Reunified Germany and the present
After the fall of the Wall, Berlin became a magnet for artists from all over the world, and the memory of history shaped monuments, museums and contemporary art alike.
When the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, it opened up a city full of empty buildings, vacant lots and cheap studios. Artists from all over the world moved there. Galleries opened in abandoned premises in East Berlin, and clubs and art spaces sprang up in old factories. In 1995 Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the Reichstag in silvery fabric, and millions of people came to see it. In the 1990s and 2000s Berlin became one of the most important art cities in the world.
Reunified Germany also built its memory. Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum and Peter Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe became new landmarks in Berlin. The artist Gunter Demnig began laying Stolpersteine, “stumbling stones”: small brass plaques set into the pavement bearing the names of victims of Nazism outside their last homes. At the same time destroyed buildings such as the Frauenkirche in Dresden and the City Palace in Berlin were rebuilt, prompting debate about how to relate to history.
German and Austrian artists are today among the best known in the world. Photographers from Düsseldorf such as Andreas Gursky and Thomas Struth created huge, sharp images of a globalised world. Neo Rauch and the New Leipzig School breathed new life into figurative painting. Wolfgang Tillmans, Hito Steyerl and Anne Imhof work with photography, video and performance. Meanwhile, the colonial collections of museums are under discussion, and objects have begun to be returned to the countries from which they were once taken.