Unspecified/General

Founded in 1869, the Hamburger Kunsthalle is one of the largest and most distinguished art museums in Germany, its collections spanning some seven centuries of European art across three connected buildings near the city's main railway station. The museum grew from a citizens' initiative and the donations of Hamburg's prosperous merchant families, and its original red-brick building of 1869 was later joined by a domed extension and, in 1997, by a striking cubic modern wing, the Galerie der Gegenwart, designed by the architect Oswald Mathias Ungers for contemporary art. The holdings are remarkably wide-ranging, beginning with medieval altarpieces, among them works by the fourteenth-century Hamburg master Bertram, and moving through Dutch and Flemish painting, a strong showing of nineteenth-century German Romanticism, and on into modern and contemporary art. Its single most famous picture is Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, the lone figure on a rocky summit gazing over a sea of cloud that has become an icon of Romanticism and of German art itself. Other highlights include works by Friedrich's contemporaries, by the Impressionists, by Hamburg's own Philipp Otto Runge, and by Max Liebermann, Edvard Munch and Paul Klee, complemented by an outstanding collection of prints and drawings and a lively programme of special exhibitions. The contemporary wing shows installation, photography and new media by living artists. Generously sized yet navigable, the museum rewards both the focused visitor seeking a single masterpiece and those happy to wander through centuries of changing styles. With a cafe, shop and central location a few steps from the Hauptbahnhof and the lakes of the Alster, it is easily reached and easily combined with other city sights. For art lovers it ranks among the essential stops in northern Germany, a comprehensive survey of European art under one institution. Audio guides and comfortable galleries encourage unhurried viewing, and the contemporary wing offers a complete change of mood from the Old Masters next door. A combined ticket covers all three buildings, and the central location a few steps from the Hauptbahnhof makes it one of the easiest of Hamburg's major attractions to fit into a day of sightseeing.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Glockengiesserwall 5, Hamburg, Germany

Website: https://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de

Opening Date: 26/08/1869