MUSEUM ISLAND, Introduction

Hi, my name’s Marcy, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: Museumsinsel.

On Museum Island, you will find five museums, located on an island in the Spree River where, at the end of the 12th century, the first inhabitants set up home in Cölln, one of the two settlements that gave rise to Berlin. Today, the island is a treasure chest of masterpieces in five museums with 200 rooms, where you can admire artworks spanning a period of over 4000 years.

The oldest museum on the island is the Altes Museum, or “old museum”, completed in 1830 by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and located in the Lustgarten, a park beside the city’s Cathedral. We have Frederick William IV of Prussia to thank for the idea of developing a “refuge for the arts and sciences” for this initial museum collection. A famous, former apprentice of Schinkel, Friedrich August Stüler, was entrusted with the project.

The project comprised the building of the Neues Museum, or “new museum” and the Alte Nationalgalerie, or “old national gallery”. The former was erected right behind the Altes Museum, while the latter was built opposite it. The 20th century subsequently saw the addition of the Pergamonmuseum and Bode-Museum, on the northern edge of the island....