Humboldt forum opens a new landmark for Berlin

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The #humboldtforum, the largest cultural development in Europe and the most ambitious in Germany this century, will #open this summer for the launch of the first six exhibitions and open-air events as part of the programme for its inaugural year.

The new cultural quarter has been developed over the last decade on a key historic site at the heart of #berlin adjacent to Museum Island at the crossroads connecting the Brandenburg Gate and Alexanderplatz. Occupying a floor area of 40,000 square metres, the #humboldtforum is conceived as a space that brings together the arts and culture, science, exchange and debate, the first of its kind in Europe. Inspired and informed by the spirit of Alexander and Wilhelm

von Humboldt, perhaps Germany’s greatest thinkers on education, culture, science and nature, it is home to four partners who will present a diverse programme of exhibitions, discussions, performances and events, which will bring together different cultures, perspectives and insights into some of the most important issues facing our world today.

The building’s expansive outdoor spaces are already #open all day free to enter. On Tuesday 20 July, the first partner projects will be unveiled to the public.

Terrible Beauty: Elephant. Human. Ivory

A critical examination of the relationship between man and the global trade in ivory. As far back as 40,000 years ago, human beings used tusks to create the oldest known art objects. At the same time, ivory is today synonymous with injustice and violence, slavery and colonial exploitation. The programme – developed in collaboration with the Staatliche Museen zu #berlin, the Museum für Naturkunde and the National Museums of Kenya – aims to bring this complex history to life with a special exhibition, education and outreach programmes and artistic events.

Humboldt Lab: After Nature
Presented by Humboldt-Universität zu #berlin (Humboldt University)
The Humboldt Lab’s inaugural exhibition After Nature deals with the interdependencies of climate change and the loss of biodiversity and with worldwide challenges to democratic principles of order. The crisis of nature is closely interlinked with societal crises. The liberal model of society, for example, with its promises of progress and prosperity has brought about enormous changes in people-environment systems. The exhibition puts together in the form of a modern cabinet of curiosities an entire range of research approaches to these and other current issues and relates them to positions from the history of science.
Free admission

BERLIN GLOBAL
Presented by Kulturprojekte #berlin (Cultural Projects Berlin); the Stadtmuseum #berlin (City Museum Berlin)
Spread over an area of 4,000 square metres, #berlin Global has been developed by and with the communities of #berlin to reflect the true character of the city. This permanent exhibition explores the story of the city through thematic displays incorporating a plethora of music, sounds, installations, art commissions, graphics, photographs and objects, that together create a powerful multi-layered experience. #berlin Global is the first of a new generation of city museums – the first to be about #berlin itself. Saturated with interactive technology, the exhibition will take the public on an exciting cultural journey through the city, with topics ranging from revolution and war to entertainment and fashion. Booking starting on

Impressions: The Humboldt Brothers

The name Humboldt is synonymous worldwide with education and science. Alexander von Humboldt, born in 1769, collected and documented everything he got his hands on — from plants and rocks to animals and human bones. Wilhelm von Humboldt, two years older, was the social scientist, specialising in the philosophy of language, political theory and the philosophy of history. Together, their lives and work have inspired countless publications. Their way of connected thinking, their curiosity and cosmopolitanism are the inspiration for the artistic and scientific programme of the #humboldtforum. The exhibition Impressions. The Humboldt Brothers highlights their work, the circumstances of their time, and creates links to the principles of the #humboldtforum.
Free admission

Have a Seat!

When, where, why and how do we sit? How do we express conventions, status or gestures of welcome? And who actually takes which place in groups and societies? This exhibition for children offers our youngest visitors aged three to ten – and their accompanying adults – the space to explore, play and learn about sitting in different cultures.

Free admission

The history of the #humboldtforum site

Three different permanent displays free to visit help the visitor to understand the long and fascinating history of the site of the #humboldtforum will also be #open.
Free admission

1. Palace Cellar
Taking visitors down to the historic wall remains of the original #berlin Palace. The archaeological cellar, the only surviving part of the original #berlin Palace, takes you on a tour from the middle ages to the present day, with the surviving sections of the medieval Dominican monastery as well as the foundations of the #berlin Palace, which were excavated in 2008.

2. Sculpture Hall
The dimensions of the Sculpture Hall, designed by Italian architect Franco Stella, corresponds closely those of the #berlin Palace’s large Baroque staircase hall that once stood on this site. On display here are fragments of the Palace from several centuries. Many of them were part of the Baroque facade decoration designed by the palace architect Andreas Schlüter (1634–1714), who came from Danzig (now Gdańsk in Poland).

3. Video Panorama
Depicting 800 years of the history of the site of the #humboldtforum, this is a spectacular multi-media presentation shows its prestige, symbolically charged and often controversial history as a centre of power over centuries, alluding to the fact that the site has always been a work in progress in the service of power.

Public Programmes

Across the summer, an extensive range of programmes will take place across the #humboldtforum – from art installations and projections to guided tours, lectures and discussions to artistic interventions, dance and film. These include an open-air festival with pop-up architecture and concerts in August, and cultural education programmes in the large-scale workshop spaces. Almost 40 #berlin dance artists in residence will be Moving the Forum, using their bodies and positions to locate themselves not only in the architecture, but also to history and the content of the exhibitions.

Ethnologisches Museum and Asian Art Museum

On 22 September 2021, the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), presents the West Wing of the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum) and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum) of the Staatliche Museen zu #berlin (Berlin State Museums), followed by the East Wing in Late 2021/Early 2022. The museums will feature over 20,000 exhibits from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas on the second and third floors of the #humboldtforum.