The Museum of Communication is an interactive museum dedicated to the subject of communication in Bern, Switzerland. In 2019 it was awarded the  Council of Europe Museum Prize. It was founded in 1907 as the corporate museum of Swiss Post (later called PTT), the national postal service of Switzerland.Das Schweizerische PTT Museum., Hrsg. PTT Museum. Bern 1990, p. 5. The restructuring of the museum into a foundation of Swiss Post and Swisscom led to a broadening of the overall theme and a new name, the Museum of Communication.Museum für Kommunikation, Bern. Dauerausstellungen 2003 – 2016. Hrsg. Museum für Kommunikation. Bern 2015, p. 8. The latest incarnation of the museum, which opened its doors with a redesigned permanent exhibition in 2017, is focused completely on its visitors.Kommunikator_innen im Museum für Kommunikation. Konzept, Ausbildung, Publikumsaktivitäten, Stimmen. Hrsg. Museum für Kommunikation, Bern 2017, p. 4.

Temporary exhibitions Ever since it moved to its first purpose-built location in 1990, the Museum of Communication has regularly staged temporary exhibitions.Das Schweizerische PTT Museum. Hrsg. PTT Museum. Bern 1990 und Museum für Kommunikation, Bern. Dauerausstellungen 2003 – 2016. Hrsg. Museum für Kommunikation. Bern 2015. The exhibitions address the social and cultural impact of communication and communication technology and also delve a little deeper into certain rather surprising aspects of communication.Museum für Kommunikation, Bern. Dauerausstellungen 2003 – 2016. Hrsg. Museum für Kommunikation. Bern 2015, p. 126–129. In recent years they have included the role of inhibitions, the art of growing old or the challenges and potential capacities of silence. Entitled "Sounds of Silence", this particular exhibition won several international awards, including the iF Design Award by the iF Industrie Forum Design. The initial output of three to four temporary exhibitions every year was later reduced to one or two.

Core exhibition

Following a period of renovation which lasted a year, the Museum of Communication Bern celebrated the reopening of its permanent exhibition on 17 August 2017.«Es dreht sich alles um dich.» Das Berner Museum für Kommunikation umgestaltet. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 19. August 2017. The new core exhibition allows visitors to experience the omnipresence of communication, both in analogue and in digital form, in an entertaining way. Face-to-face encounters, experiments and an easy-to-understand design take centre stage. Additional information on the themes addressed in the exhibition is also conveyed by communicators who are present at all times, and by encouraging the visitors to interact with each other.Susanne Gesser, Nina Gorgus, Angela Jannelli (Ed.): Das subjektive Museum : Partizipative Museumsarbeit zwischen Selbstvergewisserung und gesellschaftspolitischem Engagement. Bielefeld 2020, ISBN 978-3-8394-4286-9, p. 165 f. The communicators are not like ordinary museum assistants, but rather engage in direct dialogue with visitors.Kommunikator_innen im Museum für Kommunikation. Konzept, Ausbildung, Publikumsaktivitäten, Stimmen. Hrsg. Museum für Kommunikation, Bern 2017. In 2019, the Museum of Communication was awarded the Council of Europe Museum Prize for its overall interactive concept and staff-centred communication.

Evolution of permanent exhibitions Post Museum and PTT Museum as corporate museums Ever since the first museum was established in 1907, it has staged its own permanent exhibitions. After a phase of adding to the collection in the main post office building in Bern and then a period of closure due to the mobilisation during the First World War, the collection of stamps on display were mainly of interest to philatelists.Das neue PTT Museum. PTT (Red.), Bern, p. 9.

After moving to the new building of the Swiss Alpine Museum, the management decided to add more "current relevance and practical value to the Post Museum"Das neue PTT Museum. PTT (Red.), Bern, p. 11. and to design a more modern exhibition which, until the Second World War broke out, attracted some 12,000 visitors annually.

After the war, the museum reverted to normal opening hours and resumed its research and collection work. It also participated in shop-window exhibitions in various parts of the country and at regional fairs and cultural events. This had a positive impact on the museum's public awareness and on its visitor numbers.Das neue PTT Museum. PTT (Red.), Bern, p. 11ff.

The idea behind the PTT Museum, which was housed in a new building constructed specifically for the purpose, was to combine the three main exhibition themes and allow visitors to experience them as a whole: postal history, the history of telecommunications and the stamp collection. The aim of the new museum was to "paint an holistic and comprehensive picture of the PTT as a conveyer of communications".Das neue PTT Museum. PTT (Red.), Bern, p. 29. The intention was that the exhibition would be informative and easy to understand, even for laypeople. The exhibits were displayed in their relevant social setting and the idea was to "present them in a well-thought-out and educational way, grouped according to a number of well-structured central themes".Das neue PTT Museum. PTT (Red.), Bern, p. 44. Moreover, visitors were given the opportunity to take an active part in simulated real-life situations. This included interactive exhibits on letter writing and simulations of senders and recipients.

Museum of Communication as a theme-based museum

In 1997, the museum's legal framework was changed to that of a nonprofit foundation and it was renamed the Museum of Communication. It was now independent and the new name also made it possible to show the exhibits from the historical collection in a wider thematic and chronological context under the overall topic of communication.

