I don’t know how many of you know Struwwelpeter. Struwwelpeter is a collection of stories of misbehaving children and the disasterous consequences which followed. Think Grimm’s fairytales….but much Grimmer (Ha…you see what I did there!!).

Well, when I was in Frankfurt recently I stumbled upon the Struwwelpeter Museum. On 4 floors you can learn everything about Struwwelpeter, Suppen Kaspar, Hans-Guck-in-die-Luft as well as the author Heinrich Hoffmann.

As a native German of some age now, I remember these stories all too well and consequently must have been a complete angel as a child as I’m sure my parents can confirm. Ahem.

Struwwelpeter Museum
Schubertstr. 20
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: +49 (0)69 747969

The Grant Museum of Zoology is definitely amongst my favourite museums in London. This little gem is jam-packed full of the most amazing preserved animals and skeletons. You can even adopt a specimen for as little as £ 30.00 and call a pickled cane toad your very own! Well, almost, I’m afraid you’ll have to leave it in the museum but I’m sure you can visit as often as you want. Here are a few words from the museum’s website:

“The Grant Museum of Zoology is the only remaining university zoological museum in London. It houses around 67,000 specimens, covering the whole Animal Kingdom. Founded in 1828 as a teaching collection, the Museum is packed full of skeletons, mounted animals and specimens preserved in fluid. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct including the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine, the Quagga, and the Dodo.”

If you go, make sure not to miss out on it’s star attraction, the jar of pickled moles!!

Grant Museum of Zoology

Rockefeller Building
University College London
21 University Street
London WC1E 6DE

Open to the public Monday – Saturday 1-5pm

I know, this is two Museums of the Month in just one day but I just have to tell you about the Wellcome Collection, or how they put it, The free destination for the incurably curious.

It helps that it’s just around the corner from where I live but the Wellcome Collection has yet to disappoint me with any of the exhibitions they’ve put on. I just went to see the incredible Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan, an exhibition of work by artists with mental illness or mental handicaps.

The above is by Kenichi YAMAZAKI who has been hospitalized for almost 30 years after developing a psychiatric illness while working on construction sites in Tokyo. His drawings look a bit like engineering plans with immaculate detailing. Apparently he now has over 3000 pieces of art.

The exhibition runs until the 30th of June so hurry up, you really don’t want to miss this!! While you’re there, check out their permanent collection too.

Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE

Open Tuesday – Sunday

I do love a good weird museum and to be honest, it doesn’t get much better or weirder than this little treasure. And when it comes recommended to me by Moritz Waldemeyer it was guaranteed not to disappoint.

So when I was in Berlin recently, I made sure to check out The Surreal Museum for Industrial Objects, also known as Designpanoptikum. It’s a random collection of Industrial Design obects arranged in a not so random manner.

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Why do I not know about these things??

The Buchstabenmuseum (Letter Museum) in Berlin, who celebrates all things letters, apparently opened as early as 2005 but I have only just found out about it courtesy of our good friend Kati! It was also her who showed us the Vienna letter project so keep up the good work!!

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