The history of Berlin’s “Gallery of the 20th Century” traces its beginnings to the months after World War II. In order to make up for the loss of works deemed “Degenerate Art,” the Magistrat supported specific
purchases of Modern and Contemporary Art after 1945. As a result, the gallery took on special significance during cultural reconstruction. The later division of Berlin also determined the history of the gallery, and the occasionally provisional accommodations of the collection housed at various locations. Today, its unusual development represents one of the most suspenseful phases in both contemporary history and the history of German museums. The collection, comprised of approximately 1800 paintings, sculptures, drawings and graphic arts from 1910 to 1968, has been fully documented in this volume for the first time. An opulent photographic layout presents high-caliber works by German artists and international masters – spanning from Beckmann, Dix, Schlemmer, Kirchner, Baumeister and Uhlmann to Munch, Picasso, Kandinsky, Klee, Rothko and Bacon. The former inventory of the “Gallery of the 20th Century” can now be admired at the Neue Nationalgalerie and at the Kupferstichkabinett.