Dear people of Wiesbaden,

200 years of Museum Wiesbaden - this is a truly special occasion that deserves to be celebrated and honored. For two centuries, this museum has fascinated people of all generations with its impressive collections and exhibitions. It is a place of education, inspiration and amazement - a place that combines art and nature as well as history and the present. Our museum is a cultural beacon for the region, a great enrichment for the city and a gift to urban society.

Museum Wiesbaden is celebrating its 200th birthday this year with a major exhibition program. The central month of the anniversary celebrations is April, including a major ceremony: throughout the month, the public can expect a colorful program with many special highlights. Admission is free on the four weekends in April.

Thanks to a suggestion by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and civic commitment, the museum opened its doors to the public for the first time on April 1, 1825. The exhibits at the Museum Wiesbaden range from prehistoric times to the present day and are divided into the Old Masters Collection, Classical Modern Art, Modern and Contemporary Art and the Natural History Collections. The three-winged museum building was built between 1912 and 1920 according to plans by architect Theodor Fischer. Following extensive refurbishment, the museum has been presenting its collections on 7,000 square meters of exhibition space since May 2013 in a tour that aesthetically combines the contemplation of art and nature.

In the spring of the anniversary year, special exhibitions in the art department will show Sven Drühl's artistic and theoretical examination of 19th century landscape painting, the century in which the museum was founded. Photographs by Dirk Reinartz provide a rare insight into the creation of Richard Serra's sculptures. In the fall, the Department of Classical Modernism with Feininger, Münter, Modersohn-Becker shows how art enters museum collections through civic engagement. There will also be a special focus on Ilse Leda and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, especially as the museum will also be the venue for the highly endowed Vordemberge-Gildewart scholarship. "Louise Nevelson - The Poetry of Searching" presents the sensitive and material-rich art of the exceptional American artist in a solo exhibition with a special focus on Nevelson's little-known collages.

The Natural History Collections are presenting three study exhibitions to accompany the annual exhibition "Honey Yellow", which will be on display until June 22, and the newly opened collection room. From the largest and smallest representatives of the animal kingdom to a scientific examination of eggs as the origin of life and a reappraisal of the collection from Cameroon, the study exhibitions offer a wide range of topics to deepen knowledge.

To mark the anniversary, the permanent exhibition Aesthetics of Nature will be ceremoniously supplemented with a new themed room, "Change", from April. The approach of presenting nature from its sensual and aesthetic side in themed rooms is unique in the world. Using more than 6000 animals, plants, minerals and fossils, the phenomena of color, form, movement, time and change are vividly conveyed. The new themed room makes it clear that nature is in a constant state of change, be it the movement of continents, the diversity of minerals or the metamorphosis of butterflies. Climate change and its consequences are also brought to life. A special focus is placed on the co-founder of modern science, who was also an important artist: Maria Sibylla Merian. Her original animal specimens from her trip to South America are among the treasures in the museum's depots.

Sincerely

Gert-Uwe Mende
Lord Mayor