Bode Museum, Berlin Bodemuseum

The extremely interesting Egyptian Museum in Berlin's Bodemuseum (in the Mitte district), is in twelve rooms and covers Egyptian history from prehistoric times (fifth C. B.C.) to the Greco-Roman period (third C. A.D.). Owing to lack of space, only a selection of the extensive stock of exhibits can be shown at any one time. The room devoted to death and burial, in which various coffins and sarcophagi are on display, illustrates the Ancient Egyptian cult of the dead. The exhibits include a bronze coffin of a holy cat, c. 500 B.C., the coffin-lid of the lady Tare-Kap, c. 600 B.C., arrows from the grave of King Sethos I, c. 1300 B.C., and a collar from the grave-treasure of Queen Amanishakhete, c. 25 B.C. Items of particular interest include X-ray photographs of the mummies of a woman, an ibis (the bird sacred to the goddess Isis), a cat and a jackal, numbers of other mummies and grave-goods (including an alabaster baboon for King Narmer, c. 3000 B.C.). The famous limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti was removed from this museum for safekeeping during the Second World War and is now in the Egyptian Museum in Charlottenburg. When the New Museum has been rebuilt, which will probably take about ten years, it is intended that the Egyptian collections from both museums should be combined.

The Berlin Bodemuseum Papyrus Collection, with some 30,000 items, is one of the largest collections of its kind in the world. In addition to Egyptian and Greek documents the collection also includes texts in Latin, Hebrew, Armaic, Middle Persian, Syriac, Nubian and Amharic.This collection contains examples of skilled crafts from Mediterranean countries from the 3rd-18th C., with the emphasis on Late Ancient and Early Christian Art. The most important piece is a glass and marble mosaic from the apse of the Church of San Michele in Affricisco at Ravenna. It was restored in 1952. Also worthy of mention are: portraits and building sculptures, icons, Coptic art, panel-paintings, gravestones, ceramics and wool and silks from Egyptian graves. Small items that were moved to the western part of the city during the Second World War can be seen in the Antique Collection in Charlottenburg.

The Cabinet of Coins and Medals in Berlin's Bode Museum is one of the largest collections of its kind in the world, containing half a million items dating from every period and illustrating the development of coining techniques from antiquity to the present day. Only a small proportion of the total holdings of coins, medals, banknotes and seals can be put on display at any one time.

The Sculpture collection of Berlin's Bode Museum suffered heavy losses during the Second World War, and some of the items are now in the sculpture gallery of the Dahlem Museums. The collection is particularly strong in architectural sculptures from Germany, the Low Countries, Venice and Florence, covering the Romantic to Early Classical periods. Other fields well represented are German, Dutch and Flemish sculpture. There are some 450 works of the Late Gothic Period (figures supporting a pulpit, by Anton Pilgram, from the collegiate church at Öhringen, c. 1485-90; a carved altar from Antwerp, 16th C., etc.). Particularly famous are the works by 15th to 17th C. Italian masters (including Donatello, Antonio Rosselino, Adriaen de Vries), the south German schools of the 14th to 16th C. (Tilmann Riemenschneider, Franconian and Bavarian masters) and the German masters of the 17th and 18th C. (including Hans Krumper's "Baptism of Christ" and fragments of the Mannheim Altar by Paul Egell).

The Museum of Prehistory in Berlin's Bode Museum extends to five rooms, displaying changing selections from its stock of exhibits. It gives an oversight of man's development in Europe up to the sixth/seventh C. Special mention should be made of the "Collection of Trojan Antiquities," donated to the museum by Heinrich Schliemann. Further sections of this museum can be found in the museum of the same name in Charlottenburg Palace.

The Picture Gallery on the upper floor of Berlin's Bode Museum illustrates the development of painting from the 15th to the 18th C. in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, and also includes examples of 17th and 18th C. English and French paintings.

In Berlin's Bode Museum there is a Children's Gallery, which has been transferred from the Old Museum. In accordance with a principle established by Bode, 19th C. period furniture and sculpture are also displayed.