A year later, the board signed off on a basic concept for the new exhibition which would involve visitors taking an active part in museum events. The aim was to feature not just rational topics but also emotional experiences and insights. In 1999, the Museum of Communication Bern welcomed 36,297 visitors.

The new concept was put in place from the year 2000 onwards. The museum was extended in several stages to include a room for events, a café and a shop. The first part of the three-part permanent exhibition opened its doors in 2003 under the title "Adventures in Communication", which was later changed to "Near and far: People and their media".Museum für Kommunikation, Bern. Dauerausstellungen 2003 – 2016. Hrsg. Museum für Kommunikation. Bern 2015, p. 9.

The other two parts of the permanent exhibition opened in 2007 under the titles: "As Time Goes Byte: Computers and digital culture" and "Images that stick: the world of postage stamps". This concluded the overall renewal of the museum and "Adventures in Communication" was made the overall motto of the multipart permanent exhibition.Museum für Kommunikation, Bern. Dauerausstellungen 2003 – 2016. Hrsg. Museum für Kommunikation. Bern 2015, p. 68f. Visitor numbers were now for the first time reaching the 80,000 mark.

The preparatory work for a complete overhaul of the museum concept began in 2012. The aim was to create an interactive, up-to-date Museum of Communication and, after a year-long closure for renovation work, the new core exhibition opened its doors in 2017.The Best in Heritage: Museum of Communication. Interview with Christian Rohner, Head of Exhibitions and Digital at the Museum of Communication, The Council of Europe Museum Prize winner in 2019. Interview by Corey Timpson from coreytimpson.com.

Since that time, visitor numbers have significantly increased. In 2019, the Museum of Communication welcomed a total of 115,664 visitors. Over the space of 20 years, visitor numbers had more than tripled.

In order to live up to the expectations of a society in technological flux, a digital strategy was developed in 2019. With an emphasis on maintaining a digital presence, a culture of participation and a cultural memory, it aims to make the museum and its strengths accessible within the digital space.

History, architecture, locations

In 1901, Anton Säger, the Chief Executive Director of the Swiss postal service issued an order that objects and documents relating to the postal service should be collected. In his former role as Chief Postal Inspector he had already instructed staff in 1893 to "maintain an archive and postal museum".Das neue PTT Museum. PTT (Red.) Bern, p. 9. The Post Museum eventually opened its doors at the main post office building at Bollwerk in Bern in 1907.

The Post Museum was later taken over by the PTT. Because the telephone switchboard at Bollwerk had to be extended, the museum moved to the ground floor of the new Swiss Alpine Museum on Helvetiaplatz in 1933. The Alpine Museum building in the then still relatively new Kirchenfeld quarter of Bern was an example of the Neues Bauen style. In 1949, the Post Museum was renamed the PTT Museum. Because its collection was constantly expanding and the Alpine Museum required more and more space, the PTT Museum began to search for a new home.Das neue PTT Museum. PTT (Red.) Bern, p. 11ff.

When the  Burgergemeinde and the municipality and Canton of Bern developed plans to build a heritage protection centre in the Kirchenfeld area, of which only a small part was ultimately realised, a new purpose-built PTT Museum finally became a reality and in 1990 it moved to the building designed by architect Andrea Roost on Helvetiastrasse in the Kirchenfeld quarter,Das neue PTT Museum. PTT (Red.), Bern, p. 13, 18–26, 28–33. where it is still located today.

In the course of the liberalisation of the telecommunications market, the PTT was divided into Swiss Post AG and Swisscom AG in 1997. Together, the two companies decided to establish the Schweizerische Stiftung für die Geschichte der Post und Telekommunikation. The PTT Museum was expanded from a corporate museum to a theme-based museum and was given its current name, the Museum of Communications.Museum für Kommunikation, Bern. Dauerausstellungen 2003 – 2016. Hrsg. Museum für Kommunikation. Bern 2015, p. 5.

In 1998, the foundation was tasked with maintaining the PTT Archive on behalf of Swiss Post and Swisscom. The archive itself is housed not at the museum, but in Köniz near Bern. In 1999, the former Shortwave transmitter Schwarzenburg was added to the museum and is now also being used as a museum depot. Before that, the museum's cultural heritage objects were stored in several smaller depots in various locations. In 2013, the depot in Schwarzenburg was extended by adding a timber structure designed by Patrick Thurston. The timber extension itself was awarded the 2015 Prix Lignum in gold.

The idea of creating a museum quarter in the Kirchenfeld area became more realistic in 2019. Since its establishment in the early 20th centuryuni, the quarter has been home to several ostentatious buildings and a multitude of Bern museums. The new plan envisages linking the different cultural institutions both spatially and with regard to their contents, thereby creating a cohesive educational and cultural quarter.

Collections The current collection of the Museum of Communication represents a record of the evolution of communication. The focus is on the history of the media and their interactions with Swiss society. It not only includes technological artefacts but also highlights their associated cultural techniques, processes and stories. The PTT Archive of administrative documents places the collection in a wider context. It is of national importance and is divided into the following areas:Museum für Kommunikation (Hg.): Bestandskonzept Museum für Kommunikation (internes Dokument), Bern 2009.

Post and transport history