The Center for Documentation and Exhibition of the History of US Americans in the Rhineland Palatinate, or Docu Center Ramstein (DCR) for short, is dedicated to the scientific analysis and communication of the presence of the US military in Rhineland-Palatinate, particularly in the district of Kaiserslautern. In September 2025, the DCR was honoured with the âÂÂMuseum of the Monthâ award by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry for Family, Women, Culture and Integration.
On 7 November 2007, the Ramstein-Miesenbach municipal council unanimously approved the establishment of the DCR. Since then, documents, objects and information have been collected and scientifically evaluated here. The state government of Rhineland-Palatinate provided financial and conceptual support for the establishment of the facility. In 2013, a container village was opened at Schernauer StraÃÂe 46 in Ramstein-Miesenbach, where a permanent exhibition and regularly changing special exhibitions are presented.
The Docu Centre collects all materials and further information on the history of Americans in Rhineland-Palatinate in several archives. These are available to both researchers and the general public for research purposes.
The Docu Centre's collections contain objects that provide insights into the history of Americans in Rhineland-Palatinate. These include ammunition boxes, signs, uniforms and pins. The largest object is the guardhouse, which is part of the permanent exhibition. Of the more than 4,450 objects recorded, more than 1,550 are generally available on the Internet on the museum portal museum-digital.de.
The museum's permanent exhibition consists of three containers, each dedicated to a specific theme:
The first container, called âÂÂInfotainerâÂÂ, presents German-American history using the example of the Kaiserslautern region from 1950 onwards.
The second container is entitled âÂÂWelcome to the ClubâÂÂ. It shows the importance of American clubs, especially the NCO Club, for the cultural development of the region in the period after the Second World War. The abbreviation NCO stands for Non Commissioned Officer, so it was a club for non-commissioned officers.
The third container documents the Ramstein air show disaster on 28 August 1988 in film and text contributions. It also looks at the individual fates of the victims.
Next to the containers stands the original guardhouse from the former US settlement on FliegerstraÃÂe in Kaiserslautern. It was used by the security personnel of the general's villa there and was transported to Ramstein in 2011 after the settlement was abandoned.
The entire exhibition is documented in two languages (German and English).
The DCR regularly presents special exhibitions on various topics. For each exhibition, themed exhibits are selected from the archives and collection and displayed in an additional container. The special exhibitions are usually accompanied by a programme of events and a publication. Some of the publications are available for download on the DCR website for an extended period of time.