A day full of impressive museums.

Students first visited the Altes Museum, where they viewed many clay figures that were used in ancient Greek society which contained a diversity of ancient terracotta figures across a broad temporal and geographical framework and the permanent collection of Ancient Worlds, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans.

Next stop was, The Alte National Galerie, regarded as a comprehensive collection of art of the era between the French Revolution and the First World War, between Classicism and Secessions. The museum had many floors containing different art of the 19th and early 20th century. Adolph Menzel’s paintings were among them including important works such as “The Balcony Room” and the “Iron Rolling Mill”. The collection also contained high quality Impressionist paintings, like masterpieces by Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne and sculptures by Auguste Rodin. Other paintings included Caspar David Friedrich from all phases of his artistic career which illustrated the development of the great master of German Romantic art. The collection also contained paintings by Max Liebermann and many, many more artists.

The day ended in the massive Pergamon Museum. One wing of the museum contained the permanent exhibition of Islamic Art, which showcased the architecture and material culture of Islamic peoples and societies from the 8th to the 19th century. The works of art originate from the vast area stretching from Spain to India. The collection’s main focus was on Western Asia and Egypt. One of the major attractions can be walked through to experience the world-famous reconstructions of brilliantly colored Babylonian monuments: the Processional Way, the Ishtar Gate and the façade of the throne hall of King Nebuchadnezzar II. On display in another section was the reopened, Dreams and Trauma, exhibition containing vivid carpets and tapestries. For the first time, this exhibition displayed textiles that were damaged by fire during the hail of bombs that rained down on Berlin in 1945.

Students also visited the Neue Museum which provided insight into the continuity and changes of Ancient Egyptian culture over four millennia as well as the cultural history of Ancient Sudan; this included the famous life-sized painted bust of the queen Nefertiti. In the upper floor of the museum, the display of Prehistory and Early History showed the oldest eras of human history including the prehistory and ancient history of Europe and near-lying regions of Asia.