Situated at the northern tip of Museum Island and forming part of the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble since 1999 CE, the Pergamon Museum was conceived as a three-winged complex to display monumental reconstructions that earlier Berlin museums could no longer accommodate. The museum houses three distinct yet interconnected collections: the Collection of Classical Antiquities (Antikensammlung), the Museum of the Ancient Near East (Vorderasiatisches Museum), and the Museum of Islamic Art (Museum für Islamische Kunst). Among its most celebrated installations are the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way of Babylon, and the façade of Mshatta. Each of these structures was painstakingly reassembled from excavated fragments brought to Berlin during the late 19th and early 20th centuries CE under the auspices of the Royal Museums of Berlin and the German Archaeological Institute.

The museum functions as a bridge between field archaeology and architectural restoration, demonstrating how large-scale finds from Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and the Levant were integrated into modern museological contexts. Its galleries are arranged not merely as exhibitions of artifacts but as immersive architectural environments, allowing viewers to experience the spatial and aesthetic dimensions of ancient monuments. Over the decades, the Pergamon Museum has undergone extensive conservation and modernization efforts, particularly as part of the ongoing Museum Island Master Plan, which aims to restore and reconfigure Berlin’s cultural core while preserving the authenticity and scholarly value of its holdings.

circa 1910 CE- Present

The origins of the Pergamon Museum are closely tied to the German excavations at the archaeological sites of ancient Pergamon, Miletus, Babylon, and other major ancient sites during the late 19th century CE. The first museum on Museum Island to bear its name was a smaller structure built between 1897 and 1899 CE, intended to house the newly acquired Pergamon Altar. Structural deficiencies, however, led to its demolition, and in 1910 CE construction began on the current, more ambitious building. Work was interrupted by World War I and completed in 1930 CE. The architectural plan reflected the imperial and scholarly ambitions of Wilhelmine Germany, combining neoclassical symmetry with monumental exhibition halls capable of accommodating full-scale reconstructions.

During World War II, the Pergamon Museum suffered significant damage from Allied bombings, though many artifacts had been evacuated for safekeeping. After the war, numerous objects were taken by Soviet forces as part of war reparations and housed in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. A large portion of these holdings, including parts of the Pergamon Altar, were returned to East Germany in the late 1950s CE, though some key pieces remain in Russia. The museum reopened in stages under the East German regime and became one of the most visited cultural institutions in the German Democratic Republic.

Following German reunification in 1990 CE, the Pergamon Museum was integrated into the reconstituted Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums) under the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz). In 2013 CE, a comprehensive restoration and expansion project began, scheduled to continue into the late 2020s, aimed at modernizing facilities, improving climate control, and creating new circulation routes linking the museum with the adjacent Bode and Neues Museums. During this renovation period, the hall containing the Pergamon Altar has been temporarily closed to the public, though digital and partial displays remain accessible. The Pergamon Museum today stands not only as an emblem of German archaeological scholarship but also as a complex symbol of the entanglement between empire, heritage, and the modern museum as an instrument of cultural interpretation and national identity.

circa 1910 CE- Present

The 2023–2027 renovations represent a critical phase in the long-term restoration and modernization program of the Pergamon Museum, undertaken as part of the comprehensive Museum Island Master Plan initiated by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz). This phase focuses on extensive structural, technical, and curatorial upgrades designed to preserve the building’s integrity while adapting it to contemporary museological standards. Central to the project is the restoration of the north wing, including the reopening of the Pergamon Altar Hall, which has remained closed since 2014 due to necessary stabilization and conservation work. The renovations involve the installation of advanced climate control and lighting systems, seismic reinforcement of monumental reconstructions, and the creation of new visitor circulation routes through the “Pergamonmuseum. Das Panorama” extension—an interim exhibition space developed by artist Yadegar Asisi to provide immersive contextualization of the Pergamon Altar and Hellenistic period Pergamon. The modernization also seeks to improve accessibility and integrate digital interpretive technologies that enhance scholarly and public engagement with the museum’s collections. Scheduled for completion by 2027 CE, the renovation aims not only to restore the architectural coherence envisioned by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann but also to position the Pergamon Museum as a model for 21st-century heritage preservation and exhibition practice, balancing the demands of conservation, research, and public experience.

circa 1910 CE- Present

The Pergamon Museum is organized into three principal departments—each representing a distinct geographical and cultural sphere of antiquity—namely, the Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities), the Museum für Islamische Kunst (Museum of Islamic Art), and the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East). Together, they form an integrated yet disciplinary structure that reflects the intellectual breadth of German archaeological and art-historical scholarship from the late 19th century CE onward.

The Antikensammlung, whose origins trace to the royal collections of the 17th and 18th centuries, encompasses Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts and architectural reconstructions, most notably the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus—monuments emblematic of both Hellenistic grandeur and German archaeological enterprise in Asia Minor.

The Vorderasiatisches Museum extends this geographical and chronological range eastward, housing monumental reliefs, cuneiform tablets, and architectural fragments from Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia, including the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way of Babylon. Its displays articulate the urban, artistic, and administrative sophistication of the ancient Near Eastern world while underscoring the methodological rigor of early 20th-century German excavations in the region.

The Museum für Islamische Kunst, established in 1904 and transferred to the Pergamon complex in 1932, represents the continuation of this civilizational narrative into the Islamic period, with holdings spanning from the 8th to the 19th centuries CE and extending geographically from Spain to Central Asia. Its celebrated exhibits, such as the façade of Mshatta and the Aleppo Room, highlight both the technical refinement and the transregional aesthetic exchanges of Islamic visual culture.

Conceptually, the tripartite organization of the Pergamon Museum not only delineates disciplinary boundaries but also manifests a museological vision in which the continuum of human creativity from the ancient Mediterranean to the Islamic world is rendered spatially and intellectually coherent.

circa

The museum boasts a large number of notable exhibits that collectively illustrate the cultural and chronological breadth of its three constituent departments. Within the Antikensammlung, the most distinguished display is the monumental Pergamon Altar, a masterpiece of Hellenistic art from circa 2nd century BCE, renowned for its Gigantomachy frieze depicting the struggle between gods and giants.

Complementing it are the Market Gate of Miletus, reconstructed from second century CE marble remains, and the Roman architectural fragments from Priene and Magnesia, which exemplify the classical vocabulary of form and proportion. The Vorderasiatisches Museum houses equally significant monuments, foremost among them the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way of Babylon, constructed under Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE and notable for their glazed brick reliefs of bulls and dragons symbolizing deities Marduk and Adad.

Other key works include the throne room façade from Tell Halaf and the temple reliefs from Assur and Uruk, offering insight into the ceremonial and administrative complexity of ancient Mesopotamian societies. The Museum für Islamische Kunst expands the temporal and geographical scope further, presenting masterpieces such as the Mshatta façade—an unfinished Umayyad palace exterior from Jordan (circa 8th century CE)—and the intricately painted Aleppo Room from a 17th-century Syrian merchant’s house.

Additional highlights include Persian manuscripts, Mamluk metalwork, and Andalusian architectural fragments that collectively demonstrate the material sophistication and aesthetic continuity of Islamic artistic traditions. Through this diverse assemblage, the Pergamon Museum presents an unparalleled cross-section of human artistic and architectural achievement, linking the civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and the Islamic world within a single cohesive museological framework.