Detail page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

The key elements here are the fourth wing on the Kupfergraben, which creates a main tour with the monumental architectural exhibits of ancient civilisations on one level. The Egyptian monuments such as the Calabsha Gate (in the fourth wing) can then finally be presented again. The other main attractions of the Museum Island will then be presented in a logical sequence: the palace façade of Tell-Halaf, the monuments from Babylon (Processional Way and Ishtar Gate), the Market Gate of Miletus and the Pergamon Altar as well as the façade of the desert palace of Mshatta, which marks the transition from late antiquity to Islamic culture. In addition, the Museum Island will in future be experienced more strongly than before as a "temple city of the arts". The original idea of an Arcadian Athens on the Spree will be emphasised more intensively. This is because the Pergamon Museum, whose west-east orientation places it at right angles to the primary south-north extension from the Altes Museum, will be integratedinto the overall organism of the Museum Island in a new form through several measures : In future, it will be possible to reach the Pergamon Museum's Court of Honour and from there to the courtyards of the Bode Museum from the Colonnade Courtyard of the Alte Nationalgalerie and the Neues Museum via open passageways, even outside museum opening hours, without having to enter the street space on the other side of the island as before. This will allow the island character to be experienced in a new quality. A second way of walking through the island can be created later with the Archaeological Promenade, which will link four of the buildings on the Museum Island (with the exception of the Alte Nationalgalerie) by connecting the basement floors. All the necessary structural measures in the building outline are already being realised. The transition from the future central entrance building via a bridge directly to the main tour is already planned.

In contrast to Ungers' competition design, the concept for the Pergamonmuseum that has now been decided upon does not provide for an access level below the Court of Honour. The current solution is the result of a risk assessment and the consideration of monument preservation concerns. It reduces the interventions in the historic building fabric to a necessary minimum. The concept that is now being realised is characterised by respect for the historical achievement and is a further development of Alfred Messel's design (fourth wing), which was not fully realised at the time due to the circumstances. It also complies with the requirements of the master plan adopted in 1999 for the further development of the Museum Island: the historic building will be preserved in its character and in its solitary structure, but an overall organism will also be created: through interconnected open spaces and the opening up of the courtyards, which form an urban space with a unique character, and through the option of connecting the buildings in the basement. With these elements, the masterplan is ultimately a continuation of the ideas developed in the 19th century and expressed in the creation of this magnificent museum landscape - based on the Altes Museum - and so aptly described in the words of Friedrich Wilhelm IV as a "free place for culture and science". Today, however, it is not enough to reconstruct the pre-war state of the building. The building will fulfil the contemporary requirements of a museum with an audience of millions and international appeal.

The new exhibition concept provides for a clear structure: the Collection of Classical Antiquities in the central connecting wing, the Museum of the Ancient Near East in the south wing and the Islamic Museum in the north wing (today on the upper floor of the south wing). Each of the three historical wings and therefore each collection will have its own entrance. The special charm of the concept also lies in the fact that the distribution of the monuments on the main tour corresponds to the arrangement of the collections as a whole. For example, the south wing will be reserved for the Museum of the Ancient Near East in its entirety, and not just on the main exhibition level. The same applies to the Islamic Museum in the north wing. The collections will thus be given independent "houses" grouped around the courtyard of honour. The ground floor areas, currently reserved mainly for internal functions, will be rededicated for educational purposes, a café and a restaurant. The Court of Honour develops a new quality as a forum with a distribution function. The elevated "glass box" on Kupfergraben will also contribute to this, realising the four-winged complex originally designed by Alfred Messel in a contemporary architectural language and thus bringing out the intended proportions of the entire complex.

Parallel to the preliminary planning and hazard prevention measures, planning for the restoration of the large-scale antique architecture was carried out and will continue. It has already become apparent that this will also provide valuable insights into the statics of the building, the integration of the architecture into the building and the climatic requirements that need to be taken into account both during the construction process to protect the exhibits and afterwards. For example, the cracks in the Mshatta façade are the result of inadequate statics for this architecture at its current location and in the Orpheus mosaic (Collection of Classical Antiquities) they are due to building movements. In this respect, the relocation of the Mshatta façade from the upper floor of the south wing to the main gallery (north wing) is not only due to the future exhibition design. Like the decoupling of the mosaics from the floor, it is also necessary from a structural point of view.

Several planning alternatives have been considered over the past few months. It became apparent that the vast majority of the costs would be incurred by the basic restoration alone. The nature of the building site and the construction period during several economic crises (opening in 1930) mean that the museum can justifiably be described as a giant with feet of clay. The safeguarding and upgrading of the existing building is far more cost-relevant than the further development in the sense of a modern museum and a new museological concept.

Now that the preliminary planning phase has been completed, the design planning by O.M. Ungers (Cologne/Berlin) will begin, which will take a maximum of two and a half years and will be carried out in close cooperation with the conservation authorities. The results available today are a good basis for successful coordination with the monument conservation authorities. The experience of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation to date shows that consensual solutions can be found even for difficult issues. It remains to be decided which sequence of construction phases will be more advantageous: section by section for each of the three wings, so that part of the museum can always be open to the public, or the simultaneous inclusion of the entire building with accelerated construction progress.

Since 2003, the federal government alone has borne the costs for the construction work of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Previously, the state of Berlin also contributed to the funding. With its immense construction volume (gross volume of over 360,000^m3), the Pergamon Museum is the largest building project in Berlin's historic centre alongside the Staatsbibliothek Unter den Linden, which also belongs to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. As part of the Unesco World Heritage Site of Museum Island and as an international crowd-puller, it attracts intense attention far beyond national borders.