Hamburg's largest art museum, with eight centuries of art from the Middle Ages to today, including Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog".
October 18, 2024 – October 11, 2026
A major show of contemporary art from the museum's own collection, with artist rooms and many new acquisitions on view for the first time, including works by Isa Genzken, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Wall and Haegue Yang.
August 21, 2026 – January 10, 2027
The first solo exhibition in Germany by the New York artist, who works with reflective surfaces, photography and chemical processes – held on the occasion of her Maria Lassnig Prize.
October 9, 2026 – February 21, 2027
A retrospective marking the US painter's 85th birthday, with more than 50 paintings, some of them room-filling, along with copper reliefs and works on paper that relate color, form and architecture to one another.
November 20, 2026 – May 2, 2027
Around 40 key works of media art from the Centre Pompidou, which is being renovated until 2030, present current radical positions on how artists engage with technology.
April 24, 2026 – April 11, 2027
For the first time, the museum presents its sculpture collection comprehensively: across 1,500 m², almost 1,000 works spanning 2,500 years come together, including around 650 coins, medals and reliefs as well as sculptures by Rodin and Maillol.
September 4, 2026 – May 30, 2027
A new presentation of the modern collection with more than 150 works from Expressionism to postwar abstraction; the central figures are Max Beckmann and Anita Rée.
October 29, 2021 – November 14, 2027
Around 70 paintings and sculptures from the museum's holdings place French and German Impressionists side by side and question national categories.
January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2026
A long-term presentation centered on Makart's "The Entry of Charles V into Antwerp", the museum's largest painting, in the context of European salon painting.
September 17, 2027 – January 30, 2028
An anniversary exhibition marking the Romantic painter's 250th birthday, placing his work in dialogue with positions from his own time and from the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Hamburger Kunsthalle grew out of civic engagement. The Kunstverein (art association), founded in 1817, campaigned for decades for a municipal art museum; in 1863, donations from the collectors Georg Ernst Harzen and Johann Matthias Commeter formed the core of the collection. Financed largely by donations, a brick building designed by Georg Theodor Schirrmacher and Hermann von der Hude was erected on the former Bastion Vincent and opened in August 1869.
Alfred Lichtwark left a lasting mark: as the first director from 1886, he systematically expanded the collection, supported contemporary artists and founded the sculpture collection in 1891. A second building clad in shell limestone was added between 1912 and 1919. In 1937, the Nazi "Degenerate Art" campaign cost the museum more than a thousand modernist works.
In 1997 the Galerie der Gegenwart opened, a white cube designed by Oswald Mathias Ungers with around 5,600 m² for contemporary art. From 2014 to 2016, the older buildings were extensively modernized thanks to a donation from the Dorit & Alexander Otto Stiftung.
Today the holdings comprise around 145,000 works, including more than 140,000 drawings and prints in the Kupferstichkabinett (department of prints and drawings). Key areas are medieval North German painting, 17th-century Dutch art, Romanticism with Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge, Impressionism, classical modernism and contemporary art. The museum is a foundation under public law and is supported by the "Freunde der Kunsthalle", the largest museum friends' association in Germany.
| Adults | €18 |
|---|---|
| Reduced | €9School students, apprentices, university students, people doing a federal volunteer service (BFD) or voluntary social year (FSJ) (regardless of age), recipients of unemployment benefit (ALG I), Bürgergeld (basic income support) or social assistance, people with severe disabilities, and members of the Tourismusverband Hamburg |
| Children & teens | freefree up to age 17 · Children and teens under 18 free; with family tickets, a €0 ticket is required for each child. |
| Seniors | –No senior discount mentioned. |
| Visitors with disabilities | €9companion free · Reduced with a severe disability ID; the registered companion is admitted free. |
| Students & apprentices | €9Students of art history as well as of the HFBK and the HAW (design department) are admitted free with ID. |
| Groups (8+ people) | €16 per personPer-person rate for 8 or more people; booking required at least 2 weeks in advance (max. 25 participants). With your own guide, plus a €20 license fee per group. Pre-registered school classes are admitted free. |
| Families | €16€16 for 1 adult with children, €32 for 2 adults with children. |
Free admission: Every first Thursday of the month, 18:00–21:00
The ticket covers the collection and special exhibitions; timed tickets may be required for individual exhibitions. "Kurz reingeschaut" evening ticket (17:00–18:00, Thu 20:00–21:00) €9, reduced €6. Flexticket with no fixed time €25 (valid for one year). With the Hamburg Card €11, free with the Hamburg City Pass. Kunstmeile ticket for six museums: 12 months €42 (reduced €27), 3 days €35 (reduced €25). Public themed guided tours €6, Wednesday tours €4, plus admission. Audio guide rental €6. Library free without a museum visit.
