What is it like to work with a good friend? How do media representations of friendship shape our relationships today? And what does solidarity among friends look like? Together with our guests Alice Hasters and Maxi Häcke (Feuer & Brot) we talked about friendship, networks and mutual support while walking through the exhibition Max Kaus. Among Friends.

Brücke After Hours offers alternative views of the collection and exhibitions of the Brücke-Museum. Curated by the museum’s assistant curators, the invited guests come into dialogue with the public.

Having taken place without an audience because of the current containment regulations, the event was recorded. You can watch the video here.

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Rabaul, Rakaia, Na Ta (The Mangrove, The Volcanoes, The Deep Ocean)

Artist talk with Lisa Hilli in the exhibition Transition Exhibition at Kunsthaus Dahlem, moderated by Paz Guevara.

External content

I agree that contents of the Brücke-Museum may be displayed to me via the external provider www.youtube.com. This means that personal data will be transferred to third party platforms. Brücke-Museum has no influence on this. You can read more about this in our privacy policy.

In the series Re-sighting, experts from different disciplines put the exhibition in context from their particular perspective – an exhibition tour based on discussion.

You can find the current programme in our calendar.

For PLAY! Family Workshop at Brücke-Museum, children from 5 years of age and all families are warmly invited to visit and experience the museum and its current exhibition.

Duration: February 2022

In February, three classes of the Dreilinden-Gymnasium visited the exhibition Whose Expression? The Brücke Artists and Colonialism. The results of their work on the exhibition can be heard and seen by clicking on the link below. The work offers an insight into the thoughts, questions and feelings they have on the exhibition at the Brücke-Museum. The contribution represents an important and valuable enrichment to the exhibition.

Dreilinden-Gymnasium, Wannsee: advanced art courses of Ms. Singh and Ms. Meyer and class 9d

Medienkompetenzzentrum Steglitz-Zehlendorf: Rudolf Freundhofer

Project Management: Daniela Bystron, Julia Devies, Rudolf Freundhofer, Lotte Wintraecken

Workshop concept for the exhibition: Josephine Valerie Deutesfeld

Workshop leader: Josephine Valerie Deutesfeld, Marina Resende Santos

Support: Judith Kirchner

Duration: December 2019 – August 2020

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In exchange with children and young people from two Berlin schools, we would like to find out what a redesign and new use of the museum garden could look like in the sense of the Brücke. Drawing and painting of people in nature was one of the core themes of the artists’ group. The Brücke-Museum, created especially for the artists, blends into the forest landscape and combines nature, art and architecture. The expressionist group created such connections in their works.

How can the museum’s garden today become a place where different people like to spend time? How can young people in particular get involved in museum work and create their own spaces in the garden? The interaction between art and nature can be experienced and tested on the museum’s grounds and in the adjoining forest.

Nord-Grundschule, Zehlendorf: Class 6b, Mrs Tscheslog and Mrs Zick
Schule am Schloss, Charlottenburg: Class 9e, Mrs Siemers and Mrs Baumgartner
Project management: Nora Hogrefe, assistant curator of Outreach
Workshop concept for the exhibition: Jülia Devies and L.L., art educators
Workshop concept for the garden: Bérengère Chauffeté, landscape architect
Fotographic documentation: Anna Duda
Design printed documentation: Lisa Pepita Weiss, download documentation here

Sponsored by

Duration: April–July 2020

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In the seminar Interventions at Brücke-Museum – Working with the Public, interdisciplinary teamwork develops approaches to art education based on design and art. The cooperation with the Brücke-Museum from 2019 will now be continued and deepened under difficult conditions during the digital semester.

First of all, various approaches to art education will be analysed using selected formats. Questions of performativity and interaction will be discussed. In the related artistic-practical part, mediation concepts can be developed that move between the museum building and the collection as well as the garden and nature. Finally, the developed concepts will be realised together with the public on 15 July 2020, 12 noon–4 pm.

Kunsthochschule Weißensee: Prof. Mona Jas
Brücke-Museum: Daniela Bystron

Duration: April – July 2020

Since 2017, Brücke-Museum has been under a new management. The view on the in-house artists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Otto Mueller and their colleagues is to be updated and anchored in the present. With this in mind, the museum is striving for close cooperation with scientists and artists. The first temporary exhibitions already show that many research questions have remained unanswered after the stylistic development of Brücke Expressionism had been in the foreground since the museum was founded in 1967.

Out of this desideratum, the project seminar is conceived with practical relevance to museum activities as its focus. The participants are introduced to the history of Brücke art as well as to different functions and hierarchies of texts in the museum by Meike Hoffmann (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Freie Universität Berlin), Lisa Marei Schmidt (Director, Brücke-Museum) and Daniela Bystron (Curator of Outreach, Brücke-Museum). On this basis, the participants write their own texts for works or groups of works from the collection of Brücke-Museum.

