new museum berlin

New Museum Neues Museum

The Neues Museum (or New Museum) is part of the 5-museum complex on Museum Island in the center of Berlin. It is the second museum to be built, as the Altes Museum (old museum) became too small to house the collection of antiquities and artworks.

History

The Neues Museum was closed for decades after being severely damaged during World War II and only reopened in 2009. The Neues Museum presents collections on prehistory, ancient history and ancient Egypt. And it is precisely because its strength lies in the Egyptian collection that many call it the “Egyptian Museum”.

In 1841, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia decreed that the entire northern part of the Spree Island (the part that is now called the Museum Island) would be “transformed into a sanctuary of art and science.

Following this decree and the need to expand the Altes Museum, which could no longer hold works of art, Friedrich August Stüler, a student of the famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who designed many buildings in Berlin, designed the Neues Museum. Construction began in 1843 and in 1850 the first part of the museum was opened to the public with the collection of ancient Egyptian art.

Over the next few years, work continued and new sections were opened to the public as they were completed, with the ethnographic collection being the last to be opened in 1859.

Friedrich August Stüler designed the Neues Museum in a neoclassical architectural style. The building, 105 meters long and 40 meters wide, has a relatively simple facade, just like the Altes Museum. However, its interior was richly decorated – the rooms were painted and decorated in Egyptian, Greek or Roman style. Passages connected the Neues Museum to the Altes Museum and also to the Pergamon Museum.

In 1939, due to the war, the Neues Museum was closed and some works were removed from the building and stored in a safe place. During the war, the building was practically destroyed, including the connection to the Altes Museum.

In the years following the war, several buildings were restored and rebuilt, but the Neues Museum building remained in ruins for decades. It was not until 1997 that the British architect David Chipperfield was officially commissioned to rebuild the building. In 2003, the reconstruction work began.

The sections and rooms that were destroyed are rebuilt structurally, but without being an exact copy of the original. The facade was carefully restored, as was the interior space, but the “scars” left by the events of the past were respected and preserved, so that the traces of the destruction are still visible on the walls, columns and ceiling. Finally, after 70 years, the Neues Museum reopened its doors on October 16, 2009.

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Museum collections

Since then, the museum has been exhibiting the collection of ancient Egyptian art, the papyrus collection, the collection of prehistory and ancient history as well as objects from the collection of classical antiquities. The collection of the Neues Museum is simply enormous.

The collection of prehistory and ancient history presents the development of mankind from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages in a systematic and detailed way with the help of relics and objects.

One of the most important items in the collection is the “Berlin Gold Hat”, a gold cone worked with circular patterns. This “hat” dates from the Bronze Age, 1000-800 BC, and was found in southern Germany. The designs on the hat are interpreted as a calendar, with which one could calculate the changes of the sun and the moon and thus predict lunar eclipses.

The collection of ancient Egyptian art presents archaeological treasures from different periods of ancient Egypt, from 4000 BC to the Roman period.

The pieces in the collection date mainly from the time of King Akhenaten (ca. 1340 BC) from Tell el Amarna. They include sculptures, architectural fragments, and a fantastic collection of papyri that includes thousands of papyri.

However, the star of the collection, indeed of the museum, is Nefertiti. In the center of a room, prominently displayed, is the bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, the wife of King Akhenaten, described as the “most beautiful woman in the world.” This magnificent bust is a true relic, whose colors are still original, unrestored. It is the only piece in these museums that cannot be photographed.

How to get there

The Neues Museum is open every day from 10 am to 6 pm except Monday.

Ticket price: 12€, it is recommended to take the pass for all the museums on the island.

Tickets for the museum can be purchased online or directly at the museum. Children and teenagers up to 18 years old are free and there are discounts for students.

https://www.smb.museum/museen-einrichtungen/neues-museum/home/

Address: Bodestrasse 1 – Mitte – 10178 – Berlin

S-Bahn: Lines S5, S7 and S75, station Hackescher Markt.
Bus: Lines 100 and 200, stop Lustgarten; Line TXL, stop Staatsoper
Streetcar: Lines M1, stop Am Kupfergraben; Lines M4, M5 and M6, stop Hackescher Markt

https://goo.gl/maps/fNhDHgtmmePoyPpdA