As Hilke Wagner, the museum director, explains, the Albertinum dates from
“... between 1559 and 1563. Built as an arsenal, it had a military purpose. In the seventeenth century under Augustus the Strong and the eighteenth century under Friedrich August II, it then underwent a series of alterations and extensions.
It was first called the ‘Albertinum’ in the late nineteenth century in honour of King Albert of Saxony, then the reigning monarch.
At that time, under museum director Georg Treu, the Sculpture Collection was created by merging the antiquities and plaster casts collections. Although an archaeologist by profession, Treu was very interested in contemporary art. He was instrumental, for instance, in purchasing works by Auguste Rodin – even though this meant he had to push back against resistance in the city. Treu’s acquisition policy had incensed local sculptors and, in what became known as the ‘sculptor dispute’, they voiced their indignation at purchases of works by, of all people, a French contemporary artist. Today, thanks to Georg Treu’s courage and determination, we can boast one of the largest collections of Rodin’s works outside France.
The bombing of Dresden in 1945 left the Albertinum badly damaged, with the main staircase and atrium totally gutted by fire. Our holdings were taken to Moscow and only returned in 1958.
In 1959, the collection was divided into works before 1800 – the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister – and works after 1800 – the Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, which was also given its own management.
From 1959, due to a lack of exhibition space, the holdings of the Sculpture Collection, the Porcelain Collection, the Collection of Prints, Drawings and Photography, as well as the collection of New Masters’ paintings were also shown in the Albertinum, together with works from the Historic Green Vault, the Numismatic Collection and the Armoury.
With the second floor reconstructed by 1965, this space could be used to present the permanent exhibition of the Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister – the paintings from after 1800.
Every five years, the Albertinum also held the Art Exhibitions of the GDR – legendary exhibitions which today are also dubbed the ‘East German Documenta’.
In 2002, the River Elbe burst its banks. Since the Albertinum is located directly on the riverbank, it was badly hit, with the flood waters inundating our basement storage facilities. Two years later, the Historic Green Vault and the Numismatic Collection were moved out of the Albertinum and into the Palace.
In 2005, the Gerhard Richter Archive was founded. Thanks to the Archive, which is based in the Albertinum, we can now permanently dedicate two rooms to Gerhard Richter’s extensive oeuvre.
From 2006 to 2010, Staab Architekten, a Berlin-based architectural office, oversaw the Albertinum’s major programme of alterations and refurbishment. The project’s most ingenious feature was the idea of covering the atrium – which now provides us with this wonderful forum.
In 2014, the collections of paintings and of sculptures since 1800 were both placed under a single management team to further strengthen the museum’s cross-genre, integrative approach – and that was also the moment I started my work as director."
Together with the neighbouring University of Fine Arts and the Lipsiusbau exhibition building on the other side of the Georg-Treu-Platz, the Albertinum is also a major centre for contemporary art."
