Press release

As microcosm of Berlin, the Hamburger Bahnhof has many stories to tell. Forum Hamburger Bahnhof presents objects and archival materials from 1848 to the present. Chapter by chapter it reappraises and retells the station’s history.

An era-defining railway station in the mid-19th century, the building has continually adapted to changing historical circumstances. Having served as a museum for building and transport in the early 20th century, World War II left the building, situated as it was on the demarcation line between East and West Berlin, in ruins. In the 1980s it became an artists’ squat before evolving into a pop-up exhibition space after the opening of the Berlin Wall. It was not until 1996 that it became a site of the Nationalgalerie. Located between the bookshop and the presentation of the collection in the west wing, "Forum Hamburger Bahnhof" presents objects and archival materials from 1848 to the present. Chapter by chapter it reappraises and retells the station’s history.

The archival exhibition is complemented by a space for participatory and discursive programmes, including film interviews with people associated with the Hamburger Bahnhof from the 1980s through to the present. As a place for assembly, debate and transformation, the Forum invites members of the public to join in thinking about all that the museum has been and might become.