The mpk after 1945

At the end of the war, the museum building lies in ruins as a result of a bomb hit in 1944. After intensive renovation work, the public celebrates the reopening of the museum in 1955. In 1947, the first post-war director was Carl Maria Kiesel, who – as a Social Democrat persecuted by the Nazis – had fled to France, where he fought underground against the German occupiers.

Kiesel particularly purchased art that had been reviled as “degenerate” and banned during the Nazi era. Around 600 Expressionist works, including those by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Käthe Kollwitz, Franz Marc and August Macke, as well as the important collection of paintings by Rudolf Levy, came to the mpk during his tenure.

Wilhelm Weber, director from 1965, focuses on the acquisition of sculptures, but is also able to secure important paintings such as Beckmann’s “Minna Tube” for the mpk.