Charting four centuries of design excellence
The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) counts among Europe’s leading museums for decorative arts and design. Opened in 1877, the museum was a part of a trade school and collection, modeled after the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) and other European institutions of applied arts. Its world-class collections of approximately 500,000 objects span 4,000 years, ranging from antiquity to the present day and encompassing European, Islamic, North American and East Asian cultural areas. The MK&G’s significant holdings extend across furniture, ceramics, glass, jewelry, fashion, textiles, graphic design, photography and musical instruments. It features several period rooms, including the Hall of Mirrors from the Budge Palace, the wood paneled Wilstermarscher Room from the mid-18th century, the art nouveau “Parisian Room” and the legendary pop art cafeteria from the former headquarters of the publishing house Spiegel, designed by Verner Panton. Alongside the encyclopedic collection, a rotating exhibitions program and various projects on contemporary discourses make the MK&G one of the most popular museums in Hamburg.