Freie Universität Berlin: Dr. Meike Hoffmann
Brücke-Museum: Daniela Bystron, Lisa Marei Schmidt

What does friendship mean to you? Which contacts are important for you? And how do you express that in pictures and presents? Berlin-based painter Max Kaus (1881–1977) was a close friend of the Brücke artists.

The students were encouraged to find creative ways of expressing friendship in the exhibition Max Kaus. Among Friends and talked about similarities and differences between Max Kaus and the Brücke using various practical exercises.

Nursery, primary school, section I, section II
Subjects: Art, life studies, history, social sciences

The set of cards could guide you through the exhibition. You were free to draw, tell stories, and express your ideas and observations. Each card refered to a specific work of art or an aspect of the exhibition.

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November 2019 – March 2020

What would a painting be without a frame? How do artwork and frame fit together?

The Brücke artists have themselves created and commissioned frames for their paintings. Together we examined pictures and frames in the exhibition Never Apart and looked for Expressionist characteristics. Colours, shapes and materials played a major role.

Nursery, primary school
Subjects: Art, life studies, history, social sciences

November 2019 – March 2020

The frame limits the painting and thus clearly defines the boundaries of the artwork – doesn’t it?

Together, the students set out through the exhibition Never Apart in search of limitations and questioned the social framing of Brücke art, both then and now.

Primary school, section I, section II
Subjects: Art, life studies, history, social sciences

Duration: October 2019 – March 2020

Together with the Institute for Art Didactics and Aesthetic Education of the Berlin University of the Arts, forms of art didactics in connection with the out-of-school learning location museum, which is particularly important for art teaching, were discussed and experienced in this seminar.

In particular, art-didactic perspectives were designed and discussed on the basis of individual approaches to the museum as a place of (self-)education.

Berlin University of the Arts: Conrad Rodenberg
Brücke-Museum: Daniela Bystron

Duration: October 2019 – März 2020

Since 2017, Brücke-Museum has been under a new management. The view on the in-house artists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Otto Mueller and their colleagues is to be updated and anchored in the present. With this in mind, the museum is striving for close cooperation with scientists and artists. The first temporary exhibitions already show that many research questions have remained unanswered after the stylistic development of Brücke Expressionism had been in the foreground since the museum was founded in 1967.

Out of this desideratum, the project seminar was conceived with practical relevance to museum activities as its focus. The participants were introduced to the history of Brücke art as well as to curatorial work with museum collections and international discourses by Meike Hoffmann (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Freie Universität Berlin), Lisa Marei Schmidt (Director, Brücke-Museum) and Daniela Bystron (Curator of Outreach, Brücke-Museum). On this basis, the participants developed concepts for the presentation and mediation of individual groups of works from the collection of Brücke-Museum.

Freie Universität Berlin: Dr. Meike Hoffmann
Brücke-Museum: Daniela Bystron, Lisa Marei Schmidt

Duration: April–July 2019

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Questioning the Canon and Codes, Learning and Forgetting 

The aim of the seminar project was to examine experimental artistic approaches to art education and communication, extending from modernism to contemporary art. Participants analysed how different perspectives and cultural experiences of various networks and local neighbourhoods can be embedded in education through the use of society’s cultural canon. Building on this questioning, participants realised their own creative ideas for an artistic intervention at Brücke-Museum based on their specialist field.

Conclusion with artistic interventions at Brücke-Museum: 10 July 2019, 5–9 pm

Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee: Prof. Mona Jas
Brücke-Museum: Daniela Bystron

Duration: April – June 2019

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The exhibition Escape into Art? explored the scope for action in a dictatorship. During the war years, the artists withdrew from the city and found shelter in the countryside. This retreat into nature meant distance, peace and relaxation for them. What is it like today? Where do you retreat to when you are not feeling well? Are there places in nature where you feel good? And how would the garden and the museum have to be designed to make you enjoy being there?

Together with two artists (photography and film), the students explored the museum’s garden and developed their own ideas for its transformation. Afterwards they made short filmson personally chosen topics.

Hermann-Ehlers-Schule, Steglitz: Class 7c, Agnes Rohde und Arif Ulu
Script writer: Chris Wittenborn
Photographer: Henrike Hannemann
Programme Kulturagenten: Kristin Reinhardt
Project management: Nora Hogrefe

Sponsored by the programme Kulturagenten for creative schools Berlin.

April – August 2019

How does it feel to be excluded? Who decides who belongs and who doesn’t? The Brücke artists could no longer work as artists in National Socialism and their pictures were no longer allowed to be shown.

Together with the children, we were reflecting in the context of the exhibition Escape into Art? about questions like: What role do exclusion and discrimination play in their everyday lives today? Which solutions can be worked out together? The children explored the exhibition and talked about relevant questions of power, freedom and resistance in their everyday lives.

Primary school, section I
Subjects: Art, life studies, history, social sciences

April – August 2019

How and where can I change my attitude, my actions and my environment in order to work together with others for a fair society? How can I defend myself against discrimination? How do I find a productive way of dealing with my own privileges?

