Location History

From Café Warschau to the Museum - Location with history

The Computerspielemuseum is located in the middle of Europe's longest cultural monument - Karl-Marx-Allee. The avenue is the last boulevard built in post-war Europe. Today it is popular especially among young residents. Directly next to the museum is the subway station "Weberwiese" of the U5 line. The U5 connects Berlin's main train station directly with the Computerspielemuseum and other tourist highlights of the city such as the Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island and the Humboldt Forum in Berlin's Schloss unter den Linden.

Our museum has staged its iconic pixelated exhibition landscape in the former East Berlin "Café Warschau" at Karl-Marx-Allee 93a. The historic site was built in the 1950s to designs by National Award winner and chief architect Kurt Leucht. After the café opened on May 1, 1953, it became one of the most famous and popular places in the DDR beyond its borders. It offered mainly Polish specialties. The interior offered more than 400 seats on 2 floors, the terrace again about half as many seats. The curved staircase in front of the legendary mosaic led to the upper floor of the café, which was separated by renovations before we moved in. Celebrities, politicians and artists also took advantage of the lively surroundings. For example, the writer Horst Bastian. He could be found at Café Warschau almost every day. Early in the morning with coffee, later with cognac or wine. Always with paper and pen. He is said to have written all the volumes of his work "Violence and Tenderness" here.

After 1989, the visitors stopped coming and the café had to close, as did Café Budapest and Café Moskau in the neighborhood on Karl-Marx-Allee. The premises in the building, which was extensively renovated in 1999, remained unused for more than 10 years. Until on January 21, 2011, the Computerspielemuseums new permanent exhibition "Computer Games. Evolution of a Medium" opened here. Since then, more than a million visitors have already rediscovered this historic site.