Humboldt Forum, Berlin

The Humboldt Forum is a museum and cultural centre housed in the reconstructed Berlin Palace. Its architect is Franco Stella, who created a modern interior within the palace reconstruction. The institution brings together collections and cultural material from Africa, Asia, America and Oceania.

It includes Berlin’s Ethnological Museum and Museum of Asian Art, along with a Berlin exhibition and the Humboldt Lab. The name honours Alexander von Humboldt and Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose intellectual legacy the institution is intended to recall. Look at the building’s broad stone façades and formal openings: they give the complex the presence of a historic palace, while the museum inside serves a distinctly international programme.

The Forum opened digitally on 16 December 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, then admitted the general public on 20 July 2021. In 2024, about 3.3 million people entered the building, according to the foundation’s count. That figure includes the place as a cultural destination in its fullest sense: museum collections, exhibitions, events and shared spaces gathered under a single roof.