Museum Folkwang

The Museum Folkwang was founded in 1902 by Karl Ernst Osthaus in Hagen. After his death in 1921, the Osthaus Collection was acquired by the newly founded Folkwang-Museumsverein for the city of Essen, and in 1922 it was merged with the Municipal Art Museum, which had existed since 1906, to form the Museum Folkwang. The Museum Folkwang soon developed into one of the most important museums of modern and contemporary art in the world, with an outstanding collection of 19th-century and classic modernism art, painting post-1945, photography and posters. A distinctive feature is also its collection of Ancient and non-European art. Both the collection activity and exhibition programme of the Museum Folkwang include all artistic media, bringing the most important exponents from the art world to Essen, Germany. A new building by David Chipperfield Architects opened in 2010.