Gemäldegalerie

The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin is one of the most important art museums in the world and houses a comprehensive collection of Old Master European painting from the 13th to the 18th century. As part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums), it presents masterpieces by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Hans Holbein, Rogier van der Weyden, Jan van Eyck, Raphael, Sandro Botticelli, Titian, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt and Jan Vermeer. The collection is the result of an ambitious acquisition policy spanning two hundred years, one marked by great successes but also by painful losses. In 2019, the museum counted around 310,000 visitors, which was due in part to the successful special exhibition on Mantegna and Bellini.

The current museum building was completed in 1998 and is located in the Kulturforum Berlin on Sigismundstrasse. It was designed by the architects Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht and incorporates the historic Villa Parey, once home to the publisher Paul Parey. The building has a roughly rectangular floor plan, with a north facade that is drawn slightly outward. The facade consists of tightly jointed terracotta panels above a high rusticated base, creating a visual link to the Italian Renaissance and Prussian Neoclassicism.

At the center of the building is a covered promenade hall crossed by two rows of columns, with shallow vaulted ceilings. Thirty-two clear-glass domes light the space, in the middle of which stands the fountain installation "5–7–9 Series" by the American conceptual artist Walter De Maria. The actual exhibition spaces consist of 18 galleries and 41 smaller cabinet rooms, arranged in a horseshoe shape in two layers around the central hall. These rooms are normally lit only by daylight from skylights, which gives the paintings a special atmosphere.

The exhibition space covers about 7,000 square meters and, along a route roughly two kilometers long, has room for around 900 paintings. In addition, a study gallery of twelve rooms on the lower level displays about 400 more pictures. Since the opening of the Bode Museum in 2006, a further 150 paintings have been presented there alongside the sculpture collection, visually illustrating connections within art history. The hanging space totals about 1,800 linear meters, allowing for a dense and intensive viewing of the works.

The history of the collection goes back to 1797, when the archaeologist Aloys Hirt proposed founding a public educational museum guided strictly by scholarly principles. The idea found support from King Frederick William III, who made numerous objects from his own holdings available. After the Napoleonic Wars, many artworks returned to Prussia, which widened the selection. To create an encyclopedic overview, however, further purchases were needed.

An important milestone was the acquisition of the Giustiniani collection in Paris in 1815, which consisted mainly of works from the Italian Early Baroque. This holding was supplemented by the purchase of the collection of the English merchant Edward Solly, which included a large number of Italian, Early Netherlandish and Old German paintings. These acquisitions laid the foundation for today's collection. At the same time, planning began for a prestigious museum building, which was ultimately erected as the Altes Museum under the direction of Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

On August 3, 1830, the museum opened under the name Neues Museum and was soon renamed the Royal Museum. The painting collection then comprised 1,198 paintings, classified into three departments: Italian schools, Netherlandish and German schools, and antiquities and art-historical curiosities. Admission was free but initially had to be requested in advance. The first phase of the collection's development was shaped by the work of Gustav Friedrich Waagen, who served as the first director of the painting department.

Under Waagen, more than 400 pictures were acquired, including important works by Early Netherlandish painters such as Dierick Bouts, Petrus Christus and Rogier van der Weyden. Despite these successes, Waagen struggled with an inadequate acquisition budget and bureaucratic hurdles. Collecting stagnated at times, as significant sums were spent on other purposes and prices on the international art market rose. After Waagen's death, collecting came almost completely to a standstill until the founding of the German Empire.

From the 1870s, a new era began for Berlin's museums. The founding of the German Empire with Berlin as its capital led to a contest for prestige with other European capitals. Julius Meyer and his assistant Wilhelm von Bode took over the leadership and focused on filling the gaps in the collection with outstanding works. They established a Europe-wide network of art agents and built long-term contacts with English art dealers.

A major success was the purchase in 1874 of the collection of the Aachen industrialist Barthold Suermondt, which included Jan van Eyck's Madonna in the Church and Jan Vermeer's Young Woman with a Pearl Necklace, among others. Wilhelm von Bode developed into an obsessive collector who raised the quality of the collection considerably. He built up one of the finest collections of Italian Quattrocento paintings and one of the largest Rembrandt collections. Because of a lack of space, however, more than 1,000 pictures had to be given up and auctioned off in 1886, which still causes problems of identification today.

Bode initiated the construction of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, which opened in 1904. This museum presented paintings and sculptures in integrated rooms furnished with original wall paneling and furniture to convey a complete picture of an era. This concept of "period rooms" drew international attention. Despite the new rooms, the shortage of space persisted, and during World War I collecting stagnated once again. After the war, the museum had to surrender important works to Belgium under the Treaty of Versailles.

World War II brought heavy losses for the collection. The paintings were moved to bunkers and salt mines to protect them from air raids. After the war, many works were transferred to the Soviet Union or destroyed. Berlin's divided history meant that the collection was split between East and West Berlin. Only after reunification could the collection be brought back together.

Today the Gemäldegalerie is a place of cultural encounter and learning. You can view the works in an architecturally impressive setting that optimizes the interplay of light, space and art. The collection offers a comprehensive look at the development of European painting over several centuries and remains an important draw for art lovers and scholars worldwide.