From September 2025, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin will once again be inviting visitors to engage intensively with art and cultural history topics. The series of lectures with accompanying viewings of works in front of originals as well as the series of talks at the Kulturforum Berlin, the Alte Nationalgalerie and the Museum für Fotografie will open up views far beyond the collections and special exhibitions of the Staatliche Museen.
Image above: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, photo: Valerie Schmidt.
Beauty, Pride and Naked Violence: German Painting and Graphics from Lochner and Witz to Schongauer
(Gemäldegalerie)
The 15th century is an era of important upheavals and innovations. In the German-speaking world, painters and graphic artists were influenced by the Italian Renaissance and Dutch Ars Nova. At the same time, they developed printmaking (and letterpress printing) into one of the most important art forms of the time.
As producers of copperplate engravings, they became protagonists of the first information age triggered by this technical innovation. Images and texts were suddenly reproducible and available in large editions. For the first time in European history, pictorial sources not only provided a view of religion and power. Aristocratic, urban and rural living environments can also be studied.
Lecture series
V1: Wednesday, 11 am. / 10.09., 17.09., 24.09., 01.10.2025
Meeting point: Lecture hall Kulturforum
Participation fee: 32 EUR
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended
Viewing of works
Wednesday, 10:30 am. – 12 pm. / 08.10.2025
Thursday, 2 pm. – 3:30 pm. / 09.10.2025
Meeting point: Gemäldegalerie / Information
Participation fee: 6 EUR plus admission
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended
roße Meister – Alleskönner?!
(Gemäldegalerie and Kunstgewerbemuseum)
In earlier centuries, artists were much more than just painters or sculptors. As court artists, they fulfilled a variety of tasks, such as the design of ceremonial weapons, armour, festive decorations, furniture and handicraft objects. Raphael, for example, designed the tapestries for the furnishings of the Sistine Chapel. François Boucher provided the design for royal porcelain. Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed frames and chairs and created decorations for operas and stage plays. This versatility shows that art and craftsmanship were often combined in the hands of a single artist – an early form of design.
Lecture series
V2: Tuesday 3 pm. / 30.09., 07.10., 14.10., 28.10.2025
Meeting point: Lecture hall Kulturforum
Participation fee: 32 EUR
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended
Viewing works in the Gemäldegalerie and the Kunstgewerbemuseum (90 min.)
Wednesday, 10:30 pm. – 12:30 pm. / 22 October 2025
Thursday, 10:30 am. – 12:30 pm. / 23 October 2025
Meeting point: Gemäldegalerie / Information
Participation fee: 10 EUR plus admission
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended
Masterpieces of Drawing
„All drawing is useful, and drawing everything is useful too!“ (A. Menzel) (Kupferstichkabinett)
The precious collection of drawings is at the heart of Berlin’s Kupferstichkabinett. The lectures present major works from this art form, which is on a par with painting, including delicate silverpoint drawings, Botticelli’s illustrations of Dante, watercolors by Dürer and Merian, and Menzel’s oil sketches. The different functions of the sheets, from spontaneous sketches to independent works of art, also become clear. Dürer already knew that drawing is the most spontaneous form of expression for artists.
Lecture series
V3: Tuesday, 3 pm. / 18 November, 25 November, 2 December, 9 December 2025
Meeting point: Lecture hall, Kulturforum
Participation fee: 32 EUR
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended.
Work viewing
Wednesday, 10 am., 11 am., 14 pm. / 10 December 2025
Thursday, 10 am., 11 am. / 11 December 2025
Meeting point: Kupferstichkabinett / Information
Participation fee: 6 EUR
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended
Sculpture at the turn of the century: Camille Claudel and Bernhard Hoetger (Alte Nationalgalerie)
On 4 December 1905, gallery owner Eugène Blot opened an exhibition in his gallery on Boulevard de la Madeleine in Paris. It featured works by Camille Claudel and Bernhard Hoetger. What connected the two? What did this exhibition mean for their careers? How strongly were they influenced by Auguste Rodin, the pioneer of modernism?
Series of talks
G 1: Wednesday, 4:30 pm. / 03.09., 10.09., 17.09, 24.09.2025
Meeting point: Alte Nationalgalerie / Information desk
Participation fee: 40 EUR (plus admission)
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended
Lygia Clark – Art as Experience
on the special exhibition „Lygia Clark. Retrospective“ (until 12. October 2025) (Neue Nationalgalerie)
Immerse yourself in Lygia Clark’s (1920–1988) extraordinary understanding of art with our series of talks on the current retrospective at the Neue Nationalgalerie. Clark’s works combine space, body and community in a radically new way and are characterised by an understanding of art as a sensual, physical experience. Join the discussion – not just about art, but in the midst of it.
Series of talks
G 2: Wednesday, 3:30 pm. / 17.09., 24.09., 01.10., 08.10.2025
Meeting point: Neue Nationalgalerie / Information desk
Participation fee: 40 EUR (plus admission)
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended
Puhlmann: Fashion, Photography, Zeitgeist
on the special exhibition ‘Rico Puhlmann. Fashion Photography 50s – 90s’ (until 15 February 2026) (Museum of Photography)
Discover the fascinating world of Rico Puhlmann, one of the most important fashion photographers of the 20th century. In an exciting series of talks, we shed light on his life, his innovative work and the cultural change that he photographed and also shaped – from the post-war years in Berlin to the creative revolution of the 1960s and his influence on fashion and society in New York until the 1990s. Immerse yourself in the history of fashion photography!
Series of talks
G 3: Thursday, 4:00–5:00 p.m. / 16 October, 23 October, 30 October, 6 November 2025
Meeting point: Museum of Photography / Information
Participation fee: 40 EUR (plus admission)
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended
„Looking at the people“: Genre painting in the 17th century (Picture Gallery)
In the Netherlands of the 17th century, genre painting established itself as a new genre of European painting at around the same time as landscape and still life painting. Famous Dutch artists such as Jan Vermeer and Jan Steen, and Flemish artists such as Adriaen Brouwer and David Teniers the Younger, particularly enjoyed observing their compatriots in their everyday lives, whether at work, in the market square or in the pub. Their works were sometimes morally instructive and often imbued with a healthy dose of humour!
Series of talks
G 4: Wednesday, 4 – 5 pm. / 05.11, 12.11., 19.11., 26.11.2025
Meeting point: Picture Gallery / Information Desk
Participation fee: EUR 40 (plus admission)
Limited number of participants.
Online booking recommended
Costs
Lecture series
Participation fee: 32 EUR
Limited number of participants.
Participation tickets are available online or at the museum ticket offices.
Work viewings
Participation fee: 6 EUR plus admission
Limited number of participants.
Participation tickets are available online or at the museum ticket offices.
Discussion series
Participation fee: 40 EUR plus admission
Limited number of participants.
Participation tickets are available online or at the museum ticket offices.
