Altes Museum

The Altes Museum is a listed building on Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. Built between 1825 and 1830 by order of King Frederick William III of Prussia according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, it is considered a major work of German Neoclassical architecture.. The museum was Berlin’s first museum and the nucleus of Museum Island, trend-setting well into the 20th century.

In 1810, King Friedrich Wilhelm III commissioned Wilhelm von Humboldt “to compile a public, well-selected collection of art in Berlin.” The Royal Museum – today’s Altes Museum – opened next to the Lustgarten in 1830, adding art as a fourth element to the open rectangle of politics (Berlin Palace), military (Armory), and church (Berlin Cathedral).

The museum stands majestically overlooking the Lustgarten (Pleasure Garden), a park on Museum Island in central Berlin at the foreground of the Altes Museum, next to the Berlin Cathedral and near the reconstructed Berlin Palace of which it was originally a part. The area was originally developed in the 16th century as a kitchen garden attached to the Palace, then the residence of the Elector of Brandenburg.

Schinkel exercised considerable influence on Peter Joseph Lenné’s renovation of the Lustgarten, which coincided with the construction of the museum, resulting in a harmonized and integrated ensemble. Between 1826 and 1829, Lenné redesigned the pleasure garden, dividing the area into several lawns and erecting a 13-metre-high fountain.

With its clearly ordered exterior and an interior structure designed with exacting precision in the ancient Greek style, Schinkel pursued Humboldt’s idea of opening the museum as an educational institution for the public. On opening in 1830, it became the first public museum in Prussia and played a crucial role in establishing Berlin as a major cultural hub in Europe.

The Lustgarten has witnessed dramatic transformations throughout history. In 1713, Friedrich Wilhelm I converted the Lustgarten into a sand-covered parade ground, but in 1790, Friedrich Wilhelm II allowed it to be turned back into a park. During the years of the Weimar Republic, the Lustgarten was frequently used for political demonstrations, and under the Nazis, it was converted into a site for mass rallies.

In 1997, the Berlin Senate commissioned landscape architect Hans Loidl to redesign the area in the spirit of Lenné’s design, and the Lustgarten now features fountains and is once again a park in the heart of reunited Berlin.