First the cashier told us that there are no reduced tickets for students, even though it is written that there is a reduction for students. Then we were told we needed to check our jackets in the wardrobe, which we did and were given one token for two jackets by the attendant. When we returned for our jackets after the exhibition the attendant returned only one jacket to us, when we asked for the second jacket a different attendant (who acted as though he may have been a manager) intervened and told us we cannot store two jackets with one token. We informed him that we were only given one token by the attendant, to which we replied that we had created a „dangerous“ situation. Luckily he handed us our second jacket from under the Theke and we promptly left, that type of nonsense merits no response. Unfortunately this was not the worst nor first case of unprofessionalism I have experienced at the national museums, therefore I no longer purchase a yearly membership like I did for many years (see my review of the Pergamon museum).

As for the exhibitions, the permanent collection is organized chronologically, beginning with post-war modernism and progressing to contemporary performance and video art. The curators divide the periods thematically, which indeed gave an interesting overview of how art and public discourse interact and evolve. However the curators interventions seemed more congratulatory than critical. From example the section themed „self-identification“ might have explicitly drawn a connection to the complicity of art in the escalating demands of a capitalist society that celebrates unencumbered individualism to the detriment of civic engagement. Instead it merely gestured limply to the rise of feminism.

The Gerhard Richter exhibition was similarly uncritical. There are little curatorial mediation and I found the juxtaposition of archival photographs documenting the atrocities of Auschwitz-Birkenau with Richters self-masturbatory abstract expressionist works to be highly distasteful. Richter is the highest-selling, living artist. What justifies capitalizing on one of the worst crimes in modern history?

Anyway, I will continue my boycott of Berlin‘s state museums and I will feel completely justified in my decision. Potential visitors ought to consider following suit. It is not worth the harassment from the staff.