The Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Central Archive of the Berlin State Museums) is an academic institution in Berlin, Germany, linked with the collections and administrative departments of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. It functions as the primary site for research and preservation of the museums' "memory" and their primary source documents. Its holdings span the history of the Staatliche Museen of today back to the former Königliche Museen (Royal Museums) of the Kingdom of Prussia and German Empire. Through consolidation, the holdings have become one of the most important art history archives in Germany. [1]
The Zentralarchiv's mission is to handle these materials according to archive-specific principles, to ensure long-term preservation and to make them accessible. In response to increased demand for information and documentation about the history of the museums' collections, a location on Museum Island is open to the public, offering holdings of the archive for researchers as well as answering queries. [2]
A formal archive for collecting and managing the records of the Royal, later the National Museums in Berlin was established in 1960 at the Pergamon Museum, then located in East Berlin. In 1965 another archive was established at the Alte Nationalgalerie as a documentation facility in the field of art history. It collected information on 19th- and 20th-century art and even the so-called "degenerate art". In the mid-1980s, a Bauarchiv der Staatlichen Museen (Building Archive of the State Museums) was established, which collected the construction documents of each building. In 1987, these three archives were merged to become the Zentralarchiv. Following German reunification, the archives became part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin under the auspices of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
In spring 2004 the Werner Kittel Archive, one if the most comprehensive art history archives in Germany, was transferred to the Zentralarchiv. It holds archival material on over 450,000 artists.
The archive is divided into the following sections:
The Altes Museum is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. Built from 1825 to 1830 by order of King Frederick William III of Prussia according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, it is considered as a major work of German Neoclassical architecture. It is surrounded by the Berlin Cathedral to the east, the Berlin Palace to the south and the Zeughaus to the west. Currently, the Altes Museum is home to the Antikensammlung and parts of the Münzkabinett. As part of the Museum Island complex, the Altes Museum was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, because of its testimony to the development of museums as a social and architectural phenomenon.
Hilmar Friedrich Wilhelm Bleyl, known as Fritz Bleyl, was a German artist of the Expressionist school, and one of the four founders of artist group Die Brücke. He designed graphics for the group including, for their first show, a poster, which was banned by the police. He left the group after only two years, when he married, to look after his family, and did not exhibit publicly thereafter.
The Alte Nationalgalerie is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. The gallery was built from 1862 to 1876 by the order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler and Johann Heinrich Strack in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles. The building's outside stair features a memorial to Frederick William IV. Currently, the Alte Nationalgalerie is home to paintings and sculptures of the 19th century and hosts a variety of tourist buses daily. As part of the Museum Island complex, the gallery was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 for its outstanding architecture and its testimony to the development of museums and galleries as a cultural phenomenon in the late 19th century.
The Bode Museum, formerly called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of German Emperor William II according to plans by Ernst von Ihne in Baroque Revival style. The building's front square featured a memorial to German Emperor Frederick III, which was destroyed by the East German authorities. Currently, the Bode-Museum is home to the Skulpturensammlung, the Museum für Byzantinische Kunst and the Münzkabinett. As part of the Museum Island complex, the Bode-Museum was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 because of its outstanding architecture and testimony to the development of museums as a cultural phenomenon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Prussian Academy of Arts was a state arts academy first established in Berlin, Brandenburg, in 1694/1696 by prince-elector Frederick III, in personal union Duke Frederick I of Prussia, and later king in Prussia.
The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin 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.
The Antikensammlung Berlin is one of the most important collections of classical art in the world, now held in the Altes Museum and Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. It contains thousands of ancient archaeological artefacts from the ancient Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Cypriot civilizations. Its main attraction is the Pergamon Altar and Greek and Roman architectural elements from Priene, Magnesia, Baalbek and Falerii. In addition, the collection includes a large number of ancient sculptures, vases, terracottas, bronzes, sarcophagi, engraved gems and metalwork.
The Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv is a collection of ethnomusicological recordings or world music, mostly on phonographic cylinders, assembled since 1900 in Berlin, Germany by the institution of the same name.
The Ethnological Museum of Berlin is one of the Berlin State Museums, the de facto national collection of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is presently located in the Humboldt Forum in Mitte, along with the Museum of Asian Art. The museum holds more than 500,000 objects and is one of the largest and most important collections of works of art and culture from outside Europe in the world. Its highlights include important objects from the Sepik River, Hawaii, the Kingdom of Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Tanzania, China, the Pacific Coast of North America, Mesoamerica, the Andes, as well as one of the first ethnomusicology collections of sound recordings.
The Museum of European Cultures – National Museums in Berlin – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation came from the unification of the Europe-Department in the Berlin Museum of Ethnography and the Berlin Museum for Folklore in 1999. The museum focuses on the lived-in world of Europe and European culture contact, predominantly in Germany from the 18th Century until today.
A Kunstgewerbeschule was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for these schools. From the 1920s and after World War II, most of them either merged into universities or closed, although some continued until the 1970s.
The Kunstgewerbemuseum, or Museum of Decorative Arts, is an internationally important museum of the decorative arts in Berlin, Germany, part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The collection is split between the Kunstgewerbemuseum building at the Kulturforum (52°30′35″N13°22′03″E) and Köpenick Palace (52°26′38″N13°34′22″E).
The Kupferstichkabinett, or Museum of Prints and Drawings, is a prints museum in Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Berlin State Museums, and is located in the Kulturforum on Potsdamer Platz. It is the largest museum of graphic art in Germany, with more than 500,000 prints and around 110,000 individual works on paper.
The National Gallery in Berlin, Germany, is a museum for art of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. It is part of the Berlin State Museums. From the Alte Nationalgalerie, which was built for it and opened in 1876, its exhibition space has expanded to include five other locations. The museums are part of the Berlin State Museums, owned by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
The Museum of Islamic Art is located in the Pergamon Museum and is part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
Michael Eissenhauer is a German art historian and was director-general of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
Tina Haim-Wentscher also: Tina Haim-Wentcher was a German-Australian sculptor.
Sneschana Russewa-Hoyer is a Bulgarian engraver and medallist. She lives in Berlin, Germany.
Otto Kümmel was a German art historian, academic teacher, founder and director of the Museum of Asian Art in Berlin and general director of the Berlin State Museums.
Wolf-Dieter Dube was a German art historian.