Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven

Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven is a museum in Wilhelmshaven. It was opened in 1913 as the Kaiser-Friedrich-Kunsthalle. It was founded on the initiative of the then Chief of Naval Station of the North Sea, Admiral Friedrich Graf von Baudissin, and was intended to make fine art accessible to the inhabitants of the city with changing exhibitions. It has fulfilled this task since its existence.

After its destruction in World War II, the Kunsthalle moved from Viktoriastrasse to a new building on Adalbertplatz in 1968. The old building had been a victim of the bombing. The Wilhelmshaven architects Harms and Sommerfeld realized a matter-of-fact, sober building with elements of Brutalism, based on Bauhaus models, in which a great variety of exhibitions have been shown ever since. The first director after the war was the artist Siegfried Pagel, who also created the concrete relief of the Kunsthalle.