The houses of Berlin's Staatliche Museen

Map of 13 locations in Berlin, Germany

Fifteen collections and four research institutes are spread across five Berlin locations under the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, which is funded jointly by the federal government and every German state. Most of the buildings were badly damaged in the Second World War and have been restored in sequence since 1990, work still governed by the Museum Island master plan adopted in 1999. The practical consequence for a visitor is uneven: the Pergamonmuseum is shut until 2027 and the Berggruen's Stülerbau is a building site, while an entrance hall that did not exist before 2019 now sells the tickets for everything on the island.

Places in this collection

  • Humboldt Forum — The reconstructed Berliner Schloss, designed by Franco Stella, opened on 16 December 2020 and has housed the Ethnologisches Museum and the…
  • Museum Europäischer Kulturen — The only state museum left in Dahlem after the ethnological and Asian art collections moved into the Humboldt Forum. Its subject is everyda…
  • Museum für Fotografie — The building west of Bahnhof Zoo was the casino of the Landwehr inspection's officer corps before it became a museum. It carries a permanen…
  • Museum Berggruen — The Stülerbau opposite Charlottenburg Palace holds Heinz Berggruen's classical modern collection, over 100 works by Picasso and 20 by Matis…
  • Kupferstichkabinett — The largest collection of prints and drawings in Germany and, by its own reckoning, the fourth largest in the world. Because works on paper…
  • Kunstgewerbemuseum — Decorative arts from the early Middle Ages to the present, including a large holding of clothing and of designer furniture, shown at the Ku…
  • Friedrichswerdersche Kirche — A branch of the Alte Nationalgalerie, a short walk off the island itself, given over to 19th-century sculpture. Entry is free, which makes…
  • James-Simon-Galerie — David Chipperfield's building is the island's entrance: ticket desks for every museum on it, information counters, cloakrooms, a café, the…
  • Pergamonmuseum — The house was built around objects too large to move again: the Pergamon Altar, the Babylonian Ishtar Gate with its glazed-brick mušḫuššu d…
  • Bode-Museum — Opened as the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, it now carries the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst and the Münzkabinett, cover…
  • Alte Nationalgalerie — Friedrich August Stüler's classicist building is the Nationalgalerie's 19th-century house: Romanticism, Realism and Impressionism, with Cas…
  • Neues Museum — The building holds the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, whose best-known object is the bust of Nefertiti from Tell el-Amarna, dated…
  • Altes Museum — Karl Friedrich Schinkel built it between 1823 and 1830 as the first exhibition building on the Museumsinsel, set directly opposite the roya…

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