Georg Kolbe Museum

The Georg Kolbe Museum stands in Berlin’s Westend district, housed in the sculptor’s former studio built in the late 1920s. The two brick buildings with their clean lines and large window bands enclose a quiet sculptor’s garden. Designed by architects Ernst Rentsch and Paul Linder, the complex is a fine example of Bauhaus-influenced New Building architecture. Georg Kolbe lived and worked here until his death in 1947. After wartime damage, an extension designed by AGP architects opened in 1996, adding two new galleries and storage spaces.

The museum preserves Kolbe’s estate alongside works by contemporaries such as Renée Sintenis, Richard Scheibe and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. A 2020 bequest brought letters from Alfred Flechtheim, Else Lasker-Schüler and Max Pechstein into the archive. Under directors Ursel Berger and later Julia Wallner, the programme widened from classical modern sculpture to include contemporary art. The building itself was restored by Brenne Architekten, recovering original colours and garden features.

Visitors find the historic studio, two upper-floor galleries and a ground-floor café named after Kolbe’s wife. The museum garden offers a peaceful setting for Kolbe’s own sculptures. Changing exhibitions explore modern and contemporary art, with recent shows devoted to Mona Hatoum and Leiko Ikemura. The library and archive support research into modern sculpture and its cultural contexts.