Dealing with the fate and room to manoeuvre of the Brücke artists under National Socialism in the exhibition Escape into Art? provided an opportunity for discussion about the present and about social power relations. In short exercises and discussions, the students developed ideas for their own (artistic) strategies of resistance.

Section I, section II
Subjects: Art, life studies, history, social sciences

December 2018 – March 2019

What do you collect? Why? What makes people want to collect art? What do museums collect? And what is not collected?

Swiss collector Eberhard W. Kornfeld owns a huge number of artworks, which were being shown in the exhibition Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The Swiss Years at Brücke-Museum. As part of this interactive tour, the children addressed the question of what is so fascinating about collecting. Using illustrative material, they identified the qualities and arrangements of collections and applied these to the exhibition.

Nursery, primary school, section I
Subjects: Art, life studies, history, social sciences

December 2018 – March 2019

How can art be evaluated? What belongs in a museum and what doesn’t? Who makes these decisions? Students worked together in the exibition Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The Swiss Years to discuss the evaluation criteria of artworks and through this dialogue they developed their own approach to the institutionalised museum. We ask, what criteria are important when it comes to considering artworks today? And how might they have changed over time?

Sections I and II
Subjects: Art, history, social sciences

Duration: September 2018 – August 2019

Of what relevance is the artists’ group Brücke today? How can these artists and their work relate to the everyday life of young people? Are there social and political analogies to be made with the present? How can Brücke art be recontextualised in today’s Berlin? What previously unexplored perspectives can be found in the museum? And how can young people become involved and contribute their questions, ideas and points of view to the museum and its work?

For this project, the participants used a process-oriented, student-centred, participatory approach which is closely aligned to the museum’s own practice: conducting research, propose questions, seeking methods and strategies to suggest possible answers, inviting experts and holding interviews. Sometimes Unanswerable deliberately began with asking young people personal questions oriented related to their biographical and cultural backgrounds, personal interests and tendencies. Here, museum staff, teachers and experts invited by the students themselves gave support in exploring research areas of their choice.  

Sometimes Unanswerable focused on questions but left the answers open – there is no right or wrong. This approach was based on the firm conviction that learning starts with the act of questioning. The particular aim of the project was to supplement the institutions of the museum and the school (which have traditionally stood for canonised knowledge) with more fluid and critical concepts of knowledge. Thus, we put faith in young people to take their questions seriously and to explore their own possible answers using creative strategies.

Kurt-Tucholsky-Schule, Pankow: Grit Wöhlert
Project management: Daniela Bystron, Nora Hogrefe
Artists: Karen Winzer and Markus Strieder, supported by Patrick Lindhof (film) and Anika Büssemeier (photography)

Sponsored by Berlin Project Funds for Cultural Education.

September – December 2018

While playing, time often flies by and while waiting it drags on forever. What’s a long time ago? How long is 100 years? With the exhibition 1913: The Brücke and Berlin, we looked back to the year 1913 from the perspective of the Brücke artists. How do we currently view the time back then and our own present? With drawing and performance exercises we made leaps back and forth in time, we compared, supplemented and played with time.

Primary school, Section I
Subjects: Art, life studies, history, social sciences

September – December 2018

More than 100 years ago, the Brücke artists portrayed their everyday life in the cafés, variety theatres and streets of Berlin. They searched for new ways of expression and values in everyday life and art. How do we today look back on those times? And how do we perceive our own present? Based on the works of the Brücke artists and the year 1913, the students discussed and researched the social changes and expectations we are subject to in comparison to then. They used various artistic means to translate their thoughts on this into everyday scenes of today.

Section I, section II
Subjects: Art, history, social sciences, german studies

Duration: May 2018 – May 2019

In relation to today’s global migration and the ever-increasing threats to artistic freedom, Berlin offers a new home to many artists and cultural workers who are at risk. The initiative Cosmopolitan Berlin, established by the Senate of Berlin, supports artists every year with a fellowship. Brücke-Museum has been working with the artist Kamal Sallat, who explored the artwork The Fishing Boat by Max Pechstein (1913). He was recontextualising this very important work held in Brücke-Museum’s collection, offering a very personal response by producing a series of paintings and a documentary film. At Brücke-Museum’s summer party on 11 August 2019, the film In a boat was screened for the public.

Fellow: Kamal Sallat
Brücke-Museum: Lisa Marei Schmidt, Daniela Bystron

Duration: April 2018–July 2018

For the first time, Brücke-Museum has been working with the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Applied Sciences, Berlin. Students on this course were introduced to fundamental ideas and skills of curating through both theory and practice. They were given insights into curating, programme development, various disciplinary approaches to collecting and exhibiting, the development of exhibition design ideas and narratives as well as the means of conveying information. In small groups, the students conceived an intervention in the presentation of the museum’s collection which takes a critical approach to the themes of sexism and racism.

University of Applied Sciences, Berlin (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft): Prof. Susan Kamel
Brücke-Museum: Daniela Bystron