The main exhibition spaces of Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie lie below the terrace that supports the famous minimalist glass and steel enclosure for temporary exhibitions. The building provides a marked contrast to the other buildings of the Kulturforum, of which the Nationalgalerie is the only building not designed by Hans Scharoun. The comparison between Scharoun’s constructivist, expressionistic Philharmonie, Kammermusiksaal, and Staatsbibliothek, and Mies’ minimalist gallery is a short essay in competing views of modernism in the 1950s and 1960s.

The austerity of Mies’ composition is commonly seen as an appropriate interpretation of a classical system of columns and beams, with little reference to the function of the building except for the transparency afforded by the use of large expanses of glass and sinuous structural steel. The Neue Nationalgalerie is often compared with the Altes Museum, designed by Schinkel, Berlin’s most well-known 19th century architect. Similar to the Nationalgalerie, the Altes Museum (in classical architectural language) is as mute about its function as it is attendant to its geometry.

Along with Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion, the Neue Nationalgalerie is considered one of the foremost examples of structural abstraction emblematic of the International Style.

Jay Berman 1999

How to visit

The Neue Nationalgalerie is south of the Tiergarten and west of Potsdamer Platz, next door to the Philharmonie.

Ubahn/Sbahn: S1, S2, U2

Station: Potsdamer Platz

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