Hans Hollein’s long-planned connection from Hindenburgstraße to the museum’s main entrance is being realized forty-four years after the museum’s opening.
Photo: Susanne Titz, 2025
Throughout 2026, the site will be under construction; by the turn of the year 2026/27, it will become a new urban space that connects the museum to the city center and makes it visible within the urban fabric.
Today’s urban planners are not implementing Hans Hollein’s original idea from the 1970s—a narrow passage cut through the ground floor of a retail building—but instead are developing an open landscape of green space, plazas, and pathways on the cleared site of former retail buildings.
Museum Abteiberg will assume an active role in this urban project from 2026 to 2028. At the museum, the medial line and the entire system of terraces and stairways leading to the main entrance on the roof will undergo restoration. The museum will also carry out extensive conservation of its outdoor sculpture collection. This includes Alexander Calder’s Pointes et courbes stabile on the terrace level and the fountain by Erwin Heerich at the newly redesigned Alter Markt. New works will appear during this period, continuing Mönchengladbach’s tradition of art in public space. These projects are developed in close artistic collaboration, with participating artists announced over time.
The first is by the US artist Grant Mooney, whose wind harp on the museum roof will be on view when his exhibition opens at Museum Abteiberg on March 29, 2026.
