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Mensch Berlin © Ellen Fuhr, Foto: Peter Adamik

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Mensch Berlin

Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank

09.07.2025 - 31.08.2025

Cornelia Schleime Sibirischer Frühling, 1987 Mischtechnik auf Vlies, Assemblage, 112 x 111 cm Polygon Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank K 1477 © Cornelia Schleime, Foto: Peter AdamikChristus in der Hölle, 1982 Öl auf Leinwand, 162 x 130 cm Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank K 968 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Foto: Peter Adamik

The entry is free

 

The Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank and the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank celebrate their 40th anniversary. Founded in the divided Berlin of 1985 under the leitmotif Bilder vom Menschen - Bilder für Menschen (Images of People – Images for People) and Berliner Stadtbilder (Images of the City Berlin), the collection contributed to the Berlin art scene from the very beginning. One special feature was the initial focus on art from the GDR - a visionary step for a West German art institution at the time.

Berlin at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification

Today, the collection consists of over 1,500 works by around 200 artists. The focus lies on figurative German art after 1950, especially before and after the eventful period of reunification in and around Berlin. The anniversary exhibition entitled MENSCH BERLIN will draw on this great treasure.

The exhibition takes up the leitmotif of that time and transforms it into the 21st century. In addition to the highlights of the collection, less frequently shown works also find their place. Exciting rediscoveries meet new discoveries of artistic positions that document the divided and reunited Germany and show life in all facets of this historic era.

 

A Dynamic Exhibition

An exhibition highlight: Selected artworks will regularly be exchanged throughout the duration of the exhibition in Berlin, giving visitors new insights into this unusual collection’s diversity.

 

MENSCH BERLIN in Vienna

The continuation of the exhibition in Vienna’s prestigious Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien is a further high point of this anniversary year. From 9 July to 31 August 2025, MENSCH BERLIN will be on view in Austria’s capital, to make the art-historical and cultural-political significance of the collection visible beyond Germany's borders. With the presentation in Vienna, the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank emphasizes the historically grown, close cultural relationship between the two German capitals.

The exhibition includes works by Gerhard Altenbourg, Annemirl Bauer, Norbert Bisky, Claudia Busching, Rainer Fetting, Ellen Fuhr, Angela Hampel, K. H. Hödicke, Ingeborg Hunzinger, Klaus Killisch, Via Lewandowsky, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Harald Metzkes, Cornelia Schleime, Erika Stürmer-Alex, Werner Tübke, Barbara Quandt and many, many more.

 

The exhibition can be visited free of charge from July 9 to August 31, 2025, daily from 10:00 to 18:00.