2016 - News - Detail Page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Honourable Federal Chancellor,
Mr Governing Mayor,
Mr Minister of State,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
esteemed guests,

Today is a historic day for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, for Berlin and for the entire country. The occasion is no small one, for today marks the end of the post-war period for the Museum Island.

If you wander around Berlin, as I do from time to time, you can still discover the odd war ruin, even in 2009. But there are only a few buildings left that remind us of the incomprehensible cultural rupture that emanated from German soil 70 years ago and then hit our country with full force, shaking one of Europe's great cultural nations to its very foundations, even morally, and seeming to discredit it forever. The ruins of the Neues Museum symbolised this!

For the first time in 70 years, all five buildings on Museum Island are now open to the public again with the opening of the Neues Museum! This was previously only the case once and for a very short time. After more than 100 years of construction, the Museum Island experienced its glorious completion with the opening of the Pergamon Museum in 1930, this "free site for art and science", this acropolis of art, education and science, spread out on the plain as it were, which is the envy of the world.

But just nine years later, in 1939, the first buildings began to close due to the war. Just a few days before the war began, an international archaeological congress was held here in Berlin, with receptions and tours on Museum Island.

Today, a new era is beginning in the history of Museum Island, and we are certain that it will be a happy one. We live in a different, more peaceful world, and Germany can present itself in this very place as what it is, namely a cosmopolitan nation of culture, education and science. You, honourable Federal Chancellor, are impressively expressing this today through your presence and your participation.

The Museum Island is far more than just an important economic factor in the centre of Berlin, it has shaped our image of history and will continue to do so, because museum presentation today is no longer static, but is constantly evolving in close exchange with visitors from all over the world and with the results of the latest scientific research.

Today, we are not only happy and proud, but also very grateful to those who have worked with us towards this day.

I still remember it well: in the autumn of 1984, exactly 25 years ago, I came through the Friedrichstraße crossing from West Berlin and spent a day in the Pergamon Museum, only to stand on Kupfergraben and look at the ruins of the Neues Museum. Stunned, I saw trees and bushes growing up from the stairwell and threatening to blow apart the still standing walls. At the time, I had no idea what battles the people in charge of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Ost had to fight to save the ruins from demolition. Today is a special day for them too, and I am delighted to be able to welcome Günter Schade, the former Director General of Berlin East, among us!

Between the laying of the foundation stone of the Neues Museum in 1841 and its opening in 1859 was a revolution, that of 1848. Between its closure and destruction and its rebirth was another revolution, this time a peaceful one. I think that is also a good omen for this building!

After reunification, the federal and state governments paved the way for a glorious future for the Museum Island. Until 2002, the federal government and Berlin worked closely together, but since 2003 the federal government has borne sole financial responsibility for the building projects of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. We are therefore greatly indebted to the Federal Government. But without the constant financial support of the State of Berlin, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation would not be what it is today, especially when it comes to the conceptual development and utilisation of its spaces.

The renovation, modernisation and reconstruction of the Neues Museum cost 200 million euros, 33 million less than originally calculated. And not only are we well below budget, we are also right on schedule. David Chipperfield and his entire team have created a masterpiece. Together with us, they have gone through phases of open, intensive and also heated debate. And it was worth it! It was right to preserve what had been preserved, but not simply to imitate what had been lost, but to develop it further in a modern design language in an appropriate way.

Certainly not a concept for all the buildings on Museum Island, but just as certainly the only right one for this building and its special history, to which it acknowledges, indeed must acknowledge. The Neues Museum does not deny Stüler's legacy, on the contrary; but it also makes the new spirit of our time powerfully palpable. The Neues Museum has "archaeologised" itself and provides an impressive backdrop for the collections of the Egyptian Museum, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History and the Collection of Classical Antiquities that can now be admired here.

We owe this splendid development to many people, including those who are no longer in office today, and whom I warmly welcome: First and foremost, my predecessor Klaus-Dieter Lehmann. He launched the masterplan initiated by Wolf-Dieter Dube and drove it forward with all his might. He was congenially supported by his Director General Peter-Klaus Schuster, who was also "my" General for a few months. But the directors and employees of the museums have also achieved great things, both the former ones and those who have only recently taken office.

The Museum Island Board of Trustees, to which the most important German commercial enterprises belong, has for years supported the Foundation's activities to raise public awareness of this central cultural site in our country. This cooperation between culture and business is forward-looking for our society, and today I would also like to welcome the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr Henning Schulte-Noelle.

In 1859, exactly one hundred and fifty years ago, the Neues Museum was completed for the first time. It was the most modern museum of its time, not only because it was the first ever three-storey museum building and boasted many technical innovations. It was also extremely modern in its conception of content and heralded a paradigm shift: Alongside the Altes Museum, the "temple of art", the Neues Museum was a "temple of education". The selection of exhibits was no longer based solely on aesthetic criteria, but also on scientific criteria. Spectacular forms of presentation were not dispensed with, but were used in a targeted manner to transport the visitor to another world in amazement. Ladies and gentlemen, the Neues Museum also stands for the continuous change in museum presentation, then as now.

Research, education and communication are among the central tasks of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The cultural and knowledge archives of the State Museums, the State Library, the Secret State Archives, the Ibero-American Institute and the State Institute for Music Research, which are united under the umbrella of the Foundation, are unique testimonies, and only from these testimonies can our picture of history and the diverse cultural and intellectual development of mankind emerge.

These outstanding archives of knowledge and culture also include the collections of non-European cultures that were once housed in the Berlin Palace and later exhibited in the Neues Museum. In the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace, they will experience their return to the centre of Berlin and will be integrated into a completely new type of art and cultural experience centre.

The Museum Island with the art and culture of Europe and the Middle East was the great vision of the 19th century, the Humboldt Forum with the art and culture of Africa, America, Asia, Australia and Oceania is the vision of the 21st century, and part of this vision is to turn both the Museum Island and the Humboldt Forum into an intellectual entity, a living landscape of art and culture, knowledge and education.

This is the future for which we are working to create a unique place of world cultures here in the heart of Berlin. And with the reopening of the Neues Museum, ladies and gentlemen, we are celebrating the beginning of this future!

But this also means continuing to build the Museum Island, this UNESCO World Heritage Site, into the future. Although we have reached a milestone today, there is still a long way to go. The renovation and extension of the Pergamon Museum and Altes Museum are currently being planned. And in the museum courtyards opposite the Bode Museum, our "Archaeology Competence Centre" is being created, which will bring together the libraries, restoration laboratories and study collections that were relocated during the renovation of the Museum Island. They will form a lively centre of museum research there, open to scientists from all over the world.

And it is thanks to your commitment, Mr Minister of State, that we will be able to celebrate the laying of the foundation stone for the James Simon Gallery as early as next year. David Chipperfield and his team will once again lend a hand, and we are fascinated by the idea of being able to open up the Museum Island from a central entrance building from 2013. With the James Simon Gallery, we are developing the Museum Island into the 21st century with both caution and determination. The Museum Island will not only be a place of history, but will also welcome its visitors with state-of-the-art facilities and contemporary infrastructure.

The Museum Island, ladies and gentlemen, is attracting more and more people from all over the world every year. And the Neues Museum will reinforce this trend with its fascinating mixture of history and modernity, of a maltreated past and a powerful future, of pleasurable beauty and purifying contextualisation, a phoenix among the museums of this world!

From tomorrow, this building will belong to the public, and the future belongs to the Neues Museum!