Berlin - National Gallery

(Local Name: Nationalgalerie) The Berlin National Gallery, originally built as a hall for receptions and other ceremonial occasions in 1866-76 (architects F. A. Stüler and J. H. Strack), is in the form of a Corinthian temple set on a high base and approached by an imposing flight of steps. In front of the building is a bronze equestrian statue of Frederick William IV by Alexander Calandrelli (1886). The female figures in the gardens ("Ladies Standing") are by Georg Kolbe, the "Amazon" is the work of Louis Touaillon and the "Sower" that of Constantin Meunier. The National Gallery also suffered as a result of the Nazi regime and the Second World War. A large part of the important collection of German Expressionists was first taken to Munich to form part of the sinister exhibition labeled "Degenerate Art" and then sold at give-away prices all over the world. Whilst stored in the bunker at Friedrichshain, Adolph von Menzel's important painting "Frederick the Great and Friends at Table" and "Frederick the Great at a Flute Concert" were supposed to have been destroyed by fire. Part of the earlier collection is now in the New National Gallery. The Collection of Modern Art, opened in 1976, consists of pictures and sculptures from the end of the 18th C. to the present day. The most important artists and their works are:

Gottfried Schadow (marble sarcophagus of the Count of the Brandenburg March) and a group showing the sisters Crown Princess Louise and Princess Frederica, Christian Rauch, Francisco de Goya, Anton Raphael Mengs, Carl Blechen ("Villa d'Este"), Adolph von Menzel ("Iron Rolling Mill"), Hans Thoma, and Arnold Böcklin.

On the middle floor are: Anselm Feuerbach, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne ("Still Life"), Auguste Rodin, Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt, Lovis Corinth, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Emil Nolde, Otto Dix, and Oskar Kokoschka.

Also belonging to the National Gallery is the "Collection of Revolutionary and Anti-Fascist Art" in the Otto-Nagel-Haus.