Kupferstichkabinett

The Kupferstichkabinett Berlin (Museum of Prints and Drawings) is the largest museum of graphic arts in Germany and ranks among the four most important collections of its kind in the world. Part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums), it is located at the Kulturforum near Potsdamer Platz in Berlin's Tiergarten district. The roots of its systematic collecting go back to 1831, while its historic core consists of drawings and watercolors acquired as early as 1652 by Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg. In the 19th century, the holdings grew through the purchase of major private collections, in particular the acquisition of the collection of Karl Ferdinand Friedrich von Nagler, which included numerous works by Albrecht Dürer and Matthias Grünewald. After German division, the separate East and West holdings were reunited in 1994 in the new building at the Kulturforum, where they are now presented together with the drawings collection of the Nationalgalerie.

The collection comprises more than 500,000 prints as well as around 110,000 drawings, pastels, watercolors, and oil sketches. The focus is on European works from the Middle Ages to the present, with particular strengths in its holdings of early Italian, German, and Dutch masters. The artists represented include Mantegna, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Caspar David Friedrich, and Adolph Menzel. Classical modernism, with works by Edvard Munch, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Pablo Picasso, as well as Pop Art, with works by Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns, are also well represented. Because works on paper are sensitive to light and climate, they cannot be put on permanent display. Instead, the museum regularly presents temporary exhibitions drawn from its own holdings and gives visitors the chance to view original works of their choice in the study room.