Photo: museums and exhibitions, Museum Island, Berlin

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Museum Island, residential and open for visits

Museums and Exhibitions

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In 1830 the first museum in Prussia that could be visited by anyone interested opened on Spreeinsel. Today the north part of the island, better known as the Museum Island, locates five biggest museums in Germany: Old Museum (Alte Museum), New Museum (Neues Museum), Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie), Bode Museum (Bode-Museum), Pergamon Museum(Pergamonmuseum) and Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom).

In the beginning of the 19th century the ruler of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm III (1770-1840) decided to turn Berlin into the capital of art and give different levels of population access to the beautiful. In 1830 the first museum in Prussia that could be visited by anyone interested opened on Spreeinsel. Today the north part of the island, better known as the Museum Island, locates five biggest museums in Germany: Old Museum (Alte Museum), New Museum (Neues Museum), Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie), Bode Museum (Bode-Museum), Pergamon Museum(Pergamonmuseum) and Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom).

The main collection of the Old Museum is the artwork acquired by the king. Architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel chose the Greek stoa (open colonnade) as the model for the project. 18 Ionic columns, a high staircase with equestrian statues on the sides, antique sculpture in a rotunda – everything is a clear reference to classicism. The permanent exposition is dedicated to the art and culture of Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. The museum collection has grown so big that additional facilities were necessary for the exhibits. That’s why in 1843 construction of the New Museum began. In 1879 construction of the National Gallery was completed, now called the Old National Gallery. Its main exhibition is works of German painters of the 19th-20th centuries. Biedermeier and French impressionism are well presented (Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir). In 1904 building of Kaiser Friedrich Museum in neo-baroque appeared on Museum Island. The museum carries the name of Wilhelm von Bode, or Bode Museum. Based on a suggestion of an art historian, items, furniture and interior in each hall represent one era. Thus an integral conception of the past was created. Besides, Bode Museum hosts the largest coin room in the world. In 1930 construction of a monumental building of the Pergamon Museum was completed on the Museum Island.

Museum Island, residential and open for visits

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