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Visitors view the installation "Stools" by conceptual artist Ai Weiwei in the atrium of the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. (Archive)
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Photographs and documents by Germaine Krull are on display at the Gropius Bau. (Archive)
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Facade of the Martin Gropius Bau Museum.
Originally built in 1881 as an arts and crafts museum, the Gropius Bau is now dedicated to cultural history, contemporary art and photography.
The architects Martin Gropius and Heino Schmieden designed the building in the formal language of the Renaissance as an arts and crafts museum. Today, the Gropius Bau is one of the top locations for high-profile art exhibitions in Berlin.
In the final weeks of the Second World War, the building was badly damaged in 1945. In 1966, after a planned demolition was thwarted, the building was placed under a preservation order. Reconstruction began in 1978 under the direction of architects Winnetou Kampmann and Ute Weström. The house was named after Martin Gropius, a great-uncle of Walter Gropius, who had strongly supported the reconstruction.
The house has been run by the Berliner Festspiele since 2001. A carefully selected mixture of local and international photography, installation art, archaeology and modern and contemporary art has since earned the Gropius Bau a reputation as one of the most beautiful exhibition buildings in Germany, particularly in conjunction with its magnificent architecture.
© David von Becker / Staatliche Museen von Berlin
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