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Overview of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Offers Online

24.03.2020

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has been increasingly expanding its digital repertoire since 14 March 2020, when all of its buildings had to close to the public until further notice. During the shutdown, its 15 collections can still be accessed through these online alternatives – and many of the museums can be explored on a virtual tour. Moreover, a variety of objects and their histories can be discovered through the online database Collections Online, on the website: www.smb.museum, and via “Museum and the City”, the blog of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Museum and the City: The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Blog

In addition to the bilingual website of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin with nearly 40 landing pages for all the museums, collections and institutions, the “Museum and the City” blog (in German) is a main resource offering a wide variety of background histories, interviews and photo galleries related to all of the museums and collections. Interesting portraits of museum staff and topical series on, for example, the ongoing major renovations at the Neue Nationalgalerie or clips of museum professionals talking about their favourite works of art take viewers on exciting, behind-the-scenes excursions. In the coming weeks of the shutdown, our curators, whose collection areas are closed to visitors, are going to have a lot more to say on the blog.

Google Arts & Culture

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has been an active part of the Google Arts & Culture presentation since 2011. In recent years the cooperation has been continuously expanded, so that its online platform now represents ten institutions, some 5,000 objects, 40 exhibitions, 37 short narratives, 5 virtual reality tours, 6 expeditions, 8 works of art shown in a gigapixel format, and street views of all of the museums with permanent exhibitions. The Museum Island portal to Google Arts & Culture pages about its museums offers the most direct access to a variety of these offers.

Overview of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Offers via Google Arts & Culture

The Bode-Museum Online: Virtual Tour and More

A virtual tour makes it possible for interested viewers to explore the Bode-Museum online. With the help of 62 interlinked 360° panoramic views, nearly the entire ground floor and the vast majority of exhibits on the upper level have been captured. The tour offers information about all 850 digitised sculptures and paintings, and includes more than 300 additional links to Collections Online, the online database of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

The Münzkabinett (Numismatic Collection), also housed in the Bode-Museum, provides viewers with an interactive catalogue. The presentation The Second Glance – All Forms of Love, part of a series looking at the permanent exhibition at the Bode-Museum, is available for download as a catalogue. And for the exhibition Beyond Compare: Art from Africa in the Bode-Museum, that was on display from 2017 to 2019, an app is available for download.

Pergamon 3D

As part of the Masterplan Museumsinsel, the Pergamonmuseum has been undergoing renovations section by section since 2013. Its hall housing the renowned Pergamon Altar ‒ the museum’s centrepiece ‒ has been closed on this account since fall 2014. Fortunately, in September 2014 the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities) and the Fraunhofer IGD (Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research) made an elaborate 3D scan of this over 2,000-year-old masterpiece of Hellenistic art. A complete and richly-detailed 3D model of the Pergamon Altar based on this scan is publicly accessible online (with accompanying texts in German).

SMB-digital, the Online Database of the Museums

Collections Online, the platform for online research in the collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, contains more than 270,000 objects. In addition to this gigantic virtual archive with details and background information about our objects, individual works and collections are also accessible via the websites for specific projects. Here is a selection:

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin on YouTube

In addition to exhibition trailers and image films, the YouTube channel of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin also shows interesting video series highlighting the backgrounds of our objects and work in the museums. A selection:

Online Shop 

As long as the mail manages to get through despite the coronavirus, you will still be able to order online. We recommend taking a look at our webshop, featuring catalogues and other Staatliche Museen zu Berlin products.

And There’s More

On its Facebook page, which is updated daily, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin reports on new developments at the museums and presents objects from its collections. In addition to this general page, each of the museums and insitutions of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin have their own Facebook pages.

Objects and their histories from all museums are also presented on the Instagram channel for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Moreover there is a special Instagram channel for the Museum Berggruen, which is dedicated exclusively to the museum collection and to classical Modernism.

Our online offers are continuously being developed and enhanced with fascinating new subject matter. In the coming weeks new formats will increasingly be used to present and showcase the closed exhibitions – so it pays to check back regularly!