Accessibility certified by KulturPerlen. All collection and exhibition rooms can be reached by elevator; an elevator beside the historic outdoor staircase leads to the automatic entrance door. Accessible restrooms with alarm systems in the Lichtwark-Galerie and the Galerie der Gegenwart. Free loaner wheelchairs and folding stools. Free accessible parking spaces via the delivery entrance at Ferdinandstor (parking permit required; due to construction, accessible only from the Außenalster direction until the end of 2026). Guided tours in German Sign Language (DGS), dialogue tours for people with and without visual impairments, a "Stille Stunde" (quiet hour) and "Bei Anruf Kultur" telephone tours; directions as audio files for blind visitors, audio guide partly in plain language.
Great for kids & families
| Kids’ admission | free up to age 17 |
|---|---|
| Family ticket | €16 · €16 for 1 adult with children, €32 for 2 adults with children. |
On Saturdays, "Familienzeit" (family time) for families with children aged 5 to 13: a guided tour plus a studio workshop (tickets in advance). Also courses, holiday programs and children's birthday parties. In Olafur Eliasson's "Hamburger Kinderzimmer" (Galerie der Gegenwart, first floor; Tue–Fri 15:00–18:00, Sat, Sun and public holidays 10:00–18:00), children and adults create their own works with a plug-in building set; a free "Wanderkarte" (trail map) with puzzles guides you through the collection.
Hamburger Kunsthalle
U1, U2, U3, U4 and S1, S2, S3, S5 to Hauptbahnhof (right next door); bus 12 to the Hamburger Kunsthalle stop.
Paid parking
Parking garage beneath the Galerie der Gegenwart (Ferdinandstor, max. entry height 1.95 m, daily 6:00–22:00): €2 per 30 minutes or part thereof, max. €30 per day; due to construction, currently accessible only from the Außenalster direction; six EV charging spaces. Two free accessible parking spaces via the delivery entrance at Ferdinandstor. Tour buses can stop for drop-off and pick-up on Ernst-Merck-Straße.
Bike racks in front of the Galerie der Gegenwart, StadtRAD bike-share station nearby. From the airport, the S1 takes about 25 minutes to Hauptbahnhof.
Get directionsCafé Das Liebermann in the historic columned hall (museum ticket required, card payment only; Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, Thu until 21:00) and the pop-up café First Love Coffee in the foyer of the Galerie der Gegenwart (no ticket needed; closed September 3 – October 9, 2026). Restaurant The Cube closed until further notice. Museum shop run by the Freunde der Kunsthalle. Bags larger than letter size (DIN A4) and backpacks must go in lockers (coin deposit).
Rooms available outside opening hours for parties, conferences, gala dinners, concerts and receptions: Werner-Otto-Saal, Café Das Liebermann, the event room and collection rooms of the Galerie der Gegenwart and the Lichtwark-Galerie, and in exceptional cases the Klingersaal and Lichthof; exclusive guided tours can be booked. Film and photo shoots as well as engagement and wedding photos (entrance stairs, foyer, outdoor area) by appointment. Contact: veranstaltung@hamburger-kunsthalle.de.
Inquiries & details| Guided tours | yes |
|---|---|
| Audio guide | yes (DE, EN) |
| School programs | yes |
| Photography | Allowed for private purposes without flash or tripod; publication only in compliance with copyright |
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