Berliner Skulpturenfund

"Entartete Kunst" im Bombenschutt

• 

  Emy Roeder, „Schwangere“, 1918; Karel Niestrath, „Frommer Mann“, 1924; Otto Freundlich, „Kopf“, 1925 (v.l.n.r.)

• 

  Otto Baum, „Stehendes Mädchen“, 1930; Marg Moll, „Tänzerin“, um 1930; Naum Slutzky, „Weibliche Büste“, um 1930; Karl Ehlers, „Mädchen mit Traube“, 1933; Gustav H. Wolff, „Stehende Gewandfigur“, 1925; Karl Knappe, „Hagar“, 1923 (v.l.n.r.)

• 

  Ausgrabung im August 2010. Am Grubenrand rechts: Karel Niestrath, „Die Einfältigen“; Otto Baum, „Stehendes Mädchen“; Marg Moll, „Tänzerin“. Am Grubenrand Mitte: Otto Freundlich, „Kopf“

• 

  „Weibliche Büste“ von Naum Slutzky bei der Wiederauffindung im Oktober 2010

• 

  Naum Slutzky, „Weibliche Büste“, aktueller Zustand 2010

• 

  Naum Slutzky, „Weibliche Büste“, Originalzustand 1931

• 

  Ausstellung „Entartete Kunst“, München 1937, Dada-Wand. Mitte: Richard Haizmann, „Figur“; ganz rechts: Marg Moll, „Tänzerin“

During archaeological excavations in front of the Rotes Rathaus in 2010, a real surprise came to light. A total of 16 classical modernist sculptures were recovered from a cellar filled with bomb rubble. Soon after their recovery, it emerged that the sculptures were works of art long thought to be lost, which had been defamed and confiscated by the National Socialists as "degenerate art".
Brought together by fate and marked by abuse and destruction, the "Berlin sculpture find", discovered in 2010 during archaeological investigations opposite the Rotes Rathaus, has become a world-famous symbol that demonstrates the persecution of modern art by the National Socialist dictatorship more vividly than some works of art that have survived intact. After numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad, it can now be seen again in Berlin for the first time.
The discovery and the mystery of the "Berlin sculpture find"
Königstraße, now Rathausstraße, was once densely built-up and was one of the liveliest residential and commercial streets in Berlin until the war. Before the construction of the new subway station at the Rotes Rathaus, extensive excavations have been taking place here since fall 2009. In 2010, sixteen sculptures were discovered in the bomb rubble when the cellars of the war-damaged building at Königstraße 50 were uncovered. The relationship between the artworks and the site where they were found was initially completely unclear. However, the surprising results of the archaeological, historical and art-historical research soon made international headlines. The solution to the mystery of the excavation finds began in September 2010 with the identification of Emy Roeder's "Pregnant Woman". Created by fourteen artists between 1913 and 1933, all sixteen sculptures were part of the collection of "Degenerate Art" confiscated from German art museums in 1937, seven of which were presented in a defamatory manner at various stages of the propaganda show of the same name. Some of their display is documented photographically. The spectacular rediscovery of these works of art, which were thought to have been lost, also brings the archaeology of modern times into focus, which has gained immense importance in recent years as a source for reconstructing historical events.
Back in Berlin
With the presentation of the find in the Greek Courtyard of the Neues Museum, the sculptures have been a media event since November 2010. As Berlin archaeological finds, they had come to the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, where they are still kept today. Following a review of their legal status, the artworks became the property of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2012.
Since 2012, the "Berlin Sculpture Collection" has been shown at fifteen venues in Germany and Luxembourg as part of special exhibitions, and groups or individual works are regularly loaned out in Germany and abroad, most recently for the major special exhibition "L'art 'dégénéré'" at the Musée Picasso Paris. With the new installation at PETRI, the new house for Berlin archaeology, the find will be presented in context and close to its place of discovery for the first time since 2019.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a brochure with short biographies of the respective artists and a presentation of the artworks and their eventful history.
A special exhibition of the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.Translated with DeepL

Runtime: from October 2025

Price: €6.00

Reduced price: €3.00

Reduced price info: Children and young people up to 18 years free

Takes place here:

• Petri Berlin