Nolde Museum Seebüll

The Nolde Museum Seebüll, also known as the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll or Seebüll Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation, is an art museum in Seebüll, a district of Neukirchen in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Established by the Seebüll Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation in 1956 and opened to the public in 1957, it is dedicated to preserving and presenting the life and work of the German Expressionist painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956). The museum occupies the artist's former residence and studio, which he designed himself, and has become a significant site for understanding Nolde's artistic development and the broader context of early twentieth-century German art.

Emil and Ada Nolde acquired an unbuilt mound, or Warft, in Seebüll in 1926 and commissioned the construction of a brick house that deliberately contrasted with the traditional Frisian architecture of the region. The couple moved into the completed house in 1930, and additional buildings and a garden followed according to Nolde's designs. After Emil Nolde's death in 1956, the Seebüll Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation was established that same year, and the house was converted into a museum, which opened in 1957. The house and garden were placed under monument protection in 1996. In the years immediately following Nolde's death, five utilitarian buildings were erected on the site to accommodate the foundation's growing needs, but these were later deemed structurally and technically inadequate. Beginning in 2004, the entire site was reorganized, and these buildings were demolished. Two new architecturally refined structures, the Forum and the Kontor, were built southwest of the studio according to plans by architects led by Walter Rolfes, along with a greenhouse building. The historic house itself underwent comprehensive monument-appropriate renovation and technical refurbishment from 2020 to 2022, and the museum reopened in August 2022. The museum maintained a branch in Berlin at Jägerstraße 55, which closed on March 30, 2014.

The collection consists predominantly of works by Emil Nolde, encompassing paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints from all phases of his career. Approximately 180 works are typically on display, including the so-called ungemalte Bilder, or unpainted pictures. The museum presents its holdings through annually changing thematic exhibitions; for example, the 70th annual exhibition, held in 2026, explored the multilayered field of tension between people, nature, and art in Nolde's paintings and watercolors. Nolde himself also collected works by other artists, and the museum has incorporated these into its holdings. In 2022, the museum received a major donation from the Hermann Gerlinger collection, comprising 36 works by Nolde, a watercolor by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and the correspondence between the two painters. The works are arranged thematically throughout the exhibition spaces, with some of the Noldes' former living quarters preserved in their original condition.

Among the most significant works on permanent display is the nine-part altarpiece The Life of Christ (1911-1912), created during Nolde's religious phase, which is shown in the former studio on the ground floor. The picture room, or Bildersaal, added in 1937, serves as a central focus of the annual exhibitions, with over 30 newly presented paintings each year, hung in two rows in dark frames according to Nolde's own preferences for dense presentation. The former living quarters on the first floor have been converted into cabinet rooms displaying Nolde's intensely colored watercolors and prints. The 2022 donation from the Hermann Gerlinger collection significantly enriched the museum's holdings with additional works and documentary material.

The Nolde house at Seebüll 31 is a two-story cube with single-story extensions and a triangular floor plan, built between 1927 and 1928 with the participation of architect Georg Rieve. Designed as both studio and residence, it was expanded in 1934-1937 to include the six-by-seven-meter picture gallery on the upper floor, which Nolde described as fulfilling a lifelong wish. The building features a flat roof with skylights and narrow windows, and its red brick construction and clear forms deliberately evoke Bauhaus architecture of the 1920s, standing in marked contrast to the thatched-roof Frisian farmhouses of the surrounding marshland. The garden is an integral component of the site, designed by Nolde and Ada as a cottage garden reflecting contemporary reform movements against industrialized art forms. Its paths form the letters A and E for Ada and Emil. The garden includes the thatched-roof garden house called Seebüllchen, a pond, and the burial crypt of Ada and Emil Nolde, whose front wall bears Nolde's mosaic of the Madonna and Child. The modern Forum building houses biographical exhibitions, a café, and a museum shop, while the Kontor serves as the foundation's administrative center with library and offices. A greenhouse offers plants and seeds from the garden's own cultivation.

The Nolde Museum Seebüll is located in Seebüll, near Niebüll and not far from the North Frisian island of Sylt, in the municipality of Neukirchen in Schleswig-Holstein. It is owned and operated by the Seebüll Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation, a foundation under civil law. The museum is open daily from March 1 to October 31 each year. In 2010, it recorded approximately 80,000 visitors. The museum offers public art and garden tours, as well as group bookings for exclusive guided tours. The Seebüll Painting School provides creative courses and workshops for all ages, including open creative sessions and programs for school classes and other groups. Chamber music performances are also held at the museum. The museum gastronomy, Element, offers regional and internationally inspired cuisine. A playground is available for families in the outdoor area.