For the next six months, the Neue Nationalgalerie will be showcasing the Nationalgalerie's important collection of 19th-century German sculpture which is usually on display in the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche.

The converted church designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel had to be closed in 2012 due to structural damages, and will remain closed until further notice. The exhibition 'In the White Light' thus presents the public with the last foreseeable chance to view the 36 sculptures together as a suite. In late 18th-century Berlin, then Prussian capital, a generation of successful sculptors emerged that would be forever associated with two core figures: Johann Gottfried Schadow and Christian Daniel Rauch. For a century this style, dubbed the 'Berlin School of Sculpture', exerted an influence that went beyond Berlin and even made itself felt as far away as the United States. Both Schadow and Rauch are represented in the exhibition with a range of works, including the original cast of Schadow's seminal 'Princesses Group'. This show on the gallery's upper floor gives visitors a unique opportunity to view the sculpture ensemble in the light of another architectural icon: the Neue Nationalgalerie designed by Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), on whom Schinkel had a lasting influence.