Gemäldegalerie

Gemäldegalerie. German word meaning ‘picture gallery’; it is the name in particular of two of the world's greatest collections of Old Masters, in Berlin and Dresden.

The Dresden Gemäldegalerie had its origins in the collections of the ruling house of Saxony. In 1722 the finest pictures from various churches and palaces were brought together in a group of buildings in Dresden (known incongruously as the Stables), and the collection was greatly augmented by Frederick-Augustus II, Elector of Saxony (1696–1763; reigned from 1733, also as King Augustus III of Poland). Winckelmann said that he ‘brought the arts to Saxony’ and he did indeed devote much of his money and energy to collecting; his most famous purchase was Raphael's Sistine Madonna. In 1831 the gallery became state property, and in 1855 (by which time the collection had about 2,200 paintings) it was transferred to the present building, designed by Gottfried Semper (one of the architects of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).

The Berlin Gemäldegalerie was created as part of a policy to demonstrate that Prussia (the most powerful German state, of which Berlin was the capital) was fit to lead Germany culturally as well as politically (Dresden and Munich already had world-renowned collections). It was founded in 1823 (the nucleus of pictures coming from various royal residences in Prussia) and opened in 1830 in a magnificently severe Neoclassical building designed by Schinkel. This building is now known as the Altes Museum (Old Museum). In 1904 the Gemäldegalerie transferred to the newly built Kaiser Friedrich Museum (now renamed the Bode Museum, after Wilhelm von Bode). After the Second World War, Berlin was divided into East and West and the Gemäldegalerie's paintings were similarly divided between the Bode Museum (East) and the Dahlem Museum (West). Following the unification of Germany in 1990, however, Berlin's museums were reorganized and in 1999 the Gemäldegalerie moved into a new building in the Tiergarten complex (also known as the Kulturforum), alongside numerous other cultural institutions.