibition of the Computer Games Museum was made possible through the collection assembled by the Förderverein für Jugend und Sozialarbeit (fjs e.V.: Association for the advancement for youth and social work). This non-profit organization has worked with the commitment to collect and preserve digital interactive culture for more than 13 years.

plus arcade game machines, literature, art installations, archived documents and objects, merchandising goods and video tapes.

The general ethical and legal guidelines for our collecting activities

Fjs e.V. does not acquire objects whose purchase or ownership is violating ethical standards or legal statutes. This encompasses in particular objects from illegal trade or plunders, objects made from natural materials covered by protective legislation and objects with unsettled licenses or rights of ownership. In all their activities fjs e.V. respects and adheres to both the UNESCO rules of conduct for the protection of cultural assets and the ‚Code of ethics’ issued by the ICOM.

Fjs e.V. is striving to make their collection accessible to audiences as wide as possible.

In conjuction with fjs e. V. the Computer Games Museum engages in a variety of initiatives and projects with the purpose of developing strategies for the conservation of digital artefacts. We have combined our forces with three national libraries in the European Research Project KEEP which is to generate concepts and tools for ways to preserve objects from the realm of digital culture independent from hardware.

We are furthermore members of the nestor -project (which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research). Nestor works as a network of excellence pursuing issues around the theme of long-term storage of digital information. This enables us to work as part of the scientific community and to contribute actively to the production of knowledge.