Berlin’s Art Galleries Are More Important Than Ever

Remember the heady days when cheap rents, public arts funding, and an open-minded outlook made Berlin a haven for artists? At the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017, for example, 25 of the 120 artists participating in the main show, “Viva Arte Viva,” were Berlin-based, making up approximately 21% of the main exhibition. Curators based in Berlin such as Zippora Elders, formerly head of the curatorial department and outreach at the Gropius Bau, believe the city still retains a certain magnetism and that migration is essential to its success, emphasizing that “for decades, Berlin has attracted and become a refuge for creative and artistically talented individuals, forming new communities that blend with those who have resided here longer.”

But Berlin’s unique combination of club culture, visual arts, and performance has been impacted over the past 10 months, with the crisis in Israel and Palestine creating a fraught mood in the arts and culture of the city, and causing many artists to feel their freedom of speech is being infringed. Alongside show cancellations, demonstrations, and resignations, Strike Germany has called for international cultural workers to strike from German cultural institutions. And given that Germany’s Erinnerungskultur (“memory culture”) and related Staatsräson (“reason of state”) ties the nation’s existence directly to the state of Israel, these concerns shape not just foreign policy but also arts funding: Last year, Berlin’s culture minister proposed requiring artists who receive government money to adhere to the specific IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of anti-Semitism. Though it was quickly scrapped, there are signs that politicians intend to continue working on similar legislation.

In the midst of this, there is more marked interest from international commercial galleries, who clearly still think Berlin has something to offer. One such big player is the blue-chip Pace Gallery, which opened an office in the city in 2023 and is taking part this week in Suite Berlin, a collaborative exhibition alongside fellow international heavyweights Mariane Ibrahim, Mendes Wood DM, and Thaddaeus Ropac. Elsewhere, Fotografiska, a for-profit museum that also recently launched a Berlin-based space in the six-floor building that was formerly the heart of an alternative art and culture scene, squatted by the Tacheles artist initiative from 1990 until their eviction in 2012. “It’s out with Punk and in with Prada,” noted my Frieze piece at the time. And perhaps this is the direction in which the scene as a whole is traveling: affluent young collectors riding on the shoulders of old-school Berlin cool, and hoping that following the party, there might still be an after.

In this context, Berlin’s commercial galleries are now more important than ever, providing a vital platform for artists to exhibit work uncensored, which in turn will feed into a market that recognizes galleries as champions of free speech. Indeed, with the German government radically reducing budgets for the cultural sector by €254 million ($279 million) in 2024—a policy resulting from the country’s ongoing recession—the commercial sector is increasingly vital as a source of capital for artists. On the other hand, the tensions in the institutional sector and Germany’s political situation as a whole may taint its commercial realm.

Berlin has never been a base for collectors per se—the Rhineland is traditionally part of Germany where they are most prominent—but the city retains a pull. Gallery Weekend in April and Berlin Art Week (which runs until September 15th) are two of these moments in the calendar that tend to attract collectors into the city for the weekend at least. But if the cultural sector continues to contract, the pull of the party may not be enough.

That said, the vibrant mix of both established and emerging galleries in Berlin remains strong, and gallerists for the most part seem optimistic. “I think what people are interested in showing and seeing here is less dictated by market trends than other cities,” said Camila McHugh Barshee, director of Galerie Molitor, which opened its doors just off Potsdamer Straße in 2022. “Visitors and international collectors remain important for the Berlin scene. Berlin is one of the great art capitals, and its gallery scene is especially vibrant, so it’s a place that collectors like to visit. Locally, we’re also excited to be placing works with a new generation of young collectors, which could be something of a development over the past few years.”

Hannes Schmidt of Schiefe Zähne, another relatively young gallery, told Artsy how he “came to Berlin in the noughties when still studying art” and ended up opening a project space that turned into a commercial gallery. His Gallery Weekend exhibition by Angharad Williams earlier this year opened amid a party-like buzz, with people queuing to get in and a line snaking down the staircase. Schmidt agrees with McHugh that collectors in the city are diversifying, and even homed in on the types of people he’s been encountering. “For a long while the clientele of the gallery was mostly people from anywhere else than Berlin: United States, Switzerland, Belgium, or the Rhineland.…I only recently encountered more collectors located in Berlin,” he said. “A while ago it was mostly artists that collect occasionally and for very personal reasons, but lately there was increasing interest from other sides: doctors, architects, people who are known collectors.…I also encountered more people working in the start-up environment, interested in building up collections.”

One of Berlin’s stalwarts, Contemporary Fine Arts, which was founded in 1992 by owners Nicole Hackert and Bruno Brunett, recently opened an outpost in Basel. Hackert emphasized that their interests also remain firmly in Berlin, and that while “it might sound contradictory to the somewhat declining hype of Berlin as an art tourist and collectors destination, it is driven by a younger generation that came to stay.”

But, she added, “with rising rents and real estate prices, the city is no longer a cheap heaven for party people and artists on the move.” Examining the city’s long-term economic viability, Hackert noted: “Missing the financial sector due to federalism, it’ll never compete with London and Paris and remains edgier (which gives it its charm), but it also became more ‘adult’ and civilized in the last couple years (well, apart from the authorities and offices).”

While it was announced in June that Germany’s VAT rate for art galleries will drop to 7% in January 2025 (still not as little as France, which can, in some cases, be lowered to 5.5%), Berlin also offers certain tax incentives and support programmes for start-ups. Indeed, the success of early Berlin-based start-ups like SoundCloud (founded in 2007) and Zalando (founded in 2008) helped put the city on the map as a viable location for new ventures.

These companies not only attracted attention but also reinvested in the local ecosystem, creating a cycle of innovation and growth. It remains to be seen whether such factors can help to evade the broader uncertainties in the domestic art market, with dealer sales in Germany declining by 6% in 2023 compared to the year before, according to Art Basel and UBS’s 2024 Art Market report. Given that Germany’s economy continued to shrink in the second quarter of 2024, and with news that Volkswagen may close factories for the first time (an indicator for overall national well-being), the art market is in an uncertain place.

Tina and Jan Wentrup, who just celebrated their gallery’s 20-year anniversary, underline how collector behavior is malleable: “Especially after the pandemic, the travel behavior of many collectors has transformed.…Despite the challenges, collectors are adapting to the new normal and strategically attend targeted exhibitions; long-term relationships still prove beneficial, and the quality of the galleries [in Berlin] remains unmatched.” All of which in fact points towards a local market resilience that isn’t quite ready to let go of the Berlin scene.

Anna Duque y González, sales director at local stalwart Capitain Petzel, agrees. “Berlin remains the German city with the greatest international appeal, and over the past decade, a group of young, very well-connected collectors has emerged here,” she told Artsy. “The rise of new, young galleries and art spaces is further invigorating the city’s art landscape, contributing to a sense of constant renewal and creativity.…What still sets Berlin apart is its unique combination of freedom and affordability. We are now also seeing big players coming to Berlin, which shows that there is a growing market.”