Coordinates: 52.521°N 13.

396°E

Pergamon Museum
The Pergamonmuseum (pronounced [ˈpɛʁ.ɡa.mɔn.mu
ˌzeː.ʊm] ( listen), English: Pergamon Museum) is a listed Pergamonmuseum
building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Pergamon Museum
Berlin and part of the UNESCO World Heritage. It was
built from 1910 to 1930 by order of German Emperor
Wilhelm II according to plans by Alfred Messel and
Ludwig Hoffmann in Stripped Classicism style.[1]
Currently, the Pergamonmuseum is home to the
Antikensammlung including the famous Pergamon Altar,
the Vorderasiatisches Museum and the Museum für
Islamische Kunst. Parts of the building are closed for
renovation until 2023.[2]

Contents
Origin
Exhibition
Antiquity Collection (Antikensammlung)
Islamic Art Museum (Museum für Islamische
Kunst) Location within Central Berlin
The Middle East Museum (Vorderasiatisches
Museum)
Plans
See also
Notes
References
External links

Origin
By the time the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum on Museum Pergamon Museum (Germany)
Island (today the Bodemuseum) had opened in 1904, it
was clear that the edifice was not large enough to host all Location Museum Island, Berlin
of the art and archaeological treasures being excavated Coordinates 52.5209°N 13.3964°E
under German supervision. Excavations were underway in
Website Pergamonmuseum (https://www.
the areas of ancient Babylon, Uruk, Assur, Miletus, Priene
smb.museum/en/museums-instit
and ancient Egypt, and objects from these sites could not
be properly displayed within the existing German museum utions/pergamonmuseum/hom
system. Wilhelm von Bode, director of the Kaiser- e/)
Friedrich-Museum, initiated plans to build a new museum
nearby to accommodate ancient architecture, German post-antiquity art, and Middle Eastern and Islamic art.
 Alfred Messel began a design for the
large three-wing building in 1906. After
his death in 1909 his friend Ludwig
Hoffman took charge of the project and
construction began in 1910, continuing
during the First World War (1918) and
the great inflation of the 1920s. The
completed building was opened In 1930.
Pergamon Altar
The Pergamon Museum was severely
damaged during the air attacks on Berlin
at the end of the Second World War. Many of the display objects had been stored in safe places, and some of
the large exhibits were walled in for protection. In 1945, the Red Army collected all of the loose museum
items, either as war booty or to rescue them from looting and fires then raging in Berlin. Not until 1958 were
most of the objects returned to East Germany. Significant parts of the collection remain in Russia. Some are
currently stored in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The
return of these items has been arranged in a treaty between Germany and Russia but, as of June 2003, is
blocked by Russian restitution laws.

Exhibition
Among the pieces the museum displays are:

The Pergamon Altar

Market Gate of Miletus
The Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way, Babylon
The Mshatta Facade
The Meissner fragment from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Antiquity Collection (Antikensammlung)

The collection goes back to the prince-electors, or Kurfürsten, of

Brandenburg, who collected objects from antiquity; the collection
began with an acquisition to the collection by a Roman archaeologist
in 1698. It first became accessible (in part) to the public in 1830,
when the Altes Museum was opened. The collection expanded Ishtar Gate
greatly with the excavations in Olympia, Samos, Pergamon, Miletus,
Priene, Magnesia, Cyprus and Didyma.

This collection is divided between the Pergamon Museum and the

Altes Museum.

The collection contains sculpture from the archaic to Hellenistic ages

as well as artwork from Greek and Roman antiquity: architecture,
sculptures, inscriptions, mosaics, bronzes, jewelry and pottery.

The main exhibits are the Pergamon Altar from the 2nd century BC, Aleppo Room
with a 113 meters (371 ft) long sculptural frieze depicting the struggle
of the gods and the giants, and the Gate of Miletus from Roman
antiquity.
 As Germany was divided following the Second World War, so
was the collection. The Pergamon Museum was reopened in
1959 in East Berlin, while what remained in West Berlin was
displayed in Schloss Charlottenburg.

