Pinakothek der Moderne

The Turkish Barracks stood on this site. The war destroyed most of its buildings, the remnants were later demolished, and Circus Roncalli occupied the empty lot for almost twenty years. In the current building, collections of modern art, design, architecture, and graphic art are arranged on different floors. A thirty-meter rotunda links them with a staircase nearly one hundred meters long, while each section is managed by its own specialists and the holdings and exhibitions remain separate.

In nineteen ninety-three, the art historian Hartwig Garnerus, who managed the Theo Wormland Foundation, directed one million German marks to a museum that did not yet exist. The million was not Garnerus’s personal money: he administered a foundation created by Theo Wormland, the owner of a chain of men’s clothing stores and a collector. The money was to be invested in a project whose continuation no one could guarantee.

After the war, Munich’s collections of twentieth-century art, graphic art, architecture, and design remained without a shared permanent home. Modern painting and sculpture were shown in the temporarily adapted western wing of Haus der Kunst. The Architekturmuseum der TUM, founded as early as the nineteenth century, had no exhibition galleries of its own at all.

A site was found here, on the grounds of the Turkish Barracks. Most of its buildings were destroyed during the war, the remnants were later demolished, and Circus Roncalli occupied the empty lot for almost twenty years. In nineteen ninety, the Bavarian government designated the land for museums; two years later, a competition selected the design by Munich architect Stephan Braunfels. Then officials set a condition: before the treasury would pay for construction, private donors had to raise one tenth of the total sum.

Garnerus’s first million turned the condition into a real campaign. In nineteen ninety-four, he and like-minded supporters founded the Foundation Pinakothek der Moderne. They raised money from city residents, businesses, and other foundations. By nineteen ninety-seven, the fund held twenty million marks—the required share. The Bavarian government took on the remaining expenses, and the museum opened in September two thousand two.

The name on the façade refers to four independent museums at once. The Collection of Modern Art is upstairs, The Design Museum downstairs, and on the first level are the Architekturmuseum der TUM and the State Graphic Collection Munich. They were not merged into a single institution: each retained its own holdings, specialists, and exhibitions.

Braunfels linked them with a thirty-meter central rotunda and a staircase about one hundred meters long. From here, routes branch out across the floors toward art, graphic art, architecture, and design. This is how the story begun with the first million ended: four collections received a shared entrance and one rotunda, yet kept four different names.