Milestones of the Kunsthalle Mannheim
1907 The exhibition building by Karlsruhe-based, art nouveau architect Hermann Billing was inaugurated to mark the city of Mannheim's 300th anniversary.
1909 In December 1909 the Municipal Kunsthalle opened as Mannheim’s first museum.
1910 Founding director Fritz Wichert acquired Édouard Manet's epochal masterpiece The Execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico with financial help from nine Mannheim citizens.
1921 By donating his Lehmbruck collection, the Jewish patron Sally Falk initiated the Kunsthalle's focus on sculpture.
1925 The second director of the Kunsthalle, Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, established an epochal art-historical concept with the exhibition "New Objectivity. German Painting after Expressionism".
1937 The National Socialists destroyed the modernist collection, confiscating 91 paintings, 8 sculptures and 466 works on paper.
1945 After the Second World War, director Walter Passarge attempted to fill the gaps in the collection through repurchases and new acquisitions, and expanded its profile to include abstract painting.
1962 Under director Heinz Fuchs, the Kunsthalle achieved nationwide renown with spectacular exhibition premieres, for example of Francis Bacon, and the expansion of its international sculpture collection.
1969 Big Fish by Constantin Brancusi was moved into the domed hall of the art nouveau building.
1977 The Circle of Friends of the Kunsthalle was founded. In the following decades it grew to almost 2,000 members and acquired primarily contemporary art for the collection.
1983 The extension by the Mannheim architectural firm "Lange Mitzlaff Böhm Müller" was opened on Friedrichsplatz.
1990 Director Manfred Fath founded one of the first volunteer-run museum shops and the exhibitions GmbH. In this way, he financed public exhibitions and acquisitions for the collection.
2002 Under the motto "New Kunsthalle", director Rolf Lauter expanded the collection and the exhibition programme to include photography and video art.
2008 Inge Herold, deputy director of the museum, ran the museum’s business as interim director.
2009 Ulrike Lorenz took over as director of the Kunsthalle Mannheim. Her ten-year tenure was marked by overall renovation and new construction.
From 2010 The listed art nouveau building underwent complete renovation and was equipped with state-of-the-art museum technology.
2012 Patron Dr. h.c. Hans-Werner Hector, co-founder of the SAP, donated 50 million euros for a new building on Friedrichsplatz.
2013 In October 2013, the reconstructed skylight galleries in the art nouveau building reopened with Dix/Beckmann: Mythos Welt. As a farewell to the Mitzlaff Building, the exhibition Nur Skulptur! brought together 400 works from the collection in an artistic staging.
2017 On 18 December, after almost three years of construction, the Kunsthalle Mannheim Foundation handed over the completed new building to the city of Mannheim.
2018 On 1 June, the Neue Kunsthalle opened with an unconventional restaging of the collection, newly acquired site-specific works by contemporary artists, and an exhibition by Canadian photographer Jeff Wall.
2019 On 1 September 2019, Johan Holten took over the post of director at Kunsthalle Mannheim.
