Humboldt Forum

A unique meeting place for science and culture in the centre of Berlin

The Humboldt Laboratory is located in a unique place: with the opening of the HUMBOLDT FORUM, a new centre of culture and science is being created between the Brandenburg Gate and Alexanderplatz, in the historic centre of Berlin. Opposite the Museum Island, the reinterpretation of the Berlin Palace by Italian architect Franco Stella, which was blown up in 1950, combines faithfully reconstructed baroque façades with contemporary architectural language and contemporary art, history with the present and the future. The Humboldt Forum brings together the arts, cultures, fields of knowledge, people, communities and perspectives and creates spaces for surprising experiments and inspiring encounters.

The cultural programme

Permanent exhibitions allow visitors to experience the art and cultures of Asia, Oceania, Africa and America, the city of Berlin’s many interconnections with the world and the 800-year history of the site in all its diversity and reflect on the pressing issues of our time from different perspectives. This also includes dealing with the colonial legacy. Various special exhibitions and other temporary exhibitions are dedicated to a wide range of current topics, issues, developments and challenges in a global context. The exhibitions are curated in close cooperation with the relevant communities and from the outset with an educational perspective, and are designed together with various events and cultural education formats.

In close collaboration with diasporic communities, a programme of events for everyone includes contemporary arts such as music, theatre, dance, performance, literature, film and media, and enables artistic participation and popular discourse. There is also a comprehensive education and outreach programme for groups and individual visitors throughout the building. Guided tours, creative educational formats, participatory workshops, talks and artistic projects are offered on all floors.

The players

The intended polyphony is already inherent in the interaction between the four players in the building. These are the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) with the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art of the National Museums in Berlin (SMB), Kulturprojekte Berlin and Stadtmuseum Berlin, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) and, as host, the Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace.