Die Sammlungen. The Collections. Les Collections

The building was erected in the mid-nineteenth century as one of the first terminal stations of the rail system. In the early twentieth century, the structure was converted into a museum of transportation and technology. After a reconstruction by the architect Josef Paul Kleihues, the Hamburger Bahnhof reopened 1996 as Museum für Gegenwart. As part of the reconstruction, the so-called Kleihueshalle was built. In 2004, a former goods depot was converted by the architects Kühn Malvezzi into the so-called Rieckhallen, adjoining the main building to the north and intended for the presentation of contemporary art.
The collection presentations direct attention to outstanding artists and important developments in art since the 1960s. In the West Wing of the main building, the focus is on important trends of the 1960s and 1970s: Land Art and Live to Tape. Also housed in the west wing are the body of works by Joseph Beuys, including sculptural pieces and works on film. This collection, unparalleled anywhere else in the world, is an impressive display of the extent to which Beuys strove to broaden the concept of art.
Parallel to this, key works from the extensive Marx Collection are on show in the East Wing of the main building, the Kleihueshalle on the ground floor, where, alongside Andy Warhol's famous portraits of stars and influential celebrities such as Elvis Presley or Mao Zedong, important works by Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly are also on display. An entire room is also dedicated to works by Anselm Kiefer, whose art directly addresses German history and subjects such as remembrance and memory.