Neues Museum (Staatliche Museen) Berlin

When it was constructed, the Neues Museum (New Museum) in Prussia was considered a major architectural achievement. The building, designed by Friedrich August Stüler and constructed between 1843 and 1855, is a standout example of 19th-century museum architecture both within the context of the Museum Island and on its own.

After suffering heavy damage during WWII, the famous architect David Chipperfield refurbished it significantly. On its four floors and over 8,000 square metres of display space, the Neues Museum showcases nearly 9,000 pieces from three significant collections of the Berlin State Museums.

Collections

The New Museum’s north wing features an unprecedented exhibition of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection. The Green Head, three Old Kingdom sacrificial chambers, and the Amarna Collection are the museum’s crown jewels. These latter items were brought to Berlin by James Simon, a benefactor, and an official 1913 division of findings. The North Dome Hall is a four-meter-tall exhibition case that houses the famed bust of Nefertiti.

On three floors of the New Museum, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History displays its enormous holdings, together with items from the Antique Collection. The Neanderthal skull by Le Moustier and the human skull by Combe Capelle stand out among the collection’s other notable pieces because their cryptic symbolism shows how precisely calendar knowledge was retained throughout the Bronze Age.

The exhibition also includes pieces from the world-famous Troy collection, which was bequeathed to Berlin museums by Heinrich Schliemann but whose gold treasure was taken as war loot by the Red Army and is now housed in Moscow.

The Museum of Prehistory and Early History houses about 5,700 artefacts, the oldest of which is a hand axe dating back 700,000 years to the Palaeolithic era. A strand of barbed wire from the Berlin Wall is the youngest item in this collection.