Berlin - Berlin’s world-class museums are under fire for stubbornly closing at 6pm almost every day, just the hour when tourists often yearn for some serene culture after a day pounding crowded sidewalks.
“If Berlin really wants to be a global city, the museums need to be more visitor-friendly,” said Sabine Bangert, a spokeswoman for cultural issues with the opposition Greens party in the city-state’s legislature.
She is calling for the museums, which are crammed with the finest art from around the world, to keep their doors open into the evening hours, in accordance with the German capital’s status as a global tourist destination.
“Anyone in touch with how this town lives knows how many more people could be induced to go to the museums if we could get this right,” Bangert said, alluding to the city’s night-owl lifestyle and late rising in the morning.
Berlin’s national museums close their doors at 6pm every day except Thursday, when they stay open until 8pm. Some of the museums run by the city rather than the federal authorities close even earlier.
“You can go shopping virtually everywhere in Berlin up to 10pm,” Bangert noted, referring to the way retail hours have changed over the recent decades. “It would be nice if the museums could offer the same.”
The politician was also critical of a cluster of museum closures that had disappointed many tourists arriving to see the top sights.
“It should never have been allowed that part of the Pergamon, the New National Gallery, the Georg Kolbe Museum and the Berlin Gallery are all being refurbished at the same time,” she said.
However, Berlin’s museum mandarins remain publicly unrepentant about closing so many museums at the same time for major renovations.
dpa