Märkisches Museum

The Märkisches Museum in Berlin is devoted to the history and culture of the city and the Brandenburg region around it. It began in 1874 as the Märkisches Provinzial-Museum, the first museum in Berlin independent of the Prussian crown. Ernst Friedel started the collection, gathering prehistoric and historic objects and paintings from Brandenburg. By 1880 it held over 29,500 objects and needed larger premises.

Ludwig Hoffmann answered that need with a building completed in 1908. It is a complex of six structures, each echoing a different style of the region's past, from Gothic to Renaissance. Two courtyards and a 53-metre tower stand within its walls. The tower takes its inspiration from the Bishop's Castle in Wittstock.

The Second World War brought damage, and restoration followed. Since German reunification the museum has belonged to the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, which consolidates the city's cultural history collections. Inside, the rooms tell the same story one by one. Medieval altars stand in a chapel-like Gothic hall, and rococo porcelain fills a light, airy room. The ground floor goes furthest: low vaulted ceilings and roughly plastered walls give the prehistoric finds an ancient feel.