On 6 May 2011 the Felix Nussbaum Haus and the Cultural History Museum Osnabrück opened their doors again after almost a year of reconstruction. The new extension creates a joint entrance area for both buildings and gives the museum a new face.
The extension shifts the Felix Nussbaum Haus architecturally to the more prominent side of the museums towards the Heger-Tor-Wall and with its specific use of forms clearly reveals the hallmarks of Daniel Libeskind to the visitor who approaches the building complex from the historic city. Like the cut off triangle of the Felix Nussbaum Haus this section of the building has been docked on to the side of the Cultural History Museum.
The extension based on plans by American architect Daniel Libeskind links the Cultural History Museum with the Felix Nussbaum Haus retaining the basic concept of the Felix Nussbaum Haus, opened in 1998. Materials of wood, concrete and zinc which determine the early building complexes of the Felix Nussbaum Haus, are complemented by a grey-coloured façade. The arrangement of the windows with their asymmetrically pointed shapes imitate the façade design of the Felix Nussbaum Haus, lending the building a distinctive appearance. While the extension gives visitors direct access to the Cultural History Museum, the exhibition rooms of the Felix Nussbaum Haus are reached via an enclosed glass corridor.
A new museum shop and inviting information areas await the visitor. The two-storey extension houses the museum shop with the ticket office and a museum-lecture room with a library. A multifunctional event area has been installed in the basement of the Cultural History Museum inviting visitors to a wealth of activities relating to the exhibitions.
It is thanks to financial support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Stiftung Niedersachsen and the Stiftung Stahlwerk Georgsmarienhütte and the city of Osnabrück that the extension to the Felix Nussbaum Haus has become a reality.
Together with the reopening of both buildings the Felix Nussbaum collection will also be presented in a newly conceived permanent exhibition which interrelates with the exhibition of the Cultural History Museum of the history of the city of Osnabrück. Themed rooms strongly emphasise individual aspects of Felix Nussbaum’s artistic works thus dispensing with the former chronologically designed exhibition tour. The new presentation gives glimpses of previously unknown aspects of his artistic accomplishments.
Your opinion