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Ten years UNESCO World Heritage Site Museum Island Berlin
Press release from 03/09/2010
Museum Island Berlin has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site for ten years. On 10 March 2000, the then UNESCO Secretary-General Koïchiro Matsuura presented the certificate of inclusion of the Museum Island in the World Heritage List to the Governing Mayor of Berlin and the President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in the Altes Museum.
In June 1999, the Foundation adopted a masterplan for the restoration and contemporary development of the Museum Island. Since then, three of the five historic buildings have been completely renovated and reopened: the Alte Nationalgalerie in 2001, the Bode Museum in 2006 and the Neues Museum in 2009. In the coming years, the James Simon Gallery will be rebuilt as the central reception building of the Museum Island and the Pergamon Museum and the Altes Museum will be refurbished. The work is expected to be completed by 2025. With around 3 million visitors a year, Museum Island Berlin is one of Germany's biggest crowd pullers today.
"The World Heritage anniversary is an opportunity to look back on what we have achieved in recent years to preserve and complete the Museum Island. All three museums that have reopened so far have been a sensational success with the public. Soon half a million visitors will have seen the Neues Museum. We will continue resolutely and with all our strength along this path and further develop the Museum Island for the 21st century. We would like to thank the federal government for its funding," says Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Museum Island Berlin is the 22nd German World Heritage Site to be included in the UNESCO list. The explanatory statement emphasises that it is an outstanding example of the concept of the art museum, which dates back to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and "a unique ensemble of museum buildings that illustrates the development of modern museum design over a period of more than a century".
The first to open in 1830 was the "Royal Museum", built according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, today's Altes Museum, one of the most outstanding examples of classicist architecture in Germany. This was followed by the Neues Museum (1859), the Nationalgalerie (1871), now labelled "Alte", the Bode Museum, formerly the Kaiser Friedrich Museum (1904), and finally the Pergamon Museum (1930), all built by the most important architects in the style and materials of their time.
Note:
The Foundation will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Site on 6 June 2010, German World Heritage Day, with a ceremony in the Rotunda of the Altes Museum - in conjunction with the opening of the renovated Colonnade Courtyard between the Alte Nationalgalerie, Neues Museum and Spreeufer. The press will be invited separately. In addition, a specialist colloquium on the pioneering restoration of the Neues Museum will be held on 4 and 5 June 2010 and a panel discussion on the aesthetics and ethics of World Heritage restoration will take place on the evening of 5 June. More detailed information will follow.
Press photos can be downloaded from the website of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
