Berlinische Galerie

The Berlinische Galerie is the state museum of Berlin for modern art, photography, and architecture. Located on Alte Jakobstraße in the Kreuzberg district, it collects and presents art created in Berlin from 1870 to the present, maintaining interweaving regional and international perspectives. Founded in 1975 as a private association, it became a public-law foundation in 1994 and has been directed since September 2010 by art historian Thomas Köhler, who was reappointed in June 2024 until 1 January 2029. The museum occupies a distinctive position between the internationally oriented Nationalgalerie and the Stadtmuseum Berlin, serving as the primary institution dedicated specifically to art produced within the city.

The Berlinische Galerie emerged from a perceived lack of attention to specifically Berlin art. Art historian Eberhard Roters initiated its founding in 1975 as a private association, with further founding members including Karol Kubicki, Winnetou Kampmann, Klaus Osterhof, Wolf Jobst Siedler, Werner Küpper, Eberhard Knoch, Otto Mertens, Margit Scharoun, Peter Pfankuch, Hanspeter Dresbach, Helmut Zeumer, Werner Düttmann, and Karl Giese. The museum initially operated from a Charlottenburg office, organizing exhibitions at venues such as the Akademie der Künste and the Neue Nationalgalerie. In 1978 it moved to a former Landwehr officers' mess on Jebensstraße near Zoo Station, then in 1986 to the Martin-Gropius-Bau. The collection became a public-law foundation in 1994, but had to vacate the Martin-Gropius-Bau in 1998 due to reconstruction work, leaving it without a permanent home for six years. Jörn Merkert directed the museum from 1987 to 2010, shaping its development significantly. The museum opened at its current Kreuzberg location on 22 October 2004. In preparation for its 50th anniversary in 2025, the museum team has reworked its collection presentation, incorporating objects from the dissolved Verborgenen Museum, which specialized in art by women, and redesigning rooms for works by Hannah Höch. Artist Daniel Hölzl will install a floating, air-filled sculpture above the gallery entrance, while garden architects from Atelier Le Balto will vegetate the high glass facade with climbing plants in pots for display and cooling purposes.

The Berlinische Galerie's collection is interdisciplinary, encompassing five areas: Fine Arts, Prints and Drawings, Photography, Architecture, and Artists' Archives. The Fine Arts Collection contains approximately 5,000 objects, with particular strength in the Golden Twenties and representation of movements including the Berlin Secession, Dada Berlin, Eastern European avant-gardes, the Neue Wilde, and the post-1989 young art scene. The Prints and Drawings collection comprises around 15,000 sheets, tracing developments from Dada Berlin and late Expressionism through New Objectivity, New Figuration of the 1960s, East Berlin art from the Wall's construction and fall, to contemporary drawing. The Photography collection, with roughly 73,000 photographs, ranks among Germany's most significant, with notable emphasis on portrait, architectural, and urban photography, advertising and fashion photography, photojournalism, photomontages, photograms, and photographic concept works, including distinctive holdings of GDR artistic photography. The Architecture collection documents Berlin's urban planning and architecture from 1900 to the present through approximately 300,000 plans, 80,000 photographs, 4,000 design cartons for stained glass and mosaics, 2,500 models, and roughly 800 metres of archival material. In 2022, the museum incorporated the holdings of the Verborgenen Museum, expanding its representation of women artists.

The Fine Arts Collection features prominent artists including Max Beckmann, Hannah Höch, Naum Gabo, Georg Baselitz, Wolf Vostell, Ursula Sax, and John Bock. The Prints and Drawings collection traces the diversity of Berlin's art historical developments across multiple movements. In Photography, the museum's continuous and extensive acquisitions support contemporary Berlin photography. The Artists' Archives preserve documentary material on artists, artist groups, gallery owners, and art scholars, with particular strength in the Berlin DADA movement through the estates of Hannah Höch and Raoul Hausmann. Other archive subjects include Art Nouveau artist Fidus, the November Group, the Ferdinand Möller Gallery, and sculptors Naum Gabo and Hans Uhlmann. The permanent exhibition Art in Berlin 1880-1980 presents selected main works from painting, graphic art, sculpture, photography, and architecture in chronological order across more than 1,000 square metres, a presentation fundamentally renewed in October 2020 to encompass works from the imperial period through Expressionism, the Eastern European avant-garde, post-war modernist architecture, and the Heftige Malerei of the 1970s.

The Berlinische Galerie's current building at Alte Jakobstraße 124-128 in Kreuzberg opened in October 2004 after a year of renovation. Architect Jörg Fricke designed the conversion of the 1965 industrial hall, originally constructed as a glass warehouse for the West Berlin Senate's emergency reserves during the Cold War. The integration of building, entrance area, and forecourt was executed according to a design by Berlin-based artist Fritz Balthaus. The converted premises provide 4,600 square metres of exhibition space. The museum lies near the Jewish Museum Berlin in an area that includes a public sculpture garden designated Kunst, Stadt, Raum, featuring works by various artists including a metal sculpture by the sculptor couple Matschinsky-Denninghoff. A €6 million refurbishment in 2015 updated security and technical equipment. The museum reopened following this work, which represented the most recent major building intervention prior to the current preparations for the 2025 anniversary.

The Berlinische Galerie is located in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Germany, on Alte Jakobstraße, accessible via its website at http://www.berlinische-galerie.de/. As a museum of the State of Berlin (Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur), it operates under public ownership. The museum offers permanent and temporary exhibitions, with the permanent collection displayed on the upper floor and special exhibitions on the ground floor. Programming is complemented by events including films, concerts, artist talks, curator tours, and lectures. The Friends of the Museum (Förderverein Berlinische Galerie e.V.), with approximately 1,700 members as of 2023, provides financial support and offers members benefits including free admission, special tours, studio visits, excursions, and previews. A youth circle, 'Jung und Artig,' also participates in this support structure.