The Museum Island in Berlin is a grandiose work of art with five world-famous museum buildings that are gathered together in an extraordinary ensemble. In addition to Nefertiti, the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate are among the most important exhibits. Berlin's Museum Island has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999.
With the opening of the Altes Museum in 1830, historically significant collections and art were made accessible to the general public for the first time. The idea of a museum open to all goes back to the time of the Enlightenment and its educational ideals. Over the next 100 years, five museums were built on the site. From the end of the 1870s, Museum Island is also called Museum Island.
The middle classes had been calling for publicly accessible art collections for some time, but it took some time before the proposal for an exhibition was actually implemented and the first museum opened its doors. After King Frederick William II took up the suggestion of an art collection, the Altes Museum, Prussia's first public museum, opened in 1830. Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Prussia's most important architect, provided the designs.
Almost 30 years later, the Royal Prussian Museum - now the Neues Museum - was added. In 1876, the National Gallery is opened - today the Old National Gallery. It took until the beginning of the 20th century to complete the ensemble. The Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum - now the Bode-Museum - opened in 1904 and the Pergamonmuseum in 1930.
The Pergamon Museum
With around one million visitors a year, the three-winged Pergamon Museum by Alfred Messel is the most visited museum in Berlin. As part of the Museum Island Master Plan, the Pergamon Museum is being gradually renovated and a fourth wing will be added by 2025. As part of this refurbishment, the hall with the Pergamon Altar will be closed in 2020. The Ishtar Gate, the Processional Way, the Market Gate of Miletus and the Museum of Islamic Art will continue to be on display. The Kalabsha Gate, the Hall of Columns of King Sahure and the Tell Halaf façade will be exhibited in the new glass wing.
The Bode Museum
The Bode Museum has been completely renovated since 2005. It now houses an extensive collection of sculptures from the Middle Ages to the late 18th century as well as treasures from the Museum of Byzantine Art and the Coin Cabinet. Since July 2019, visitors have also been able to visit the James Simon Cabinet again in its original room, which was closed down as a result of anti-Semitism under the National Socialist tyranny.
In summer, the opposite bank is a popular meeting place for Berliners and their visitors due to the beautiful view of the northern tip of Museum Island.
New Museum
Friedrich August Stüler began building the Neues Museum in 1841. He used steam power and industrially manufactured supporting structures: a constructional sensation. The museum was badly destroyed during the Second World War and remained a ruin until 1999. The subsequent reconstruction and refurbishment by the renowned architect David Chipperfield took a total of ten years. Since the spectacular reopening in 2009, selected exhibits from the Egyptian Museum, the Papyrus Collection, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History and the Collection of Classical Antiquities have been housed here. The showpiece of the Neues Museum is Nefertiti.
The Old National Gallery
The Alte Nationalgalerie rises above the Museum Island like an ancient temple with its staircase. The architect Friedrich August Stüler was inspired by the Acropolis of Athens. Built between 1867 and 1876, the building displays paintings and sculptures from the Classicism, Romanticism, Biedermeier, Impressionism and early Modernism periods. Works by Caspar David Friedrich, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Karl Blechen, Adolphe Menzel, Edourad Manet, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir. Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth. Probably the most beautiful sculpture in Prussia, the famous group of princesses by Johann Gottfried Schadow, can also be found in the Alte Nationalgalerie.
The Old Museum
The classicist building designed by master builder Karl Friedrich Schinkel with a beautiful rotunda, dome and columned portal was the first museum on the island in 1830. Following renovation work, the museum now houses the permanent exhibition New Antiquity in the Old Museum (collection of antiquities with gold treasury) with ancient art and sculptures.
