Berlin’s main museum for contemporary art opened in the former railway station of Hamburger Bahnhof in November 1996, giving the National Gallery its first permanent home for its collection of contemporary art.

The museum stands out from afar, noticeable by its blue neon tubes of light placed along the building’s facade. The architecture is quintessentially ‘Berlin’: a combination of past and present at play with one another. The glass roofs and geometric designs make the museum a fascinating place to enjoy modern, pop and contemporary art.

The 10,000 square meter area is dedicated to art from the second half of the 20th century onwards. The collection contains works from National Museums in Berlin as well as many works belonging to the Berlin based private collector, Erich Marx.

At the core of the Marx collection are works by Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Anselm Kiefer and Joseph Beuys. The collection also includes over 450 drawings by Beuys, “The secret block for a secret person in Ireland”, and about sixty drawings by Warhol, extending back to his Vanity Fair illustrations.

A historical presentation of the works was consciously avoided in favor of an open presentation concept, embracing all the media used by the various artists.