Berlin’s Museum Island uniquely encapsulates Germany’s modern history — from the ideas of the Enlightenment to the destruction of World War II, from the Cold War era to its current ultra-modern restoration that has turned the ensemble of museums into a tourist magnet.
Standing as a testimony to Europe’s architectural and cultural developments, the historical complex of museum buildings was recognized by UNESCO in June 1999 as a World Heritage Site , and this year it is celebrating its 200th anniversary since the first building’s foundation stone was laid.
A legacy of the Enlightenment
During the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), when the French invaded the historic German kingdom of Prussia, many artworks were plundered from its capital, Berlin. When the looted works were returned after the war, Prussian leaders decided to create a museum to showcase the treasures publicly.
The Altes Museum (Old Museum) was the first building in the series of five institutions that would later become known as Museum Island. Simply called the “Museum” in its early years, the Altes Museum’s foundation stone was laid in 1825, and it opened in 1830.
At the time, after decades of war, Prussia was economically and financially ruined, “and yet they invested in such a cultural building, hiring the best architect of the time, [Karl Friedrich] Schinkel,” Hermann Parzinger, outgoing president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, tells DW. It’s a fact he particularly likes to point out in the current context, as politicians question the importance of funding culture.
Amid the ideals of the Enlightenment, education was recognized as a priority. Thinker and statesman Wilhelm von Humboldt viewed museums as an important pillar of the educational reform he developed. “The museum, as a space of the citizen’s aesthetic education, was very important to him,” explains Parzinger. “So it was more than just building a museum; there was a vision behind it, and art, together with science, played a very central role.”
A museum ensemble built over 100 years
During the colonial era, the collection of ancient artifacts grew, along with leaders’ aspiration to showcase German national Romantic artists. More museums were needed in Berlin to house those works.
In the century that followed, four more major museums were therefore added to the complex located on the northern part of Spree Island, in the historic heart of Berlin: the Neues Museum (New Museum) opened in 1859; the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) followed in 1876; the Bode Museum (then the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum) came in 1904; and finally, the Pergamon Museum, designed to house the monumental Ishtar Gate of Babylon, was completed in 1930.
Short-lived glory before World War II
For a few years before World War II, Museum Island was one of the crown jewels of European culture.
The Nazis celebrated the classical and ancient works in the Museum Island collections, which they saw as part of a supposed Aryan heritage.
During World War II, museum officials partly evacuated valuable artifacts to underground bunkers, mines and castles across Germany. This move saved many exhibits — including the bust of Nefertiti and large portions of the Pergamon friezes — but also contributed to the dispersal of several other treasures.
After the war, when the Soviet Red Army occupied the area in May 1945, art collections throughout Germany were looted as war reparations. So-called Trophy Brigades of the Red Army sent millions of historical items to Moscow and St. Petersburg, with many landing in undocumented private collections.
Many objects were later returned to Berlin in the 1950s, particularly during the rule of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, but it is estimated that around a million works of art, more than four million books and manuscripts, and a considerable number of archival materials are still kept in Russia and its neighboring countries.
Even though German and Russian institutions developed common research efforts into those contested objects over the past decades, today, “because of the war [in Ukraine], everything is on hold and interrupted — and we don’t know when we can resume these contacts,” says Parzinger.
Rebuilding Museum Island
In divided Germany, Museum Island landed in East Berlin, under the control of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The communist state “simply didn’t have the resources for reconstruction after 1945. The buildings were repaired, but not completely renovated,” explains Parzinger.
The Neues Museum, which had been particularly damaged, was left untouched, as a symbolic ruin of war. Parzinger clearly recalls his own visit to East Berlin as a student, in 1984 — decades before he became, in 2008, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which is the government body that oversees Berlin’s state museums, including those that are part of Museum Island. His student visit is when he first saw the bombed-out shell of the Neues Museum: “I remember there were huge trees growing out from the stairwell. There was no roof, and you could see the crowns of the trees above the building. It was unbelievable to me.”
When the Berlin Wall came down, it was therefore essential to completely renovate the buildings and make them fit for the future, explains Parzinger.
What’s known as the Master Plan outlines the multi-phase restoration of the five museums that make up the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble.
An outstanding approach to restoration
Certainly the most important restoration project was the resurrection of the Neues Museum. British architect David Chipperfield’s design was initially met with strong resistance. He integrated the ruins into a new construction, working with the scars of war by leaving bullet holes and missing ceiling frescoes visible; purists opposed, calling for a restoration that would have been faithful to the original neoclassical building.
But pushing through with this “magnificent concept” was the only right decision, says Parzinger enthusiastically, adding that he still keeps discovering new details every time he returns to the building. The renovated museum won numerous national and international architecture awards.
Housing the Egyptian museum and the papyrus collection, the Neues Museum’s most famous exhibit is the pharaonic bust of Queen Nefertiti. Last year, a petition was launched to have the 3,370-year-old bust returned to Egypt. But for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, there is nothing to discuss about its return: “Nefertiti came to Berlin as part of a completely legal, well-documented discovery,” maintains Parzinger.
Nevertheless, Parzinger has been a key figure in the restitution debate, particularly concerning the return of the Benin Bronzes and other objects with colonial histories. After 17 years at the helm of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, he is now retiring and being succeeded by Marion Ackermann. She becomes the new president of the foundation on June 1, just as festivities for Museum Island’s 200th anniversary year are launched.
“The 200th anniversary of Museum Island is a great opportunity for us to become even more attractive,” Ackermann tells DW.
As she takes over, the buildings’ restoration will continue, as defined by the Museum Island Master Plan.
One recent notable milestone in the completion of the plan was the opening of the James Simon Gallery in 2019. As a new addition to Museum Island, it serves as the main entrance, providing orientation to visitors.
The Pergamon is currently closed until 2027 as it undergoes its makeover. The Altes Museum will be next.
When all restorations are completed, four of the five historical buildings will then be connected by a handicap-accessible underground ramp known as the Archaeological Promenade, inspired by historic bridges between the museums that were destroyed during World War II.
All additions and restorations contribute to further anchor Museum Island’s status as Germany’s blockbuster equivalent to the Louvre in Paris or the British Museum in London. By giving a new lease of life to the museum complex on the Spree River, Museum Island is set to keep reflecting Berlin’s history for centuries to come.
Edited by: Brenda Haas
