The reopening of the Kleihueshalle and new acquisitions are the main temporary special contemporary art exhibitions in the Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin in 2022.
Several special temporary exhibitions in The Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Berlin will be held in 2022. The reopening of the Kleihueshalle will allow many works from the Marx Collection to be displayed again in public including Beuys’s Das Kapital Raum 1970–77. From mid-2022 visitors could see the new contemporary artworks bought by the Nationalgalerie — a special emphasis is on artists with a link to Latin America. The winner of the Preis der Nationalgalerie 2021, Sandra Mujinga, will present a special exhibition late in the year. The museum will also present its collection of sound art and artists’ records for the first time. Buy tickets in advance for skip-the-line admission to the Hamburger Bahnhof exhibitions.
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin
The Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin is home to the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Nationalgalerie collection. The collection here covers the period after the 1960s — the early 20th century works are mostly exhibited in the Neue Nationalgalerie.
Although the last train left this station for Hamburg in the 1880s, the museum is very close to the large Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 (11:00 on weekends) to 18:00. Buy tickets in advance as time-slot reservations are essential. A single ticket usually covers all exhibitions.
Special Exhibitions in the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin in 2022
Die Sammlungen. The Collections. Les Collections is the permanent exhibition of the Hamberg Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin. As befits a contemporary art museum, the exhibition is frequently altered and in 2022 will be enhanced by the opening of re-opening of the Kleihusehalle:
Balancing Act. Works From the Marx Collection and the Nationalgalerie
Spring 2022 – Spring 2023
Since the opening of the Hamburger Bahnhof in 1996, works from the Marx Collection have formed part of the exhibition program of the Nationalgalerie’s museum of contemporary art. Erich Marx (1921–2020) began building up a collection in the 1960s, initially focusing on groups of works by Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol.
After extensive refurbishment work, the Kleihueshalle is expected to open its doors again in spring 2022, which means that the collection’s central artworks — including Beuys’s major work Das Kapital Raum 1970–77 (The Capital Space 1970–1977) — will once again be on display. Entitled Balancing Act, the exhibition asks us to reflect on how the loss and gain of balance can impact us on both a personal and a social level.
Balanceakt.WerkeausderSammlungMarxundderNationalgalerie — A special exhibition of the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Further Temporary Exhibitions in the Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin in 2022
Under Construction. New Acquisitions for the Nationalgalerie’s Collection
2 June – 9 October 2022
The Nationalgalerie is holding an exhibition which will present the recently acquired additions to its collection. The museum has been able to acquire these new objects over the past few years thanks in large part to funding from the Freunde der Nationalgalerie.
Under Construction focuses on works by artists living in Latin America. In the 20th century, numerous connections were forged between Central and South American artists and art hubs in Europe and North America. These connections endure to this day, providing links between the region and the Nationalgalerie’s existing holdings.
At the same time, the exhibition speaks to the close dialogue between Latin American artists and other Berlin institutions, such as the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, whose 11th instalment in 2020 presented a large number of works by Latin American artists. Some of these works — such as those of Aline Baiana, Bartolina Xixa and Sandra Gamarra — were acquired for the Nationalgalerie and will thus remain in Berlin permanently.
The collection has been “under reconstruction” since the exhibition and research project Hello World: Revising a Collection (2018), which reflected on the political and cultural ramifications of the Nationalgalerie’s approach to collecting, and called for non-Western art movements and transcultural approaches to be incorporated into the museum’s practices and collections.
Under Construction. Neuerwerbungen für die Sammlung der Nationalgalerie — A special exhibition of the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Preis der Nationalgalerie 2021. Sandra Mujinga
October 2022 – Spring 2023
On 7 October 2021, an international judging panel — made up of Emre Baykal (Istanbul), Emma Lavigne (Paris), Yesomi Umolu (London), Sven Beckstette and Gabriele Knapstein (Berlin) — awarded Sandra Mujinga (born 1989, based in Oslo and Berlin) the Preis der Nationalgalerie.
In autumn of 2022, the Hamburger Bahnhof will present the prize-winner’s solo exhibition and accompanying publication. Mujinga’s practice engages with various forms — including sculpture, performance, installation, photography, and the production of video works and digital images — in order to think through concepts such as visibility and disappearance, presence and absence.
Broken Music Reloaded
November 2022 – Summer 2023
With this exhibition, the Hamburger Bahnhof is presenting its collection of sound art and artists’ records for the first time. It is rare for German museums to possess an extensive collection of work in these fields, and this exhibition draws on the media art collection of the Nationalgalerie.
