Germany Guide
North Rhine-Westphalia
Internationale Zeitungsmuseum
Address: Pontstrasse
Opening time: Tues– Fri 9.30am–5pm
Price: Free
Just north of Markt in the fifteenth-century Haus Rupenstein on Pontstrasse is the Internationale Zeitungsmuseum (International Newspaper Museum). It was in this street in 1850 that Paul Julius Reuter founded his famous news agency, and the museum traces four hundred years of newspaper history through exhibits that include a rare surviving copy of Émile Zola's 1898 "J'accuse" letter to L'Aurore on the subject of the Dreyfus case, copies of the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter and a display showing how world media reported the reunification of Germany. There's also a copy of Aachener Nachrichten, the first post-Nazi German newspaper, published in January 1945 while war still raged. Beyond the museum, Pontsstrasse is one of the liveliest streets in the Altstadt, stretching as far as the mighty Ponttor, a survivor of the medieval city's outer defences.