After almost three years of intensive renovation, one of Germany's most important museums of women artists is making an impressive return: on October 11, 2025, the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne will reopen its doors - just in time for the 80th anniversary of the artist's death and the museum's 40th anniversary. Under the title "KOLLWITZ NEU SEHEN", not only will the collection be presented in a new form - the museum itself has also changed: more modern, more open, more sustainable. The "Neumarkt Passage" has become the "Kollwitz Forum" - a clear sign of the lasting relevance of this extraordinary artist.
The opening exhibition lives up to the new claim. In addition to well-known masterpieces from the Kreissparkasse Köln collection, the museum is showing around 30 works that have never or rarely been on public display - including a color pastel self-portrait from 1893/94, a haunting portrait of her cousin Else Rupp (1890), an early double portrait from her student days and a rare technical sample of the famous sheet "Losbruch" from the cycle "Bauernkrieg". These additions broaden the view of Kollwitz' work - they show new facets, fragile beginnings and courageous experiments.
However, the exhibition aims to be more than just a chronological exhibition. It focuses on Kollwitz's central themes, which are more relevant today than ever before: social inequality, war and violence, political upheaval, gender roles and the everyday lives of the "little people". Her perspective as a woman, mother and contemporary witness runs through her work like a common thread - touching, stirring, unforgettable. The new hanging brings the works together in surprising combinations, makes technical developments comprehensible and opens up new perspectives - on the work and on the time.
Käthe Schmidt (Kollwitz), Portrait of Else Rupp, around 1890, oil on canvas, on permanent loan from the Rautenberg estate in the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne
A new multimedia offering - including audio, video and image material - provides more in-depth access. The newly created museum workshop with an original litho press allows visitors to take a practical approach to the art of Käthe Kollwitz. In hands-on stations, interactive tools and workshops, visitors of all ages can get creative themselves - from pre-school children to art students. The museum is now also technically future-proof. Thanks to modern LED lighting, energy-efficient air conditioning and a solar system on the roof, the museum is pursuing a sustainable exhibition concept - responsibly towards art, the environment and future generations.
Käthe Kollwitz remains - and with her a museum that connects history, society and art in a moving way. Cologne not only gets back a renovated building, but also a lively forum for art and empathy.
October 11, 2025 to March 15, 2026
www.kollwitz.de
Käthe Schmidt (Kollwitz), Self-portrait with fellow student, 1889, pen and brush and ink on thick wove paper, Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne, acquired 2020 / November 2023 by the St. Etienne Foundation, New York
