Berlin's Altes Museum slated for 2030s renovation as wall cracks appear

Altes Museum faces wall cracks

Marion Ackermann, president of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur in a weekend interview that the Altes Museum must urgently be added to the renovation schedule. Cracks have developed in the walls of the building, which was designed by architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and opened in 1830 as the first of five museums on the island. The general renovation is now planned for the 2030s, making the Altes Museum the last building on Museum Island to require a full overhaul.

The Altes Museum must urgently be added to the list soon, it now has cracks in the walls.

The island complex sits in the Spree river in central Berlin and belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage list. The appearance of wall cracks in a building that is part of that UNESCO portfolio adds urgency to the case for refurbishment. Ackermann's announcement marks the next renovation case on the island, where the Pergamonmuseum has already been under refurbishment for years. Ackermann confirmed that the Altes Museum has long been known as the last house on Museum Island in urgent need of a general renovation, and that the timeline is now set for the 2030s.

It is well known that the Altes Museum, as the last building on Museum Island, is in urgent need of a general renovation. It is now planned for the 2030s.

Pergamonmuseum reopening in stages

The Pergamonmuseum, also on Museum Island, has been closed for several years for a comprehensive renovation. First sections, including the hall with the Pergamonaltar, are scheduled to reopen in summer 2027. Ackermann said the altar hall will shine "incredibly beautiful and different," with the wall color restored to its original cooler blue tone. The skylights have been repaired and cleaned, and the daylight concept is functioning again. The summer 2027 reopening will give visitors their first access to the altar hall since the museum's closure for renovation.

The Museum of Islamic Art, housed in the same building, has been completely reconceived with a new sensory and cultural approach.

For example, all senses are involved, in the Aleppo Room also the sense of smell, and one finally sees the cultural connections across the entire Mediterranean region.

Renovation of the second part of the building will take another decade, with the full reopening of the Pergamonmuseum planned for 2037. Total renovation costs for the Pergamonmuseum are estimated at 1.5 billion euros.

Other Berlin cultural construction

The Altes Museum and Pergamonmuseum are not the only cultural institutions in Berlin facing lengthy closures. The Staatsbibliothek near Potsdamer Platz is also due for renovation and will close from 2030 for eleven years. The context is delicate, with the island's museums operating in what has become a near-permanent crisis mode of construction and partial closures. The sequence of renovations turns Museum Island into a prolonged construction-site narrative, caught between world heritage status, cultural policy, and the paradox that the last unrenovated building on the island now also demands a general overhaul. With the Pergamonmuseum's full reopening not expected until 2037, the island faces more than a decade of overlapping construction projects.