Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin

The Museum of Decorative Arts of the National Museums in Berlin is considered one of the most important collections of its kind and shows at its two locations at the Cultural Forum Potsdamer Platz and in Köpenick Castle European arts and crafts from the Middle Ages to the present.

Due to extensive renovation and reconstruction work of the museum site is closed on culture forum since 2 January 2012.

Exhibition

The Decorative Arts Museum collects European arts and crafts of all post-classical eras of art history, including gold and silver, glass, enamel and porcelain vessels, furniture and Raumgetäfel and tapestries, costumes and silk fabrics.

In the building at the Cultural Forum, a tour takes over an area of ​​7000 square meters by the historical development of arts and crafts from the Middle Ages to the present.

Ecclesiastical art in important medieval churches show the goldsmith's art in this period, such as the Bursenreliquiar from the treasure of the Collegiate Church of St. Dionysius in Enger and more than 40 works from the Guelph Treasure. For the epoch of the Renaissance is the representation of the silver councilors of the town of Lüneburg.

Exhibits the courtyards of Italian nobles during the Renaissance are bronzes, tapestries, furniture, Venetian glass and majolica on the ground floor. Upstairs Treasures of Baroque art chambers, Delftware and Baroque glasses are seen. Furthermore, European porcelain, especially from Meissen and Royal Prussian Porcelain Factory, ornamental tableware and accessories from rococo and classicism to historicism is issued to Art Nouveau.

In the basement of the 20th century are complemented by industry products in the "New Collection" crafts.

The second museum location in Schloss Köpenick has a permanent exhibition entitled Space art from the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo a cross section of features art from the 16th to the 18th century.

History

The Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts is the oldest in Germany and was established in 1868 as German Commercial Museum in Berlin with exhibits at the Paris World Exhibition of 1867. Commissioned by the museum was the teaching and flavor development of artisans, industry subscribers and the public. The associated Unterrichtsanstalt Museum of Decorative Arts Berlin originated in 1868 on the initiative of the German Commercial Association Museum in Berlin as a training institution. By 1921, museum and school in different locations were connected together.

With the purchase of the Lüneburg Council silver (1874 ) and the acquisition of approximately 7,000 exhibits from the Brandenburg- Prussian Cabinet of Curiosities (1875 ), the museum was one of the most important of its kind in Europe. In 1879 it was renamed Museum of Decorative Arts.

In 1881 the company moved to the new Martin- Gropius-Bau was made with special collections of goldsmith's art and ceramics, glass and textiles as well as a chronological overview of the history of the institution of art from the late Middle Ages to the present. The so-called Priam's Treasure by Heinrich Schliemann found here a temporary home.

The Museum of Decorative Arts in 1921 moved into a part of the Berlin City Palace, and together with objects from the possession of the Hohenzollern Castle Museum Berlin. During the Second World War, the museum rooms and parts of the book were destroyed and divided the collections between East and West Berlin.

The East Berlin parts of the collection were housed in 1963 at Schloss Köpenick. The West Berlin parts came to Charlottenburg Palace. Since 1985, they are to be seen in 1967, designed by Rolf Gutbrod and 1985 opened the new museum building at the Cultural Forum.