Ostrockmuseum Kröpelin

The Ostrockmuseum in Kröpelin is the first and only museum in Germany dedicated entirely to Ostrock, the rock music scene of the former East Germany and its Eastern European neighbours. It stands in a quiet town in the Landkreis Rostock, far from the big cities but close to the musical heart of a vanished state. The building also houses the town museum, sharing space and resources. The museum grew from the collection of Berlin’s ‘Sechzig-Vierzig’ association, which spent years trying to find a permanent home for its tapes, instruments and posters. After the collection moved to Kröpelin in 2013, students from Hochschule Wismar designed the exhibition’s look and feel. A three-person curatorium—Reinhard Dankert, Rüdiger Kropp and Thomas Lehner—organises the displays and events, including live broadcasts of programmes like Franks Beatkiste. Inside, visitors walk through four themed rooms. The record-shop corner lets them play vintage LPs on period turntables while a mural shows long queues outside a Rostock shop in the mid-1980s. A mock-up stage and studio explain how bands reached listeners via DDR radio and the Amiga label. A recreated office shows the political controls imposed by SED-appointed officials. Elsewhere, a timeline links music events from 1945 to 1990 with wider political changes, and a final section honours the Dorfrock festival that kept the Ostrock spirit alive until 2022.