German Museum (Berlin)

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The former German Museum or “Museum for Older German Art” in Berlin was one of the State Museums in Berlin from 1930 to 1939 . It housed part of the Berlin picture gallery and the sculpture collection . According to the general director of the museums, Wilhelm von Bode , it should bring together the German works of art owned by the Berlin museums in one place. The Deutsches Museum had been planned for the north wing of today's Pergamon Museum since 1906 and was established there since 1926. In 1930 the rooms were opened to the public for the first time. At the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 the museum was closed. After the Second World War, the rooms were used for the painting and sculpture collection until 1958, but the museum itself was not re-established.

history

planning

With the opening of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, which was planned as a Renaissance museum, in 1904 it was already clear that the exhibition space would not be sufficient to present all the works of art in the sculpture collection and the picture gallery, which had grown considerably since the 1880s. That is why Wilhelm von Bode , the newly appointed General Director in 1906, planned an extension, today's Pergamon Museum , which, in addition to the Deutsches Museum, was to house two other museums from the start. Bode commissioned the important reform architect Alfred Messel with the task in 1907. In a memorandum in 1907 he formulated the aim of the Deutsches Museum:

“Such a concept should clarify the basic character of German art and the context of its various stages of development through its content and its arrangement, should promote the enjoyment of it and the understanding of it, and indeed in a completely different way than was previously possible. At the same time it is intended to support research into German art history and to help the previously poorly considered publication of its monuments, which must go hand in hand with the formation of the museum. "

In 1907 the plans were presented to Kaiser Wilhelm II and approved by the Prussian House of Representatives in early 1908 . The north wing of the new building should be reserved for the Deutsches Museum. Messel died in 1909, but his close friend Ludwig Hoffmann took over the implementation planning. These were realized from 1910, but the building could not be opened until 1930. In the meantime, however, the project has already been the subject of numerous debates on museum policy. Although Bode's successor, Theodor Demmler , also supported the plans for a German museum in his function as director of the department of sculptures, the project was repeatedly called into question. The main disputes were the questions of which works of art should be displayed in the museum and whether the sculptures should better illustrate the style developments in German art than plaster casts using examples, or whether the existing originals should be arranged according to aesthetic criteria. For better or for worse, the planned museum was therefore repeatedly compared with the Paris Trocadéro , which housed the French National Museum until 1937 .

Facility

At the opening, the Deutsches Museum finally showed both originals and plaster reproductions. Following the example of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Old German, Old Dutch and early French works of art were shown on two floors. In order to be able to present the paintings and sculptures in the right ambience, the rooms were originally supposed to be furnished with period- style interiors, but the Gothic and Romanesque vaults on the main floor , which had been built in according to plans by German Bestelmayer since 1916, had to be torn out again after a decision by the Prussian House of Representatives in 1926. Instead, simpler, more abstract rooms were created, which were also arranged according to styles.

The study collection of the sculpture collection was shown on the basement floor, the medieval collection on the main floor in halls 2 to 5 facing the tram , and the cast collection with impressions of important German works of art from the High Middle Ages and the Renaissance in the “plaster gallery” facing the inner courtyard . Original German works of art from the Renaissance to early Classicism were on display on the upper floor, including works by Multscher , Baldung Grien , Cranach the Elder. Ä. , Tilman Riemenschneider , Gerhaerd von Leyden , Antoine Pesne and the Merseburg Cabinet . The paintings by Albrecht Dürer , Albrecht Altdorfer and Hans Holbein the Elder were displayed in skylight cabinets. J. as well as the Old Dutch Gallery with works by Jan van Eyck - whose main work, which has been in Berlin since 1821, the panels from the Ghent Altarpiece , had to be delivered to Belgium according to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty in 1920 - Roger van der Weyden , Jan van Scorel , Quentin Massys and Pieter Breughel. The collection of James Simon , donated to the museums in 1918, was exhibited in three other cabinets .

closure

In 1939, with the beginning of the Second World War, the Deutsches Museum was closed like all other Berlin State Museums. After the war, large parts of the collections initially came to Moscow and Leningrad , but even after their return in 1958/1959 the Deutsches Museum was not re-established. It had become ideologically obsolete, and important holdings such as the Old Dutch Collection of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie were located in West Berlin , where they were shown in Dahlem . After the Second World War , the rooms in the north wing of the Pergamon Museum were used by the Collection of Antiquities , the East Asian Department and the Museum of German Folklore .

Current situation

As part of the renovation work in the Pergamon Museum, the Museum of Islamic Art will move to the north wing, where the German Museum was housed until the Second World War.

literature

  • Wilhelm von Bode: Concerning extensions and new buildings at the Royal Museums in Berlin . In: Wilhelm von Bode: My life. Berlin 1930, pp. 239–248.
  • Wilhelm von Bode: Museum for older German art . In: Wilhelm von Bode: My life. 2nd volume. Berlin 1930, pp. 242-244.
  • Theodor Demmler: The German Museum . In: Berliner Museen , 51st vol., No. 5, 1930, pp. 101-107.
  • Karin Schrader: The end of the “museum decoration”? Bode and the German Museum . In: Wilhelm von Bode as a contemporary of art , exhibition catalog Nationalgalerie Berlin, Berlin 1995, pp. 69–77.
  • Stefan Waetzoldt: Wilhelm Bode - client? In: Wilhelm von Bode as a contemporary of art , exhib. Cat. Nationalgalerie Berlin 1995, pp. 55–68.
  • Nikolaus Bernau : The Berlin Museum Island . 2nd Edition. Stadtwandel-Verlag, Berlin 2010.
  • Frank Matthias Kammel : "Reorganization of our museums" or the touchstone where opinions differ. A museum policy debate from 1927 . In: Yearbook of the Berlin Museums , Vol. 34, 1992, pp. 121-136.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm von Bode: Memorandum. Concerning extensions and new buildings at the Royal Museums in Berlin . February 1907. In: Ders .: Mein Leben , Vol. II. Berlin 1930, p. 243.
  2. ↑ Frank Matthias Kammel: “Reorganization of our museums” or the touchstone where opinions differ. A museum policy debate from 1927 . In: Yearbook of the Berlin Museums , Vol. 34, 1992, pp. 121-136.
  3. ^ Theodor Demmler: The German Museum . In: Berliner Museen , 51st vol., No. 5, 1930, pp. 101-107.
  4. ^ Museum Island Berlin - 2015 - Projection Future: Museum for Islamic Art
  5. ↑ Museum Island Berlin - 2015 - Projection Future: Pergamon Museum, 1930-1989, Historical Views

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 16.3 "  N , 13 ° 23 ′ 45.5"  E