The museum complex in Dahlem was planned by Bruno Paul back in 1914, but was only partially completed at that time. Nearly half a century later, architects Wils Ebert and Fritz Bornemann completed the ensemble in an altered form. Today, the Dahlem site is home to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s non-European and ethnographic collections, with their unique ethnographic artefacts and art treasures.
With the Humboldt Forum almost complete, the exhibitions of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst will soon be on display just around the corner from the Museumsinsel Berlin. The storage facilities that house the majority of the collections, workshops and libraries, however, will remain at the museum complex, and Dahlem is also the home of the Institut für Museumsforschung. These institutions will be working together in the new Forschungscampus Dahlem, which also includes the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s Rathgen-Forschungslabor, the Kunstbibliothek, and the Gipsformerei, as well as the Ibero-Amerikanische Institut – Preussischer Kulturbesitz.