ABOUT KUNSTHALLE WILHELMSHAVEN BUILDING
The original Kunsthalle in Wilhelmshaven was inaugurated on 23 February 1913 after one year of construction. It was built as a monument to the German Emperor Friedrich III and named accordingly - the Kaiser-Friedrich-Kunsthalle. The old gallery was destroyed due to Allied bombing during World War II, because Wilhelmshaven was the principal naval base for the German navy. As a result, to this day there are hundreds of bunkers around the city that were built during the war to offer protection from air raids to military personnel and civilians and are integrated within the urban landscape and around the gallery itself.
The only remains of the historic Kunsthalle are two columns, which adorn the entrance of the new building. After the war, exhibitions were held in old Wehrmacht barracks until 1964, when the city council decided to build a new gallery. The building was commissioned by two young Wilhelmshaven architects, Hans Günter Harms and Frank Sommerfeld, and it was inaugurated four years later, on the 3rd of March 1968. The new Kunsthalle has three levels and is characterized by clinker bricks, concrete, sharp profiles, flat roofs and converging rooms. The façade presents a relief made by the artist and then Kunsthalle director Siegfried Pagel.