Powerful Art Nouveau and vulnerable Symbolism can be experienced in a unique way at the Museum Wiesbaden as a joint expression of the fin de siècle attitude to life. The collection of Ferdinand Wolfgang Neess, one of the most important European private collections of Art Nouveau and Symbolism, is responsible for this.

With the donation agreement of March 23, 2017, it became the property of the Landesmuseum Wiesbaden and the museum thus succeeded in keeping the extraordinary collection, which was put together by the collector at the highest level over a period of more than 40 years, in Germany. The Museum Wiesbaden is now on a par with the leading museums of Art Nouveau in Europe and will become one of the most important centers of Art Nouveau in Germany in the future.

The collection, consisting of over 500 objects, is characterized both by the exceptional quality of the works and their great art-historical significance.

The special feature of the collection lies in its international character with German, French and Austrian works of art and was conceived in the spirit of Art Nouveau with a view to unity. Furniture, glass, ceramics, lamps, paintings and silver are united as a complete work of art. This is representative of the feeling at the time of inseparably combining art and nature.