Museum Island

The Museum Island (German: Museumsinsel) is a special place in the heart of Berlin, Germany. It sits on the northern part of Spree Island and is one of the most popular spots in the city. This important museum complex was built between 1830 and 1930, starting with orders from the Prussian Kings and designed by five different architects.

Museum Island was chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 because it shows how museums developed during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is home to five amazing museums: the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode-Museum, and the Pergamon Museum. Besides these museums, the historic Berlin Cathedral and the beautiful Lustgarten park are also located there.

After German reunification, the island was rebuilt and extended following a special plan. In 2019, a new visitor center called the James Simon Gallery opened, adding more space for art and visitors to enjoy. Today, Museum Island remains one of the most important museum sites in all of Europe.

Overview

The Museum Island is a special place in Berlin, Germany, filled with important museums. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 because it shows how museums have changed over time and how they are built.

The island has several famous museums. The Altes Museum was built in 1830 and designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The Neues Museum finished in 1859 but was damaged during World War II and rebuilt in 2009. The Alte Nationalgalerie opened in 1876 to show art from the 1800s. The Bode Museum opened in 1904 and shows sculptures and ancient art. The big Pergamon Museum, built between 1910 and 1930, holds huge ancient buildings like the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. Nearby, the Humboldt Forum opened in 2020 and includes museums about different cultures and Asian art.

History

A first exhibition hall was built in 1797 thanks to the idea of archaeologist Aloys Hirt. In 1822, Schinkel made plans for the Altes Museum to hold the royal Antikensammlung, with Wilhelm von Humboldt overseeing how the collection was arranged. The island, which used to be a place for homes, was set aside for “art and science” by King Frederick William IV of Prussia in 1841. It grew more under later Prussian kings, and after 1918, the museum’s art and archaeology collections became a public group cared for by the Berlin State Museums and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

Museum Island also includes Lustgarten park and the Berlin Cathedral. A railway bridge called the Stadtbahn goes between the Bode and Pergamon Museums. Nearby to the south are the places where the old royal and imperial Berlin Palace and the Palace of the Republic once stood.

During the Cold War, the Prussian collections were separated because of the division of the city, but they were brought back together after German reunification, except for some art and artifacts taken after World War II by Allied troops. These include Priam's Treasure, also called the gold of Troy, dug up by Heinrich Schliemann in 1873. It was moved from Turkey to Berlin and then to Moscow, where it is kept today at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

In the 1990s, people agreed that the buildings on Museum Island should be fixed up and made modern. In January 1999, a careful plan by General Director Wolf-Dieter Dube was approved. Six months later, Peter-Klaus Schuster started a bigger plan to make Museum Island a famous spot like the Louvre on the Spree. The government agreed to give $20 million each year up to 2010 to help Berlin look better, and UNESCO named the island a World Heritage Site.

The museums decided what to show: The Pergamon keeps many of its items and focuses on ancient buildings. The Neues Museum shows ancient objects and statues from Egypt and Etruria, including the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti. The Altes Museum, the oldest, shows art from Greece and Rome on its first floor and has special shows on the second. The Bode Museum’s paintings go from Late Byzantine times up to 1800. The Alte Nationalgalerie covers the 1800s. Plans are for the Gemäldegalerie’s paintings to move to the Bode Museum once work is done, maybe by 2020, so Museum Island will show art from ancient times to 1900. The James Simon Gallery, a visitors’ center costing $157 million and designed by British architect David Chipperfield, finished building in 2019 next to the Neues Museum. It links to the Neues, Altes, Pergamon, and Bode Museums through a underground path with ancient items.

When the Museum Island Master Plan is finished, an Archaeological Promenade will connect four of the five museums. It will start at the Old Museum in the south, go through the New Museum and the Pergamon Museum, and end at the Bode Museum at the north tip of the island. Before World War II, these museums were linked by bridges above ground, but they were destroyed by the war. Instead of rebuilding the bridges, the central spaces of each museum will be made lower and linked by underground galleries. This Promenade is like a sixth museum because it’s not just a path but also a place to show items from all the museums together. It will cover big ideas that people have thought about through time and place, like life after death or beauty.

Museum Island is mentioned in a song called “On the Museum Island” by folk singer Emmy the Great.

The southern part of the island, south of Gertraudenstraße, is often called Fischerinsel (Fisher Island). There, a tall apartment building was built when Mitte was part of East Berlin.

Photogallery

Panorama with River Spree

Altes Museum, Lustgarten, and Berlin Cathedral

[Neues Museum](/wiki/Neues_Museum)

[Alte Nationalgalerie](/wiki/Alte_Nationalgalerie)

[Pergamon Museum](/wiki/Pergamon_Museum)

Tactile scale model of Museum Island

[James Simon Gallery](/wiki/James_Simon_Gallery)

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  Berlin Palace / Humboldt Forum