At night in the museum

CEOs for Berlin visit the Museum Island

Text: Philipp Zettl | Policy Officer

Pergamon Museum, Altes and Neues Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie and the Bode Museum: these are world-renowned buildings that immediately spring to mind when you think of Museum Island. Since the foundation stone of the Altes Museum was laid in 1825, the island in the heart of Berlin has developed into a unique ensemble of architecture, history and art, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999.

2025 will see a number of highlights and changes: in addition to exciting new exhibitions, the Museum Island will celebrate its 200th anniversary and Marion Ackermann will succeed Hermann Parzinger, who will retire after 17 years at the helm of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, as President of the Foundation. Reason enough for 40 members of the VBKI CEOs for Berlin forum to visit the Museum Island at Hermann Parzinger's invitation.

In an enlightening guided tour of the antiquities halls with Andreas Scholl (Director of the Collection of Classical Antiquities) and Moritz Taschner (Research Associate at the Collection of Classical Antiquities), the CEOs for Berlin not only learned a lot about the history of the creation and excavation of the ancient temples and gates, but also about the challenges of renovating the Pergamon Museum: the entire museum island "floats" on an ice-age water channel underground. The Pergamon Museum is only stable thanks to an underground bridge structure, which now has to be extensively renovated. In addition, the large antique objects must remain in the building during the renovation, as their removal would damage the fabric of the building. The work must therefore be carried out carefully and slowly.

In their subsequent speeches, Hermann Parzinger reported on the history of the Museum Island - the Altes Museum, built under King Friedrich Wilhelm III, was the first public museum in Prussia - and Matthias Wemhoff, Director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, on the diverse plans for the 200th anniversary celebrations of the museum complex.

If you still hadn't had enough, you could take the unique opportunity during the get-together to enjoy the famous Nefertiti and other Egyptian exhibits in the company of Olivia Zorn, Deputy Director of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, at your leisure.

We would like to thank the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, especially Hermann Parzinger and the attending museum directors, for the invitation and the unforgettable evening.