For this presentation, extensive work will be carried out on the collection of artists’ records —acquired in 2019 with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung – that Ursula Block gathered together in the context of her highly popular show Broken Music: Artists’ Recordworks (1989), so that they can be featured in the display. Block’s exhibition and the accompanying catalogue focused on records made by artists, and remain a key reference when it comes to this subject.
This exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof raises the status of artists’ records and sound art in the history of intermedia art. Selected works from this collection — comprising some 500 records — will be on display, including works by Laurie Anderson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Cage, Chicks on Speed, Valie Export, Yves Klein, Christina Kubisch, Christian Marclay, Meredith Monk, Michaela Melián, Carsten Nicolai, Yoko Ono, Wolfgang Tilmans and Andy Warhol.
More on the Berlin State Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin):
Note new opening times for many Berlin museums in 2025 — several are now closed on both Monday and Tuesday.
Timeslot reservations are sensible (and sometimes needed in busy periods) for the Alte Nationalgalerie, Gemäldegalerie, Neue Nationalgalerie, Neues Museum, and Pergamon – Das Panorama. (The Pergamon Museum itself is closed until 2027!). Timeslots are released only a few weeks in advance. Online tickets are available from GetYourGuide or SMB.
Many passes and multi-museum tickets offer savings (Kulturforum / Museums Island). Individual museum ticket prices range from €8 to €14 (€20 for special exhibitions). Online tickets are skip-the-line — go directly to the gallery entrance to scan the code.
For more general information on the Berlin State Museums:
- Top National Museums and Galleries in Berlin (brief overview)
- Berlin State Museums: What Is Seen Where? (a short description of the collections in the different museums)
- Opening Hours of Berlin State Museums (2025) — major changes since mid-April 2024!
- Ticket Prices for Berlin State Museums (prices for museums, temporary exhibitions, combination tickets, online time-slot reservations). Buying online from GetYourGuide is easy. A ticket with a QR or bar code is scanned directly at the entrance — no need to pass by the ticket desk (but pick up the free audio guide before entering).
- Save with the Berlin Museum Pass – 30 museums (including all the SMB museums) in three days for €32 – a fantastic savings deal.
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (official website in German & English).
News & Temporary Exhibitions in Berlin in 2025:
- 2025: Top Special Art Exhibitions in Berlin in 2025 & Top Contemporary Art Exhibitions in the Hamburg Bahnhof.
- Museums closed in 2025: The Pergamon Museum is closed until 2027 (some sculptures are on display in Das Panorama), the Museum Berggruen is closed until 2026 (much of its collection is traveling the world), the permanent collection of the German History Museum (Zeughaus) is closed but temporary exhibitions continue in the Pei Building.
More Museum Reviews and Museum-Specific Information:
- Alte Nationalgalerie — 19th-century art.
- Altes Museum — Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art.
- Bode Museum — sculptures from the Middle Ages, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, Byzantine Art, and coins.
- Ethnological and Asian Art Museums in the Humboldtforum.
- Friedrichswerdersche Kirche (free admission) with a collection of 19th-century German sculptures.
- Gemäldegalerie — German and Dutch Old Masters and Italian paintings.
- Kunstgewerbemuseum (Decorative Arts).
- Musical Instruments Museum near the Berliner Philharmonie.
- Neue Nationalgalerie — 20th-century art.
- Neues Museum — Pre and Early History, Egyptian Collection with bust of Nefertiti.
- Pergamon Museum with Ishtar Gate — the whole Pergamonmuseum is closed from 2023 until 2027. Some Greek sculptures are shown in the
- Pergamon Museum Panorama Exhibition with Asisi panoramic painting and Greek statues.
- Photography — Helmut Newton collection and historic photos.
Previous Temporary Exhibitions in Berlin Museums:
- 2024: Overview of Top Berlin Exhibitions in 2024, Caspar David Friedrich in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Frans Hals in the Gemäldegalerie, Neue Nationalgalerie (20th-century art) Hamburger Bahnhof Contemporary Art, Kupferstichkabinett (Prints and Drawings), and Photography Museum.
- 2023: Top Special Temporary Exhibitions in 2023 — overview, in the Kulturforum, in the Neue Nationalgalerie, on Museum Island, and the Museum of Photography.
- 2022: Top Special Temporary Exhibitions in 2022 — overview, in the Kulturforum (David Hockney), in the Neue Nationalgalerie, on Museumsinsel, Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art, and the Museum of Photography.
- 2021: Top Special Temporary Exhibitions in 2021 — including the reopening of the Neue Nationalgalerie, as well as the Ethnological and Asian Art Museums in the Humboldt Forum.
- 2020: Highlights, in Kulturforum, on Museum Island, in the Hamburger Bahnhof, smaller museums, and the opening of the Humboldt Forum.