Islamic Art Museum (Museum für Islamische

Kunst)

Museum Island with Pergamon Museum The Islamic Department was part of the Kaiser-Friedrich-
and Bode Museum (1951). Museum which opened in 1904. In the newly built Pergamon
Museum, the museum moved into the upper floor of the south
wing and was opened there in 1932.

The Middle East Museum (Vorderasiatisches Museum)

The Middle East Museum exhibition displays objects found by

German archeologists and others from the areas of Assyrian,
Sumerian and Babylonian culture. Additionally there are historical
buildings, reliefs and lesser cultural objects and jewelry.

The main display is the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way of
Babylon together with the throne room facade of Nebuchadnezzar II.

The Vorderasiatisches Museum also displays the Meissner fragment

from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Plans
The comprehensive plan for Museum Island includes an expansion of
the Pergamon Museum, with connections to the Neues Museum,
Bodemuseum, Alte Nationalgalerie and a new visitor centre, the Victory stele of Esarhaddon
James Simon Gallery.

An architectural competition in 2000 was won by Oswald Mathias Ungers from Cologne. The Pergamon
Museum will be redeveloped according to his plan, which controversially proposes large alterations to
buildings unchanged since 1930. The current entrance building in the Court of Honor will be replaced with a
fourth wing, and an underground walk (Archäologische Promenade, archeologic walk) will connect four of
the five museums.[3]

Since the end of September 2014 the museum is partially closed for renovation. The hall containing Pergamon
Altar will remain closed to the general public. Initially the reopening was scheduled for 2019.[4] In November
2016, it was revealed that the renovation would not be finished before 2023 and estimated project costs would
almost double to 477 million euros. Two pump houses built in the ground during the initial construction
between 1910 and 1930 had been discovered causing rising costs and delays. At least 60 million euros of the
increased costs are directly due to the fact that construction costs had risen since the original estimate 10 years
ago. Also it was announced that a temporary exhibition space will be built opposite Museum Island, a short
distance from Pergamon Museum. It will house a panorama of the ancient city by the Berlin-based artist
Yadegar Asisi, a 3D reconstruction of the famous Pergamon altar by the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer
Graphics Research and parts of the altar including the Telephos Frieze. The temporary building is scheduled to
open in the spring of 2018.[5][6]

See also
List of art museums
List of museums in Germany

Notes
1. Pergamonmuseum (https://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/denkmal/liste_karte_datenbank/de/
denkmaldatenbank/daobj.php?obj_dok_nr=09030056) (in German) Landesdenkmalamt Berlin
2. Pergamonmuseum (https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/pergamonmuseum/ho
me/) (in English) Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
3. Masterplan Museumsinsel - A Projection into the Future "Pergamonmuseum" [1] (https://www.m
useumsinsel-berlin.de/en/buildings/pergamonmuseum/)
4. Alexander Forbes "Berlin’s Pergamon Museum to Close until 2019, Joining Neue
Nationalgalerie in Renovations" in "artnet news" on 19. February 2014. [2] (https://news.artnet.c
om/art-world/berlins-pergamon-museum-to-close-until-2019-joining-neue-nationalgalerie-in-ren
ovations-1520)
5. Stefan Dege "Berlin's Pergamon Museum will spend next eight years without its famous altar"
at "Deutsche Welle" on 10. November 2016. [3] (http://www.dw.com/en/berlins-pergamon-muse
um-will-spend-next-eight-years-without-its-famous-altar/a-36337653)
6. Catherine Hickley "Berlin to build temporary exhibition space amid Pergamon Museum delays"
in "The Art Newspaper" on 9. November 2016. "Archived copy" (https://web.archive.org/web/20
161112204617/http://theartnewspaper.com/news/museums/berlin-to-build-temporary-exhibition
-space-amid-pergamon-museum-delays/). Archived from the original (http://theartnewspaper.co
m/news/museums/berlin-to-build-temporary-exhibition-space-amid-pergamon-museum-delays)
on 2016-11-12. Retrieved 2016-12-04.

References
Bilsel, Can (2012), Antiquity on Display: Regimes of the Authentic in Berlin's Pergamon
Museum, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-1995-7055-3

External links
Official website (https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/pergamonmuseum/home/)
Virtual tour (https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/pergamonmuseum/about-us/fil
ms/#3D)

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