Neues Museum

Museum Berlin, Germany

The Neues Museum ("new museum") is one of the Berlin State Museums, part of the Museum Island complex. The Neues Museum was built at the behest of Frederick William IV of Prussia between 1841 and 1859, to house the Egyptian collection. The architect was Friedrich August Stüler, a pupil of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who gave the building a classicist look, with two internal courtyards.

Painstaking restoration work got underway in 2003 and was undertaken by the offices of the British architect David Chipperfield. The building’s façade and interiors were carefully preserved, the scars of the war were not patched over but rather incorporated into the restoration of the landmarked building. What emerged was a restored historical building that is simultaneously a modern museum. Chipperfield thus managed to lend this amazing building and former ruin a unique and wholly authentic splendor.