Location: Altes Rathaus, Maximilianstr 33
Tel. +49 0921/ 764 5310
Open: 10am- 5pm Tue- Sun
10am- 5pm July- Aug
The Bayreuth Art Museum is the museum for modern art in the city of Bayreuth. In the historic rooms of the Old Town Hall[note. 1] at the junction of Brautgasse and Maximilianstrasse, exhibitions on contemporary art and classical modern art are presented. Guided tours, museum educational events and lectures for everyone complement the museum's exhibition program.
History of the Building: From Medieval Origins to Baroque Town Hall
The site has medieval roots. A predecessor structure on the spot was
destroyed during the Hussite Wars in 1430. The building burned down
again in major city fires in 1605 (along with most of the southern
market row) and 1621 (with much of the marketplace). The front section
was newly erected in 1679.
In 1721, the hospital foundation
(Spitalstiftung) acquired the property and designated it as Bayreuth’s
new town hall. Between 1722 and 1727, the margrave’s court architect
Johann David Räntz carried out a major reconstruction and partial new
build. This gave the structure its distinctive baroque
appearance—today’s visitors still see the ornate portal with the
margrave’s lion above the Brautgasse entrance and elaborate
Renaissance-style stucco ceilings in the former mayor’s offices.
For
nearly two centuries (1721–1916/17), the building functioned as
Bayreuth’s primary town hall. Over time it also housed:
The city
court (1797–1812)
The district and city court (1816–1832)
Classrooms for the district trade school (rear building, second floor,
1833–1893)
City post office rooms (front building, ground floor,
1867–1893)
In 1916, most municipal offices moved to the newly
opened “New Town Hall” in the Reitzenstein Palace on Luitpoldplatz. The
old building then briefly served as the city library (1921–1928, rear
building ground floor).
After World War II, when the new town hall
was destroyed, the old building once again became the town hall
(1945–1972). Following the opening of the modern town hall in 1972, it
housed the Bavarian state police until 1996.
A dark chapter in the
building’s 20th-century history occurred during the Nazi era: on the
night of the Pogrom (Kristallnacht), 9–10 November 1938, Jewish citizens
of Bayreuth were driven into the open inner courtyard of the then-town
hall and held there before deportation to concentration camps. A
memorial plaque installed by the museum and the city now commemorates
the victims.
Founding and Opening of the Kunstmuseum Bayreuth
(1990s–1999)
The museum’s creation was a late-20th-century civic and
cultural initiative. In 1991, the Dr. Helmut und Constanze Meyer
Kunststiftung (Dr. Helmut and Constanze Meyer Art Foundation) was
established in Bayreuth with a significant private collection of modern
art. In the early 1990s, then-Lord Mayor Dr. Dieter Mronz successfully
persuaded the foundation to locate its permanent home in Bayreuth rather
than elsewhere. The historic Altes Barockrathaus—vacated by the police
in 1996—was chosen as the ideal venue because of its central location
and architectural prestige.
The city purchased the building from the
hospital foundation in 1995. A thorough renovation and conversion
(costing approximately 13 million German marks) took place from 1996 to
1999, preserving historic fabric while adapting the interiors for museum
use (including wheelchair accessibility and an elevator). On 3 December
1999, the building was inaugurated as a cultural center housing the new
Kunstmuseum Bayreuth alongside gastronomic facilities. The museum itself
opened to the public in December 1999.
Collections and
Institutional Growth (1999–Present)
The core of the museum’s holdings
comes from the Meyer Foundation, which donated or loaned important
20th-century works (including pieces by artists such as Max Beckmann and
Otto Dix). Over the years the collection has grown through additional
foundations and donations:
Prof. Dr. Klaus Dettmann Art
Foundation
Voith von Voithenberg Foundation
Georg Jakob Best /
Viola Schweinfurter Foundation
Permanent loans from the Oberfranken
Foundation (Caspar Walther Rauh and Werner Froemel Collections)
Georg
Tappert Donation
The museum now holds roughly 10,000–20,000
objects (estimates vary by source), the majority being works on paper,
plus a notable poster collection of 18,000–22,000 items. In the former
mayor’s offices, the museum also displays the Tabakhistorische Sammlung
(Historical Tobacco Collection) of British American Tobacco, housed
beneath elaborate Renaissance ceilings.
Programming has always
emphasized rotating exhibitions rather than a fixed permanent display,
allowing the museum to showcase different facets of its collections and
guest works. Major anniversary exhibitions have marked 15 years (2014)
and 20 years (2019) of the museum’s existence.
Significance Today
The Kunstmuseum Bayreuth stands out as one of the few dedicated
modern-art institutions in Upper Franconia. By placing a forward-looking
collection of 20th- and 21st-century art inside a building whose fabric
spans medieval, baroque, 19th-century civic, and post-war eras, the
museum creates a dialogue between historical continuity and artistic
innovation—fitting for a city world-famous for Wagner’s Festival but
equally committed to preserving its broader cultural heritage. Guided
tours, lectures, and educational programs further integrate the museum
into Bayreuth’s cultural life.
The Museum of Art Bayreuth (Kunstmuseum Bayreuth) is a modern art
museum in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany, specializing in 20th-century art
with a strong emphasis on graphic works (primarily works on paper such
as prints, drawings, watercolors, gouaches, and sketches). It opened in
1999 in the historic Old Baroque Town Hall (Altes Barockrathaus) at
Maximilianstraße 33 in the heart of the city’s old town. The museum was
founded through private initiatives—starting with the Dr. Helmut and
Constanze Meyer Art Foundation (established 1991)—and has grown rapidly
through donations, artist bequests, and permanent loans. Its holdings
are not displayed permanently; instead, thematic selections from the
collections appear in rotating exhibitions, often accompanied by an
extensive educational program.
