The completion of the Pergamon Museum’s reconstruction project, previously set for 2037, could be further delayed until 2043. According to a report in Der Spiegel, a mixture of poor planning, incompetence and bureaucracy are among the causes for the delay. It refers to the project as ‘Das Pergamonster’.
The Pergamon Museum was initially set to be renovated between 2005 and 2010, but ‘due to planning chaos and poor coordination’, the project only began in 2013 and remained partially open to the public during the first phase of construction. Only in 2023 did the museum fully close its galleries. It estimated the reconstruction to be fully completed by 2037, with the Pergamon Altar reopening in 2027.
Shortly after Der Spiegel’s report, the museum responded in a statement that the major construction site at the Pergamon Museum will not be ‘a never-ending story… The SPK is still planning to reopen the Pergamon Hall, the Hellenistic Hall and the north wing with the Museum of Islamic Art in 2027. That is in just over three years and will be a milestone!’
‘It was right not to subject the building to a long, complete closure,’ the museum adds. ‘The SPK’s aim has always been to keep the most important rooms open to the public – on a rotating basis.’
