Visit Berlin in 2024 to see special solo exhibitions by modern artists and new permanent displays in the Hamburger Bahnhof National Gallery of Contemporary Art (Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart).
In 2024, the Hamburger Bahnhof National Galerie der Gegenwart — the premier contemporary art museum in Berlin — will present seven solo exhibitions featuring a wide range of international artists. In addition, three new more permanent collections will be presented in the Rieckhallen and the Kleihueshalle, and a new annual commission for the historic hall. The museum also has a busy cultural program of performances and events. Buy tickets online to skip the queues — time-slot reservations are not currently needed (or possible).
Special and Permanent Exhibitions in the Hamburger Bahnhof Gallery of Contemporary Art in Berlin in 2024
The massive exhibition spaces available in the Hamburger Bahnhof were only secured for public cultural use in 2022 and will allow the Hamburger Bahnhof to develop as Berlin’s preeminent venue for contemporary art in various forms. in addition to the frequently changing temporary exhibitions, the museum will also display large more permanent collections.
Joseph Beuys – Sammlung Marx
On March 22, 2024, the museum’s Kleihueshalle (Hall 2) will open with the first in a series of dialogue exhibitions that the directors have conceived especially for that space. One end of the hall will feature a new collection display centered on canonical works by Joseph Beuys from the museums’ collection including DAS KAPITAL RAUM (The Capital), 1970–1977, Straßenbahnhaltestelle. Ein Denkmal für die Zukunft (Tram Stop. A monument to the future), 1976, and Das Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts (The End of the Twentieth Century), 1983. These works permanently entered the museum’s collection after being donated by the Marx family in November 2022.
On June 7, the exhibition of the Preis der Nationagalerie (Prize of the National Gallery) will open with works by Pan Daijing, Daniel Lie, Hanne Lippard and James Richards. The 2024 edition marks the first presentation of this bi-annual exhibition in its new format whereby the prize is jointly awarded to four distinct artists showing different positions as equal and in direct dialogue with one another.
September 6 will mark the long-awaited reopening of the museum’s Rieckhallen (Hall 6). The large industrial halls will be divided into two distinct spaces. One area will be used for temporary exhibitions while the other area expand the collection presentation Nationalgalerie: A Collection for the 21st Century. A selection of large-scale installations spanning a variety of media will continue the presentation’s multi-layered panorama of Berlin’s art scene and the city itself, spanning more than three decades from the threshold of the opening of the Berlin Wall through to the present.
Solo Artists in the National Gallery of Contemporary Art in Berlin in 2024
The following temporary exhibitions by solo artists are planned for the Hamburger Bahnhof National Gallery of Contemporary Art museum in Berlin in 2024:
Naama Tsabar
In the southern end of the Kleihueshalle in dialogue with the Beuys presentation, New York-based artist Naama Tsabar opens her first institutional solo exhibition in Germany, which will be on view from March 22 until September 22. Drawing from the disciplines of sculpture, music, performance, and architecture, Tsabar will develop the exhibition in collaboration with a group of female-identifying or gender-non-confirming musicians and performers from Berlin and New York. With the use of felt in connection with sound, the artist corresponds with the Joseph Beuys works that are shown in parallel in the Kleihueshalle.
Alexandra Pirici
From April 25 until October 6, Hamburger Bahnhof’s new main, site-specific, main hall (Hall 1) commission will be on view. Responding to the hall’s iconic architecture, this commission will be presented annually. Alexandra Pirici inaugurates the series by transforming the hall (Hall 1) into a living landscape where human bodies – including those of visitors, move and perform alongside chemical reactions, mineral formations, and physical phenomena, inviting us to observe how we resemble, influence, and attune to one other. The exhibition celebrates and recognizes the continuum between the animate and the inanimate, as both metaphor and scientific fact. In 2024, this annual exhibition is co-commissioned by Hamburger Bahnhof and Audemars Piguet Contemporary.
Marianna Simnett
From May 17 until November 3, Berlin-based artist Marianna Simnett will present a new multi-channel video work within an immersive, mixed-media installation in the Museum’s Werkraum (Hall 3). Commissioned by Hamburger Bahnhof, the exhibition coincides with the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany and is conceived as an exploration of the types of masculinity, nationhood, and mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion that are deeply embedded within the game. The exhibition is a contribution to the art and culture program for UEFA EURO 2024.
