Bode-Museum Berlin · General Restauration

Position: Project and team management for Heinz Tesar
Client: Fedral Republic of Germany
User: SPK SMB Berlin
Planning: 1998 - 2005
Realisation: 1999 - 2005
Gross Floor Area: 35.280 sqm
Main Floor Area: 9.052 sqm
Building costs: 90 Mio Euro

The Bode-Museum was originally built in 1904 as Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum and formed part of the ensemble on the Museum Island in Berlin. Today it belongs to the World Cultural Heritage of the UNESCO and houses the Painting and Sculpture Collection, the Early Christian and Byzantine Art and the coin collection. The building is a neo-baroque structure and is situated on the north-western tip of the Museum Island. It was commissioned to Ernst von Ihne, at that time architect and engineer appointed to the court of Emperor Friedrich III and his son Wilhelm II. The initial propositions for the art museum came from Wilhelm von Bode. He was a distinguished art historian, museum expert and later became director of the Painting and Sculpture Collection. The challenge of the general restoration lay in the preservation and restoration of the historical building substance according to the specification of listed buildings while carefully incorporating new elements. At the same time justice had to be done to the diversity of the collections, both stylistical and in genre. According to the masterplan for the reconstruction of the Museum Island, a connection to the Pergamon Museum was included in the building process. After six years of general restoration and reconstruction, the Bode Museum was reopened and made accessible to the public as an architectural masterpiece in October 2006.