Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln

Current exhibitions

About the museum

The museum was founded in 1888 on the initiative of Cologne citizens as a Kunstgewerbemuseum (museum of decorative arts), making it the second-oldest municipal museum in Cologne. Its core consisted of decorative arts holdings from the collections of Ferdinand Franz Wallraf and Matthias Joseph de Noël, which were quickly expanded through numerous private donations.

After initially being housed in the former school for the deaf on An der Rechtschule, the museum moved around 1900 into a new Neo-Gothic building on the Hansaring. In the following decades it gave up parts of its collection: in 1913 the Ostasiatisches Museum (Museum of East Asian Art) became independent, and between 1927 and 1932 holdings went to the Stadtmuseum, the Museum Schnütgen, and the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. The collections survived World War II almost completely, but the building did not. Decades in temporary quarters followed, from 1961 to 1986 in the Romanesque Overstolzenhaus.

Since 1989 the museum, under its current name, has occupied the former Wallraf-Richartz-Museum building next to the Minoritenkirche, built in 1957 by Rudolf Schwarz and Josef Bernard – an icon of postwar modernism with an inner courtyard and a Mataré fountain. The donation by Richard G. Winkler, handed over in 2005 and comprising more than 700 objects, shapes the design presentation opened in 2008, which shows design and fine art side by side. A large jewelry presentation was added at the end of 2024; the historical collections are currently closed for renovation and reconception.

Highlights

• Permanent exhibition "Kunst + Design im Dialog" (Art + Design in Dialogue) with the Winkler collection
• Juxtapositions such as Rietveld's Red and Blue Chair next to paintings by Piet Mondrian
• "Faszination Schmuck": around 370 pieces from 7,000 years of jewelry art
• Museum building by Rudolf Schwarz (1957) with an inner courtyard and a fountain by Ewald Mataré
• Annual exhibition for the Kölner Design Preis (Cologne Design Prize)

Permanent exhibitions

• Kunst + Design im Dialog – Design history from Art Nouveau to the 21st century, juxtaposing furniture and everyday objects with paintings and sculptures from the same period.
• Faszination Schmuck. 7000 Jahre Schmuckkunst im MAKK – Around 370 pieces from the jewelry collection, from ancient Near Eastern engraved gems to contemporary works, arranged thematically and chronologically.

Founded

1888

Operated by

Stadt Köln

Director

Petra Hesse

Admission & discounts

Free admission: KölnTag on the first Thursday of the month (except on public holidays): free for Cologne residents, reduced admission for everyone else from 17:00

Free admission for Cologne residents on their birthday, KölnPass holders, refugees from Ukraine, members of the Overstolzengesellschaft, the Freunde der Art Cologne, ICOM, the Museumsbund, and the Deutscher Verband für Kunstgeschichte, and holders of the Kölner Künstler:innenkarte (Cologne artists' card), among others. The Kölner Design Preis exhibition is free. Payment by debit (EC) and credit card.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking
• Service dogs welcome
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours
• Easy-to-read materials
• Audio description

Step-free entrance, elevators to all exhibition levels and to the basement with accessible restrooms; stair lift to the second level of the design exhibition (max. 300 kg). Three accessible parking spaces in front of the museum on An der Rechtschule. Loaner wheelchair and folding stools available. No tactile floor guidance system. App audio guide "Design" with audio description and in Easy German (Leichte Sprache); tours for blind and visually impaired people, in sign language, in Easy German, and for people with dementia by arrangement through the Museumsdienst Köln.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide
• Kids’ birthday parties

Children's and family tours, children's workshop, the reading series "Lesewelten," and school-holiday programs; design rally with audio puzzles, design audio dramas, and an audio-drama tour for children in the app audio guide. Children's birthday parties (about 2.5 hours) through the Museumsdienst Köln.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

• Café: not available
• Restaurant: not available
• Museum shop
• Coat check
• Lockers

The café "MAKKbar" is closed until further notice; a reopening has been announced. Small museum shop with publications and limited MAKKeditions. Unattended coat check and lockers in the entrance area.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent

No dedicated rental page; according to the team page, event inquiries go to vermietung.makk@stadt-koeln.de.

Plan your visit