Best art museums in Berlin

What periods are you interested in, and do you want to limit this to paintings/watercolors and sculpture, or should we include decorative arts as well?

The Museum Barberine in Potsdam has one of the world's finest Impressionist collections. They also have rotating exhibitions, often with Impressionist or Post-Impressionist themes. https://www.museum-barberini.de/en/ausstellungen/

I did not reserve a time slot when I visited during the off-season. Museum was nearly empty.

@jkh Ha thank you ! I love impressionism and also modern art from 1900 to the 50's, @acraven looking for only paintings, glad that there is no need to get skip-the-line !

I enjoyed the Gemäldegalerie. You don't say when you are going, but if it is peak visitor season I would get tickets ahead, particularly if there is a special exhibit. It's closed on Monday so plan accordingly.

Gemäldegalerie for 'old masters' and the Alte Nationalgalerie for 19th-century works. The Sanssouci Gallery in Potsdam.

For 20th century art the main place is the Neue Nationalgalerie. There's also the Bruecke Museum, specialising in Expressionist artwork, and the small Broehan Museum which covers art nouveau and art deco. The Berlinische Galerie covers art from the city of Berlin since the late nineteenth century, with a particularly strong dada collection.

What a treasure ! Thank you all, I think I will go this winter February, and museums will be the best places to stay warm, thank you

Normally I would recommend Museum Berggruen with its large collection of paintings by Picasso, along with Clee and others. Unfortunately, it looks like it is closed for a major renovation with parts of the collection on exhibition in Miami for now.

https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/museum-berggruen/home/

Marcia,

I'd like to add to the great recommendations above:

Alte Nationalgalerie (on Museum Island) for its collection of 19th-century paintings, including German Romanticism and Impressionism. My favourites include the paintings by Lovis Corinth, Caspar David Friedrich, Max Liebermann, Adolph Menzel, and Franz von Stuck.

Berlinische Galerie (BG) in Kreuzberg for its collection of artworks focussed mostly on Berlin from mid-19th century to the present-day. Philip from London mentions the (Berlin-) Dada collection; I like the Dadaist montage works by Hannah Höch and John Heartfield. Some of the artists in the BG also appear in the Neue Nationalgalerie. I also like the "Markierung Glaslager" or what I call the "field" of black & yellow letters on the ground in front of the building entrance.

Neue Nationalgalerie (in the Kulturforum area just west of Potsdamer Platz) for its collection of 20th-century artworks including paintings; favourites include Otto Dix, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Gerhard Richter. I also like the variety of contemporary artworks on display from sculpture to mixed-media pieces. The building itself is a simple yet masterful piece of architecture by Mies van der Rohe.

I'm also interested in photography which leads me to the C/O Berlin and the Museum for Photography, both of which are near Zoologischer Garten. Depending upon the temporary exhibitions, both museums exhibit historical and contemporary works of photography. As the Museum for Photography is housed within the Helmut Newton Foundation, the museum also includes fashion- and portrait-photography by Berlin-born Helmut Newton and by his wife June Newton (a.k.a. Alice Springs).

Depending on the timing of your visit, please also note:

• Berlinische Galerie offers half-price admission on the 1st Wednesday of the month.
• Neue Nationalgalerie is "Art4All" free on the 1st Thursday of the month, but only from 4pm to 8pm.
• Crowds are naturally (much) larger on these days, which may vary your experience with the artworks on display.