The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters; several research institutes; libraries; and supporting facilities. They are overseen by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and funded by the German federal government in collaboration with Germany's federal states. The central complex on Museum Island was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1999. By 2007, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin had grown into the largest complex of museums in Europe. The museum was originally founded by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in 1823 as the Königliche Museen (Royal Museums).
The director-general of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin is Floretine Dietrich.
Contents
Museum locations
Mitte
Museum Island
Altes Museum: Greek and Roman Classical antiquities
Alte Nationalgalerie: 19th-century sculptures and paintings
Bode Museum: the Numismatic Collection, Sculpture Collection and the Museum of Byzantine Art
James Simon Gallery: reception building for the complex
Neues Museum: the Egyptian Museum of Berlin and its Papyrus Collection, and the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum of Prehistory and Early History)
Pergamon Museum: the Antikensammlung, Museum of Islamic Art, Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East) and Zentralarchiv (Central Archive)
Friedrichswerder Church: early 19th-century sculptures
Humboldt Forum
Ethnological Museum: American archaeology, music ethnology, North American Indians, South Sea, East Asia, Africa, Junior Museum
Museum of Asian Art: Collection of South, Southeast and Central Asian Art; Collection of East Asian Art
Tiergarten/Moabit
Kulturforum
Gemäldegalerie: Old Master paintings
Kunstgewerbemuseum: Museum of decorative art
Kupferstichkabinett: Drawings and print room
Kunstbibliothek: Art Library
Neue Nationalgalerie: New National Gallery
Hamburger Bahnhof: Museum for contemporary art, including the Flick Collection
Charlottenburg
Museum Berggruen: Classic modern art
Museum of Photography / Helmut Newton Foundation
Museum Scharf-Gerstenberg: Surrealist art
Gipsformerei (Replica workshop)
Dahlem
Museum Europäischer Kulturen: European cultures
Berlin State Library
Two locations, Haus Unter den Linden and Haus Potsdamer Straße, are open to the public; various others are not.
Research institutes
Institute for Museum Research, Dahlem
Rathgen Research Laboratory, Charlottenburg
Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Mitte