Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery)

A black steel roof, 64.8 metres square and weighing 1,260 tonnes, rests on just eight columns above a hall made entirely of glass. The Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is the last work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the only building he completed in post-war Germany. Inside, Berlin's state museums show 20th-century art: big temporary exhibitions in the glass hall upstairs, the collection downstairs. Architecture fans should come for the building alone.

History: a temple of steel and glass

Mies received the commission in 1962, aged 76. He reworked two of his own unbuilt designs, including an office building for Bacardi in Santiago de Cuba. The foundation stone was laid in 1965; the roof was assembled in one piece on the platform and then lifted onto the columns by 24 synchronised jacks in nine hours. The museum opened on 15 September 1968 with a Mondrian exhibition. Mies was too ill to travel to the opening and died a year later; his grandson Dirk Lohan had supervised construction.

The collection has a turbulent backstory. It continues the modern department of the Kronprinzenpalais, which the Nazis broke up in 1937 during their campaign against "degenerate art". After the Berlin Wall went up, West Berlin merged its holdings and built this new home for them at the Kulturforum. From 2015 to 2021 the building was fully restored under David Chipperfield Architects at a final cost of around 140 million euros. Just before it closed, Kraftwerk played eight concerts here on eight consecutive nights.

What to see

• The glass hall: The column-free space under the roof is reserved for temporary shows. The glass walls are set 7.2 m back from the roof edge, creating a covered walkway all round. During the restoration the huge 5.40 × 3.40 m panes were replaced.
• The collection downstairs: "Zerreißprobe" presents art from 1945 to 2000 (until April 2027), alongside the long-term loan "Gerhard Richter. 100 Works for Berlin".
• The sculpture garden: The walled garden on the west side sits lower than the terrace, so you can also look down into it from above.
• The terrace: The granite platform measures 105 × 110 m and holds large sculptures, among them Henry Moore's bronze "Three Way Piece No. 2: Archer".

Exhibitions in autumn and winter 2026/27

The hall shows "Maurizio Cattelan. NIGHT" (10 September 2026 to 7 March 2027). Also on are "Ruin und Rausch. Berlin 1910–1930" (until 3 January 2027) and "Christoph Schlingensief. Deutschlandsuche '99" (until 25 April 2027). From 28 November 2026 an exhibition on Ulay and Ulay & Abramović follows, and from late January 2027 "Schatten Reich" on German art from 1933 to 1945.

Tickets and opening hours (as of October 2026)

• Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, Thursdays until 20:00, closed on Mondays. Special hours apply on public holidays.
• Collection: €14, reduced €7.
• Museum ticket for all exhibitions: €20, reduced €10. Single shows: Cattelan €16, "Ruin und Rausch" €10.
• Kulturforum ticket: €22, reduced €11, also valid for the neighbouring museums.
• Free: children and teenagers under 18, and everyone on the first Thursday of each month from 16:00 to 20:00.

Tickets are day tickets, so you can enter at any time on the booked day. Buy them at the desk or online; booking ahead saves queueing, especially at weekends and on free Thursdays.

Getting there and parking

The entrance is at Potsdamer Straße 50. It is about a ten-minute walk from the Potsdamer Platz U-Bahn and S-Bahn stations, and buses stop at "Kulturforum", "Philharmonie" and "Potsdamer Brücke". The museum has no visitor car park of its own, so public transport is by far the easier option.

Tripto tip

Allow one and a half to three hours, depending on how many exhibitions you see. The building is fully wheelchair accessible, with the step-free entrance on the left-hand side at Reichpietschufer. There is a café and a Walther König bookshop inside. The Philharmonie and St Matthew's Church are right next door, and the Gemäldegalerie is a few steps away, so the Kulturforum ticket is worth it if you plan a full museum day.