Mark Bradford
The area of the large Rieckhallen (Hall 6) dedicated to temporary exhibitions, will feature the first exhibition in Germany by Los Angeles-based artist Mark Bradford. On view from September 6, 2024, until March 10, 2025, the exhibition will feature both existing and newly commissioned works through which Bradford engages with histories of migration, displacement, and violence, and makes a direct response to the context of Hamburger Bahnhof.
Andrea Pichl
From November 8, 2024, until May 4, 2025, Berlin-based artist Andrea Pichl enters into dialogue with the collection presentation of Joseph Beuys in the Kleihueshalle (Hall 2). Pichl’s solo exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, the second in the series of dialogue exhibitions with Beuys, will feature a new installation that builds on her signature engagement with architecture in Berlin and beyond. Through her show at Hamburger Bahnhof, Pichl continues to question the tenuous relationship between people, places, and conflicted histories.
Semiha Berksoy
The 2024 annual program concludes with a large retrospective of Turkish painter and opera singer Semiha Berksoy (1910 – 2004) in the museum’s East Wing (Hall 3). A leading Soprano in 1930’s Berlin, Berksoy was forced to return to Istanbul after the outbreak of WWII in 1939. The exhibition, Berksoy’s first retrospective in Germany, covers more than six decades of her work, which is presented within an operatic environment that highlights the versatile nature of her practice.
Visitor’s Information Hamburger Bahnhof National Gallery of Contemporary Art in Berlin in 2024
Opening Hours in 2024
The Hamburger Bahnhof National Gallery of Contemporary Art is open Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 to 18:00 (closing at 20:00 on Thursdays) and on weekends from 11:00 to 18:00.
The museum is open on most public holidays (including Mondays) from 11:00 to 18:00.
The Contemporary Art Gallery is closed on December 24 and 31.
Tickets
Basic ticket prices for the Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart is €12 (free for under 18). Surcharges are sometimes added for special exhibitions and some special exhibitions may be seen for cheaper without accessing the main museum.
Admission is free on the first Sunday of each month and often Thursdays after 18:00.
Buy tickets online to skip the ticket window queue — specific time-slot reservations are not currently required.
The super value Berlin 3-Day Museum Pass is valid and some Welcome Cards too.
Transportation to the Hamburger Bahnhof National Gallery of Contemporary Art in Berlin
Although the last train already left the Hamburger Bahnhof in 1884, the former station building that now houses the National Gallery of Contemporary Art is still very close to the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof. The museum is at InvalidenstraĂźe 50-51, 10557 Berlin, with the closest public transportation stops at Berlin Hauptbahnhof with a huge selection of trains, S-Bahn, U-Bahn, tram, and bus lines.
More on the Berlin State Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin):
Note new opening times for many Berlin museums from mid-April 2024. Timeslot reservations are essential only for the Caspar David Friedrich exhibition (until 4 August 2024) but 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, which seems to have timeslots available when SMB has already sold out. Many passes and multi-museum tickets are again sold (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 but pick up free audioguides first.
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 (2024) — major changes from 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:
- 2024: Overview of Top Berlin Exhibitions in 2024, Caspar David Friedrich in the Alte Nationalgalerie (tickets are selling out fast!), Frans Hals in the Gemäldegalerie, Neue Nationalgalerie (20th-century art) Hamburger Bahnhof Contemporary Art, Kupferstichkabinett (Prints and Drawings), and Photography Museum.
- Museums closed in 2024: The Pergamon Museum is closed until 2027 (some sculptures are on display in Das Panorama), the Museum Berggruen is closed until 2025 (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 with Caspar David Friedrich paintings (2024 special exhibition).
- Altes Museum with Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art.
- Ethnological and Asian Art Museums in the Humboldtforum.
- Friedrichswerdersche Kirche (free admission) with a collection of 19th-century German sculptures.
- Gemäldegalerie with its collection of 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 with bust of Nefertiti.
- Pergamon Museum with Ishtar Gate — the whole Pergamonmuseum is closed from October 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:
- 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.
