Federal Government and State of Berlin Purchase the Hamburger Bahnhof and Rieckhallen

16.11.2022
Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart

Through the acquisition of the building complex, Hamburger Bahnhof has for the first time gained a long-term development perspective 26 years after the museum opened. The new designation as Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart emphasises the affiliation with the Nationalgalerie and therefore its function as a collecting museum.

Commenting on the purchase of Hamburger Bahnhof and the associated Rieckhallen by the federal government and the state of Berlin, Till Fellrath, director of Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart together with Sam Bardaouil, declared: “Today is a historic day for Hamburger Bahnhof. We are overjoyed to now be able to realise a diverse and sustainable programme together in the heart of Berlin.”

Hermann Parzinger, president of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), thanked Claudia Roth, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and her head of office, Andreas Görgen; the State of Berlin together with Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey; Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer; and Senator for Finance Daniel Wesener; as well as CA Immo and the Institute for Federal Real Estate, saying: “Together we have all made this possible.”

New Presentation of the Permanent Collection and Special Exhibition Programme in 2023

With its new concept for the presentation of the permanent collection and special exhibition programme for 2023, Hamburger Bahnhof makes reference to the numerous chapters of its multi-layered history.

Three interconnected presentations of the permanent collection explore the history of Hamburger Bahnhof as the Nationalgalerie venue for contemporary art and embed this survey in the social context and the museum’s role in international art. The presentations provide the conceptual framework for the museum’s rotating annual programme.

The Hamburger Bahnhof’s main building was an epochal station building in the mid-19th century whose use continuously adapted to historical circumstances. In the early 20th century, it served as a museum of construction and transportation and as a Second World ruin, it stood on the demarcation line between East and West Berlin, ultimately becoming an artists’ squat in the 1980s and a pop-up exhibition space in the early 1990s until it opened as the site of the Nationalgalerie collection in 1996.