BERLIN.- In 2026, Hamburger Bahnhof celebrates its 30th anniversary with a diverse year-long program: eight special exhibitions, a new collection display, as well as performances, concerts, and conferences that will expand the museum far beyond its site into the city itself.

Successful formats such as Open House and Berlin Beats will continue and grow. The highlight of the year will be the anniversary weekend from November 13–15, 2026. Over these days, an international conference will discuss the future of collecting museums of contemporary art and the museum will be open continuously for 30 hours.

Berlin is and remains a city of art, and Hamburger Bahnhof is an integral part of this vibrant cultural landscape. Since its opening on November 3, 1996, as a location for the Nationalgalerie’s collection, the museum has become an international meeting point for contemporary art. In 2026, Hamburger Bahnhof celebrates its 30th anniversary with a program that spans from the site’s history into the future. The projects developed for the anniversary year present the museum as a place of artistic renewal, rooted in Berlin yet globally connected. The exhibitions revolve around artistic exchange and collaboration, forms of participation, and the museum’s role in the city.

The anniversary program encompasses eight new exhibitions with Giulia Andreani, Sophie Calle, Tacita Dean, Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Ayşe Erkmen, Shilpa Gupta, Henrik Håkansson, Lina Lapelytė, [ materialistin ], Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Tomás Saraceno, and features a new collection display including works by Pierre Huyghe, Bunny Rogers, Katharina Sieverding, Rikrit Tiravanija, and others.

“For the 30th anniversary, Hamburger Bahnhof is opening itself even more to its audiences,” say directors Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. “We celebrate Berlin as a vibrant and diverse art city with global resonance. Free programs invite people to visit us for the first time. As the National Gallery of Contemporary Art, we want to welcome everyone to join us in a year-long celebration.”

Even before its opening as a museum, the building was used by artists as an alternative exhibition venue. The anniversary year builds on this history: starting in February, Annika Kahrs will present performances in public space, followed by concerts from Saâdane Afif. In April, Petrit Halilaj will stage his first opera Syrigana with the Kosovo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Over the year, the Crossroads# series will expand with interdisciplinary projects at the intersections of art, literature, theater, and music, in collaboration with Literaturhaus Berlin and other institutions.

The education program will continue to evolve in the anniversary year. In addition to 1,000 free guided tours and an open studio in the Rieckhallen, new participatory formats and an extended school program will be developed. A digital platform will make the museum’s discursive content freely accessible from autumn 2026. By the end of 2026, the museum’s publication series will grow to more than 25 volumes.

During the anniversary weekend, November 13–15, 2026, an interna- tional multi-day conference will address how museums of contemporary art collections can position themselves for the future. In parallel, the museum will open for 30 consecutive hours on November 14–15, celebrating art together through the night.

At the heart of the anniversary program are eight special exhibitions: six solo shows by international artists, two group exhibitions, and a new collection display. The year begins with Giulia Andreani’s first institutional solo exhibition in Germany (February 27 – September 13, 2026). Her new paintings, created for the exhibition, will be shown alongside works from the Antikensammlung, the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Museum of European Cultures, and the Kupferstichkabinett, reframing historical col- lections from a contemporary perspective.

Shilpa Gupta (March 27, 2026 – January 3, 2027) presents works exploring language, borders, and power structures, in direct dialogue with Joseph Beuys and the Marx Collection. Her work underscores a central theme of Hamburger Bahnhof since its founding: artistic exchange as a foundation.

In May, during Gallery Weekend, the second edition of the CHANEL Commission will be realized. Lina Lapelytė will transform the Historic Hall into a polyphonic stage for a participatory choreography (May 1, 2026 – January 10, 2027). Visitors will be invited to actively participate in this large-scale commission, which places the unique architecture of Hamburger Bahnhof at its core during the anniversary year.

On June 12, 2026, Hamburger Bahnhof will open its new presentation of the collection of contemporary art, focusing on Berlin’s art scene in global dialogue from 1989 to today. In parallel, Ayşe Erkmen will develop a new work for the Endless Exhibition. Both displays will open during the fourth edition of Open House (June 12–14, 2026). In 2025, Open House welcomed 40,000 visitors. At the same time, the fourth edition of the outdoor series Berlin Beats will launch. Since its inception in 2023, it has attracted 200,000 visitors to the museum’s garden.

The group exhibition by [ materialistin ] (July 3, 2026 – February 28, 2027) brings together the eight Leipzig-based sculptors Laura Eckert, Enne Haehnle, Elisabeth Howey, Lucy König, Agnes Lammert, Wibke Rahn, Theresa Rothe, and Sophie Uchman, highlighting new forms of collective practice and solidarity. This sends a signal far beyond Ham- burger Bahnhof during the anniversary year.

In the second half of the year, starting with Berlin Art Week in September, the exhibition by Ryuichi Sakamoto explores the artist’s groundbreaking impact on sound and moving image art—a hallmark of Hamburger Bahnhof since its founding 30 years ago (11.9.26–23.5.27). This first major retrospective in Europe highlights Sakamoto’s diverse, innovative practice, including immersive, three-dimensional sound installations developed with various collaborators.

From October 9, 2026, five artists—Tacita Dean, Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Henrik Håkansson, and Tomás Saraceno—return to the Rieckhallen, where they had studios over many years. The group exhibition underscores the ongoing creative relevance of this unique site.

Finally, Sophie Calle will conclude the anniversary year with a major ex- hibition opening during the anniversary weekend (November 13, 2026 – May 2, 2027). The show will combine works created in Berlin with others referencing the museum’s history as a train station, complemented by a new work commissioned especially for the 30th anniversary collection.