Martin-Gropius-Bau, commonly known as Gropius Bau, is an important exhibition building in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, Germany. Originally a museum of

applied arts The applied arts are all the arts that apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects in order to make them aesthetically pleasing."Applied art" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Online edition. Oxford Univ ...

, the building has been a listed historical monument since 1966. It is located at 7 Niederkirchnerstraße in

Berlin-Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it has b ...

History and architecture

The building was erected between 1877 and 1881 by the architects

Martin Gropius Martin Carl Philipp Gropius (11 August 1824, Berlin – 13 December 1880) was a German architect.Wirth, Irmgard (1966).Gropius, Martin Carl Philipp. In: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie''. Band 7. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. . p. 132-133 retriev ...

, a great uncle of

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

, and Heino Schmieden in the

neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

style. The building officially opened in 1881.Berliner Festspiele - Martin-Gropius-Bau
. Retrieved 30 January 2018 The ground plan is quadratic (length of each side c. 70 m; building height c. 26 m). The exhibition rooms surround an imposing atrium decorated with mosaics and the

coats of arms of German states This is a list of coats of arms of Germany. German Federal States File:Greater coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg.svg, Coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg File:Coat of arms of Bavaria.svg, Coat of arms of Bavaria File:Coat of arms of Berlin.s ...

by sculptor Otto Lessing. Originally designed to house Berlin's Museum of Applied Arts, after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the building housed Berlin's ''Museum for Prehistory and Early History'' and the ''East Asian Art Collection''. It was severely damaged in 1945 during the last weeks of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and reopened in 1981 after post war reconstruction beginning in 1978. Further renovation took place in 1998/1999 resulting in what is often described as one of Germany's most beautiful historic exhibition buildings. Until German reunification in 1990, the building stood on the border between

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

and

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

, at the boundary of the East Berlin district Mitte. The Martin-Gropius-Bau has exhibited works by

Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei (, ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly c ...

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

Anish Kapoor Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK t ...

Johannes Itten Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus (''Staatliches Bauhaus'') school. Together with German-American painter Lyonel Feining ...

and

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...

Description

The gallery is usually referred to as Gropius Bau. Its central Berlin location, generous dimensions, and elaborate architectural decorations, not to mention the quality of its temporary exhibitions, have helped it become a major cultural and tourist attraction. Across the street is the Berlin "city and state" parliament building (''Abgeordneten Haus''), which was originally built in 1899 to house the

Prussian parliament The Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag) was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper House of Lords (''Herrenhaus'') and the lower House of Represent ...

. The

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

documentation center ''

Topography of Terror The Topography of Terror (german: Topographie des Terrors) is an outdoor and indoor history museum in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings, which during the Nazi reg ...

'' is next to the Martin-Gropius-Bau.

Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corn ...

is about 100 m away.

Exhibitions

* 2013: ''

. Kapoor in Berlin'' * 2013/2014: '' Barbara Klemm. Fotografien 1968–2013'' * 2014: ''

'' * 2014: ''

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

'' * 2014/2015: ''The

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...

'' * 2015/2016: '' Germaine Krull – Fotografien''

References

External links

Gropius Bau exhibits
Museums in Berlin Art museums and galleries in Berlin Buildings and structures in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Contemporary art galleries in Germany Modern art museums in Germany {{Berlin-struct-stub