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Press service
The Neue Sammlung – founded nearly 100 years ago – is regarded as the world's first design museum – long before the term came into use. Ever since then, the Museum has made design history through its international acquisitions and its innovatively inspiring exhibitions. The Museum's philosophy and policy: openness to experiments, dedication towards the presence and strong determination in respect to trend-setting design and creative quality. Down to the present day, the word “Neu” (new) in the Museum’s name, represents its avantgardist program and objective. From the very beginning, the collection’s focus has been on modern, everyday, exemplary designed items and has always been dedicated to various aspects of industrial production. With ca. 80,000 objects from the fields of industrial and product design, graphic design and the applied arts, The Neue Sammlung is one of the leading museums for 20th and 21st century applied arts and the world’s leading museum for product and industrial design. The idea behind setting up the museum was closely linked to the ideals and foundation of the German Werkbund in Munich in 1907. From that time onwards the creation of a “modern collection of exemplary items” began, which became the core of The Neue Sammlung’s collection. In view of the indispensability of industrial production methods, from the very outset the emphasis was on acquiring “modern” everyday objects with an exemplary design. This marked a conscious break with the practice followed by most arts and crafts museums of the day. Between 1980 and 2005 alone, the number of objects in the Museum’s permanent collection has tripled. Industrial, and product design have always formed a special focal topic. Then there are the various fields of applied arts, not to mention graphic design and photography. In addition, totally new collection fields were assembled in recent decades, such as computer culture, sport equipment, systems development (so typical of today), or individual exemplary aspects of automobile design. It was not until 1990 that the constant call for adequate premises led to the decision to have two new buildings: Neues Museum in Nuremberg – opened in April 2000 – and Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich – opened in September 2002. At Pinakothek der Moderne it is possible for the first time to hold a permanent installation presenting aspects of the many-sided history and development of design in the 20th and 21st centuries to a broad public. What is even more astounding: this is achieved in a building in which four independant museums present cross-disciplinary exhibitions under a single roof –besides the museum for modern fine arts and The Neue Sammlung responsible for design these are museums for works on paper, and architecture. The Neue Sammlung was founded in pursuit of a vision. “Humanizing society through design” was the way one of our directors described this goal. Almost a century after the collection was established, the items of artistic striving displayed here are the visible signs of that vision and are now on show in the museums in Munich and Nuremberg, where an international audience ponders over them. |
