Museums in Berlin, Germany. Directory of Berlin museums.

Berlin is home to over 170 museums and galleries, offering visitors the opportunity to see everything from aspects of ancient history to contemporary works. The most popular museum is the Pergamon, which houses three magnificent collections, the Antiquity Collection, the Museum of Islamic Art and the Museum of the Near East. Tales from the days of the Berlin Wall are also a popular attraction and the Mauerhaus Museum am Checkpoint Charlie documents in depth this important piece of the city’s history. Visitors can watch films and read stories of some amazing escapes from East to West Berlin and there is a programme of lectures from those involved with this legacy. Art lovers should visit the Old National Gallery and the New National Gallery. The former houses a host of 19th-century sculptures and paintings from the German Romantic era including works by Karl Blechen and Caspar David Friedrich. There is also an excellent display of French Impressionist work with pieces from Renoir, Monet and Cézanne. The latter is home to a wide collection of European sculptures and paintings from the 20th Century, which ranges from Modernism to 1960’s art exhibitions.

Jewish Museum Berlin
Address: Lindenstrasse 9-14 Phone: +49 30 259 93 300	Price: 2.5 - 5 EUR
Website: http://www.juedisches-museum-berlin.de
Opening Hours: Monday-Monday 10 -22 Tuesday-Sunday 10 -20
The Jewish Museum Berlin, founded on Oranienburger Straße in 1933, is a 3,000-square-metre museum which covers 2,000 years German Jewish history. However the museum’s exhibition was closed by the Nazis in 1938. Plans for the museum’s revival were presented in 1971, and the establishment of Association for a Jewish Museum followed in 1975. A Jewish department of the Berlin Museum opened after the institution first displayed an exhibition on Berlin Jewish history in 1978. The site was granted status as an independent institution in 1999. The impressive building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, was completed in 1999 and opened as an exhibition venue in 2001. The museum is directed by Berlin-born Professor W. Michael Blumenthal, a former US Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter.
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Altes Museum
Address: Bodenstrasse 1 Phone: +49 30 2 66 36 66	Price: 4 - 8 EUR


The Altes Museum or Old Museum, which operated as the Royal Museum until 1845, is located on Berlin's Museum Island. The site was built between 1825 and 1828 by architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the Neo-Classical style to hold the Prussian Royal family's collection of art. Following a massive restoration in 1966, the museum has housed the collection of the Berlin Museum Group. The site was modelled after the Greek Stoa in Athens, and uses the Ionic order to articulate its facade, while the three remaining facades are constructed of brick and stone The construction of the building surrounded by the Spree river was not an easy. However, apart from the museum museum itself, Schinkel introduced roadway changes, bridge expansions, and new canals in the vicinity of Altes Museum. The dome which used to be an exact hemisphere was to remind of the Roman Pantheon.

Abguss Collection of Antique Sculptures
Address: Schloßstrasse 69b Phone: +49 30 42 40 54
Website: http://www.abguss-sammlung-berlin.de

The Abguss collection of antique sculptures encompasses some 1,600 plaster replicas of Greek and Roman sculptures, from the 3rd Century BC to the year 500 AD. The extensive displays constitute a serious part of the studies of both students and scholars, and the collection is continuously expanded. The site also attracts the general public. Since June 1989, a portion of the museum's collections has been displayed via regularly rotating exhibitions held throughout the year. The exhibits are supplemented by installations of contemporary art.

Allies' Museum
Address: Clayallee 135 Phone: +49 30 81 81 99 -0
Website: http://www.alliiertenmuseum.de

This site provides a showcase on the history of the western occupying powers and Berlin in the period from1945 to 1994. The permanent exhibits start with the invasion of the Western Allies after Germany was defeated in World War II and ends with the celebrations following the fall of the Berlin Wall and Germany's reunification in 1990. In the period 1945-1990, the city of Berlin was divided into four occupation zones, administered by the USA, the Soviet Union, UK, and France, the victors of World War II.
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Art Library
Address: Matthäikirchplatz 6 Phone: +49 30 266 2029	Price: 3 - 6 EUR

Opening Hours: Monday-Monday 14 -20 Tuesday-Friday 10 -18 Saturday-Sunday 11 -18
The Art Library, one of the oldest specialist libraries for research of art history, was founded in 1867 as a unit of the German Museum of Arts and Crafts, the present-day Museum of Decorative Arts. The site became an independent entity, and part of the Royal Museums in 1894. The Art Library moved into a new building in 1994, at the Kulturforum at Potsdamer Platz. The Library comprises eight collections, featuring the art studies library, a freehand drawings collection, a decorative prints collection, a Lipperheide costume library, a commercial art collection, as well as poster and advertising art collection, a photography collection and a book design collection.

Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection
Address: Am Lustgarten Phone: +49 30 20 90 55 44	Price: 6 - 12 EUR
Website: http://www.egyptian-museum-berlin.com
Opening Hours: Monday-Wednesday 10 -18 Thursday 10 -22 Friday-Sunday 10 -18
The Aegyptisches Museum, or Egyptian Museum, possesses one of the world’s principal collections of ancient Egyptian Art. The museum’s pieces are centered on the period of King Akhenaton's reign (c.1340 BC), from the Tell el Amarna. World known works include the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti, a portrait of Queen Tiy and the Berlin Green Head. The Egyptian Museum and Paypyrus Collection closed its doors at Charlottenburg and returned to the Museuminsel (Museum Island) in Mitte, to reopen in 2005 in the Altes Museum.
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Pariser Platz Academy of Arts
Address: Pariser Platz 4 Phone: +49 30 20 05 70
Website: http://www.adk.de

Since its inception, the Academy has deliberately departed from the character and looks of a classic art institution and has rather favoured the outlook of the German Hohe Schule. Thus, the site marks a great departure from the traditional heritage of Rome and Paris, and largely focuses on the functional representation of the art it displays. The Academy has been expanded, and now features departments of Applied Arts, Sculpture, Music, Literature, Theatre as well as Film and Media. The site is also an interactive venue, offering frequent discussions and talks on art, as well as international artistic exchange.

Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery)
Address: Bodenstrasse 1 Phone: +49 30 20 90 58 01	Price: 4 - 8 EUR
Website: http://www.smb.museum

The Alte Nationalgalerie, or Old National Gallery, has housed 19th-century sculptures and paintings since 2001, when it was the first among the buildings on Museum Island, on the Spree River, in the centre of Berlin, to re-open after a restoration. Together with the Altes Museum, Bode Museum, Neues Museum and the Pergamon Museum, the Old National Gallery is part of the ensemble of Berlin’s Museum Island, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site since 1999, and one of the biggest attractions among the Berlin museums.
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