Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP SIGHT
HAMBURGER BAHNHOF - MUSEUM FÜR GEGENWART
MARTIN MOOS/GETTY IMAGES ©
Berlin's contemporary art showcase opened in 1996 in the former Hamburger Bahnhof rail-
way station, whose loft and grandeur are the perfect foil for this Aladdin's cave of paintings,
sculptures and installations.
The museum's inventory is based on permanent loans from three collectors - Erich Marx,
Friedrich Christian Flick and Egidio Marzona - and spans the entire arc of post-1950 artistic
movements from conceptual art and pop art to minimal art, Arte Povera and Fluxus. Semin-
al works by such major players as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly and Bruce Nauman are
presented in changing configurations in both the main museum and the adjacent 300m-long
Rieckhallen (Rieck Halls). Anselm Kiefer and Cy Twombly get quite a bit of play, but not as
much as the ultimate artistic boundary-pusher Joseph Beuys, whose works fill the entire
ground floor of the west wing. Pride of place goes to the sculpture
The End of the Twen-
tieth Century
.
