The Gemäldegalerie, at the Kulturforum near Potsdamer Platz, is the Old Masters museum of the Berlin State Museums: European painting from the 13th to the 18th century, with two Vermeers, a group of Rembrandts, Caravaggio's Amor Victorious, Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs, Van Eyck, Dürer, Holbein and Botticelli. The paintings hang in a building opened in 1998, all on one level, around a large central hall. It is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 (closed on Mondays, no late opening); a ticket costs €14 (reduced €7) and entry is free for under-18s. Allow 2 to 3 hours for the visit.
Highlights
The two Vermeers
The gallery owns Woman with a Pearl Necklace, a young woman looking at herself in a mirror by a window, and The Glass of Wine, an interior scene in which a standing man waits for a woman to finish her glass. They hang in the rooms of 17th-century Dutch painting.
Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs
Painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1559, this teeming village illustrates around a hundred proverbs and sayings of the time, from the wife draping a blue cloak over her husband's shoulders to the man banging his head against a wall. Take your time to find them one by one.
Rembrandt and his circle
The Rembrandt room includes Susanna and the Elders. It also shows The Man with the Golden Helmet, long his most famous painting, now attributed to his circle.
Caravaggio's Amor Victorious
Amor vincit omnia shows a naked, laughing Cupid amid the musical instruments, books and armour he has thrown to the ground. The painting comes from the collection of Marquis Giustiniani in Rome.
Van Eyck, Dürer and Holbein
Early Netherlandish painting and the German Renaissance are the other highlight: Jan van Eyck's Madonna in the Church, Albrecht Dürer's portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher and Hans Holbein the Younger's The Merchant Georg Gisze, surrounded by the objects of his counting house.
The Kulturforum
The museum, designed by the architects Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht, opens onto the Kulturforum plaza. Its 18 halls and 41 cabinets are arranged in a horseshoe around the central hall. The [Neue Nationalgalerie](/fr/attractions/neue-nationalgalerie) and the [Philharmonie](/fr/attractions/philharmonie-de-berlin) are a few minutes' walk away.
Exhibitions
Until 10 January 2027, a cabinet exhibition marks the 300th anniversary of the Berlin draughtsman Daniel Chodowiecki. From 16 October 2026 to 14 March 2027, "Porträts!" brings together portraits from Botticelli to Tamara de Lempicka, by way of Dürer, Giorgione, Rubens and Gainsborough; the ticket including this exhibition costs €16 (reduced €8).
Opening hours and tickets
Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, closed on Mondays; closed on 24 and 31 December, open as on a Sunday on 25 and 26 December. Ticket €14, reduced €7 (pupils, apprentices, students, jobseekers, visitors with a disability of 50 % or more, with proof). Free for under-18s. The Kulturforum ticket (€22, reduced €11), valid for one day, covers the Gemäldegalerie, the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Kunstgewerbemuseum, the Kupferstichkabinett, the Kunstbibliothek and the Musikinstrumenten-Museum. There is no longer a free Sunday: the Museumssonntag was discontinued at the end of 2024.
Infos pratiques
Tips
Buy your ticket online from the Berlin State Museums shop, up to four weeks in advance, to skip the ticket desk queue (prices checked in October 2026). If you also visit the [Neue Nationalgalerie](/fr/attractions/neue-nationalgalerie) on the same day, the €22 Kulturforum ticket costs less than two separate tickets. The large halls are numbered in Roman numerals and the cabinets in Arabic numerals: find the Dutch and Flemish rooms on the floor plan so you don't miss Vermeer and Bruegel.
How to get there
Johanna-und-Eduard-Arnhold-Platz / Matthäikirchplatz, 10785 Berlin; entrance from the Kulturforum plaza. U-Bahn U2 and S-Bahn S1, S2, S25 and S26 to [Potsdamer Platz](/fr/attractions/potsdamer-platz), then about 10 minutes on foot. Bus 200 (Philharmonie stop), M48 and M85 (Kulturforum stop).
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