HAMBURGER BAHNHOF – MUSEUM FÜR GEGENWART BERLIN

Description

Essentials about the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart Berlin in brief

Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart Berlin (Hamburg Station – Museum for Contemporary Berlin) is the center of contemporary art in Berlin and part of the Nationalgalerie Berlin. The Museum für Gegenwart is one of the largest and most important public collections of contemporary art in the world. Whether Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism or Minimal Art – here visitors can view and understand art trends from the 1960s to today. Painting, object and media art are just as much a topic as photography. From Andy Warhol to Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein to Anselm Kiefer and Joseph Beuys, exhibits of the most renowned artists of the last six decades are displayed on 13,000 square meters.

The building of the Hamburger Bahnhof

As the name suggests, Hamburger Bahnhof (Hamburg Station) once served as the terminus of the line between Hamburg and Berlin. The late classicist terminal building was put into operation in 1846 and is today the only historic station building of that time in the city. Despite renovations, the Hamburg Station could not keep up with the rapidly growing volume of rail traffic, so it was closed in 1884. For the next 20 years, it was used for residential and administrative purposes before being converted into an exhibition building in 1904. In the years leading up to 1916, the historic hall behind the entrance area and the eastern and western flights were added.

The collections of the Museum für Gegenwart Berlin

During World War II, the building was severely damaged and subsequently lay unused for decades in no man’s land between West and East Berlin during the division of Germany. It was not until 1984 that the station was partially restored and used as a museum again for the first time. By 1996, it had finally been extensively remodeled and refurbished as an exhibition space for works from the collection of the Nationalgalerie as well as Berlin’s Private Collection Erich Marx. Finally, in 2004, another extensive expansion of the museum took place, made necessary by the permanent loan of the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection.