Deutsches Zollmuseum

The Deutsches Zollmuseum, located in Hamburg’s historic Speicherstadt district, presents 2,000 years of customs history through 1,000 exhibits in a 800-square-meter space.

Planning your visit

Customs sounds like an unpromising museum subject and turns out not to be. The Deutsches Zollmuseum occupies a former customs house in Hamburg's Speicherstadt — the warehouse district built as a free port, where goods could be stored and processed without duty, and now UNESCO-listed.

The collection covers 2,000 years of borders, tariffs and the attempts to evade them: smuggling equipment of extraordinary ingenuity, including hollowed-out objects, false compartments and a converted car; the drug seizures; the trade in endangered species and the CITES enforcement; counterfeit goods; and the protection of cultural property.

The German inner border between 1949 and 1990 features substantially, as does the customs boat moored outside, which visitors board.

Smuggling as a subject makes the museum unexpectedly good with children.

Bookable options include Speicherstadt family tours with the customs museum. Current availability is listed below.