Core Focus of the Collection
The museum’s approximately 40,000 artworks (as of recent updates;
earlier estimates ranged from 10,000–20,000) center almost exclusively
on 20th-century art, with the vast majority being works on paper stored
in the depot and shown selectively. Key movements represented include:
Expressionism (especially the Brücke group)
Constructivism
Surrealism
New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)
Figuration and
abstraction after 1945
European Abstract Expressionism
Concretism
/ Concretion
Concept Art
Fluxus and Happening
Outsider Art (Art
Brut) as a notable secondary focus
The collection prioritizes
graphic art over large-scale paintings or sculpture, giving visitors an
intimate view of artists’ processes through sketches, studies, and
prints. It also includes regional post-war art from Upper Franconia,
particularly works linked to the “Freie Gruppe Bayreuth” (Free Group
Bayreuth, active 1951–1980, later succeeded by the Kunstverein
Bayreuth), which the museum has fully incorporated.
Major
Foundations, Donations, and Loans
The collection is built almost
entirely from private foundations, artist gifts, and loans rather than
public acquisitions. The most important are:
Dr. Helmut and
Constanze Meyer Art Foundation (founding collection, 1991): The
cornerstone. It features strong holdings in classic modernism and
“second modernism” post-1945. Highlights include Brücke artists (Erich
Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Müller, Max Pechstein, Karl
Schmidt-Rottluff), New Objectivity figures (Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Karl
Hubbuch), and later artists such as Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Alfred Hrdlicka,
Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, and Max Ackermann. It also covers Surrealism,
Constructivism, Fluxus, and Concept Art.
Prof. Dr. Klaus Dettmann Art
Foundation (2002): Emphasizes Bauhaus and abstraction/concretion. Key
artists include Josef Albers, Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Wassily
Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Max Bill, and Fritz Winter. It also holds works
exploring light/shadow, color, and Optical Art (e.g., Victor Vasarely,
Bridget Riley, and others such as Gerhard Frömel, Winfried Gaul, Otto
Herbert Hajek, Erwin Heerich, Diethelm Koch, Georg Karl Pfahler, and
Kurt Teuscher).
Voith von Voithenberg Foundation (2009) and related
gifts: Strongly tied to post-war regional art and the Freie Gruppe
Bayreuth. It complements holdings in figuration/abstraction from the
1940s–1960s, including artists like Hanna Barth, Werner Froemel,
Ferdinand Röntgen, Heinrich Faust, Alfred Russ, and Anton Russ.
Georg
Jakob Best Art Foundation Viola Schweinfurter (2014): Another private
donor contribution expanding the modern graphics focus.
Georg Tappert
Donation (1992, gift to the city of Bayreuth): A focused collection of
217 works (out of ~250 known) by the Expressionist/New Objectivity
painter and graphic artist Georg Tappert. It includes oil sketches,
gouaches, watercolors, pastels, and pencil drawings, mostly from
1926–1933, offering deep insight into his working process. Tappert was
associated with the Brücke circle and Novembergruppe.
Permanent loans
from the Oberfranken Foundation:
Caspar Walter Rauh Collection: The
entire workshop complex plus extensive drawings, prints, and paintings
by the “Fantastic Realist” Caspar Walter Rauh (1912–1983). It includes
hundreds of additional pieces acquired in 2014. Rauh’s graphic work is
often compared to Paul Klee and James Ensor.
Werner Froemel
Collection (2010): Post-war regional works, overlapping with Freie
Gruppe Bayreuth themes.
Other notable artist donations and
bequests include substantial gifts from Max Ackermann, Ulrike Andresen,
Herbert Bessel, Paul Eliasberg & Jeanne Gedon, Hasso von Henninges,
Werner Knapp, Anton Russ, Eduard Sauerzopf, Kurt Teuscher, Hansjörg
Voth, and collectors such as Hertha Drescher, Günter Ruckdäschel, and
Felix & Sybille Böcker. These have enriched the holdings in abstraction,
concretism, and regional post-war figuration.
The Bayreuth Poster
Museum (Plakatmuseum)
Housed within the Kunstmuseum, this is one of
the largest specialized poster collections in Germany, with
approximately 22,000–25,000 posters (earlier estimates ~18,000). The
focus is on cultural posters (literature, theater, exhibitions, music,
dance) but also includes historical, sports, travel, and gastronomy
themes. Posters date mainly from the mid-20th century onward and are
shown thematically alongside the fine-art collections.
Historical
Tobacco Collection (Tabakhistorische Sammlung der B.A.T.)
Occupying
the former mayor’s offices (with elaborate Renaissance-style ceilings),
this separate but integrated collection belongs to British American
Tobacco. It comprises over 500 objects documenting the history of
tobacco culture worldwide—pipes, smoking accessories, chewing tobacco,
advertising, and cultural artifacts. It provides a fascinating contrast
to the modern art displays in the same historic building.
How the
Collection Is Experienced
Because of its size and graphic nature
(most works are light-sensitive), the museum rotates selections in
thematic exhibitions (e.g., portraits, abstraction/concretion, post-war
Bayreuth art, or focus shows on individual foundations). Recent examples
include “Kunst in Bayreuth – Werke der 1940er bis 1960er Jahre”
(highlighting Freie Gruppe artists) and “Schau mich an!” (portraits from
the collections, featuring Beckmann, Kollwitz, Dix, Tappert, etc.). The
building’s restored Baroque and Renaissance interiors add an atmospheric
layer to the modern art.