Sometimes referred to as the Prussian Acropolis and a World Heritage Site, Museum Island is a group of five museums occupying the northern tip of an island on the River Spree in the heart of Berlin. In the 19th century, German archaeologists and antiquities enthusiasts were the first to unearth the heritage of the Old World. Their incredible haul included the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate, found on the site of ancient Babylon.
Most of the buildings in the Museuminsel suffered greatly during the Second World War, and then from the neglect of the Communist authorities. An ambitious restoration project is currently underway (parts of the museums may be closed), with the ultimate aim of bringing together many of the city’s treasures in this central location.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel, architect to the King of Prussia, considered the Altes Museum (Old Museum) his most accomplished work. The wide colonnaded facade of this neoclassical temple, looking south towards the no-longer-existing Royal Palace, bears witness to the high cultural aspirations of the Prussian state. At the time of its completion, it was one of the world’s first public museums. The centerpiece is a harmonious rotunda inspired by Rome’s Pantheon, with its classical sculptures. Even if you don’t have much time, don’t forget to stop in front of the Young Boy at Prayer (Der betende Knabe), an anonymous work from the late 3rd century BC, found in Rhodes.
Behind the Altes Museum lies the Neues Museum (New Museum). Since its restoration in 2009, it has housed the famous collection of the Ägyptiches Museum as well as that of the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum of Prehistory and Protohistory), formerly located in Charlottenburg.
Between the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) and the Altes Museum, it’s a case of who can best demonstrate Germany’s love of culture. Completed in 1876, this museum of German painting also takes the form of a neoclassical temple, but of a very different kind. Resting on a very high plinth, it can be reached via a double staircase.
After three years of restoration and renovation work, it reopened its doors in 2001. It’s certainly the best place to see Germany’s role in the Romantic movement. In particular, you can admire some twenty paintings by Caspar David Friedrich (1774 – 1840), including The Monk by the Sea, The Lonely Tree and Moonlight, which express man’s melancholy in the face of an immense, magnified nature. You’ll also find paintings by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781 – 1841), who was also a painter, presenting an idealized classical or Gothic world.
Most of the great German painters of the 19th century are represented: Philipp Otto Runge and his intense portraits, Carl Spitweb and his charming and humorous evocations of the province, Adolf von Menzel and his Rolling Mill, which is a veritable hymn to nascent German industry. Late 19th-century artists such as Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth stand comparison with the work of the French Impressionists – Monet, Renoir, Degas and Cézanne.
Architecturally, the Pergamon Museum can’t compete with Schinkel’s masterpiece, but its collections of Old World antiquities are virtually inexhaustible. The building, constructed between 1912 and 1930, was originally intended to house a reconstruction of the altar of Pergamon, an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor. This moment of prodigious proportions is adorned with an extraordinarily expressive frieze depicting a gigantomachy (battle between gods and giants).
Milet’s Agora Gate, dating from the 2nd century A.D., is almost as imposing. Even larger, the Gate of Ishtar from Babylon, with its processional way, is decorated with glazed bricks and figures of bulls and dragons.
Separated from the Pergamonmuseum by the S-Bahn overhead line, the Bode Museum is a superb neo-Baroque building constructed in 1904. Its elegant architecture, with dome and rounded elevation, highlights the promontory separating the two arms of the Spree. Originally called the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, it now bears the name of its founder, Wilhelm von Bode, director of Prussia’s national museums in the early 20th century. Sculptures spanning the period from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, including several masterpieces of Italian and German art, found their place here after the 2006 renovation.
This is also where the collections of the Museum für Spätantike und Byzantinische Kunst (Museum of Ancient and Byzantine Art) were transferred, including sculptures, fabrics, ceramics and paintings from Italy, Greece, the Near East and the Balkans.
The Ishtar Gate in Babylon, Pergamon Museum
Gate of the Milet Agora, Pergamon Museum
Relief of King Sety I facing Osiris, Neues Museum
25 September 2016
From 1961 to 1990, Western visitors wishing to spend a day in East Berlin had to show their credentials at Checkpoint Charlie, an American checkpoint. Today, a replica can be seen on this link, preceded by the famous sign: “You are leaving the American sector”.
23 June 2018
Peaceful countryside, battlefield sites, natural sights and, above all, an incomparable succession of historic towns: the Romantische Strasse, which stretches 350 km from Würzburg in the Main valley to Füssen in the Alps, is Germany’s most popular tourist route.
25 September 2016
Listed as a World Heritage Site since 1999, Museum Island comprises five museums occupying the northern tip of an island on the River Spree in the heart of Berlin: the Bode Museum, the Pergamon Museum, the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum and the Alte Nationalgalerie.
