Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln

What Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln does

The Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln is a private cultural institution founded in 1985 and operated by Kreissparkasse Köln, a public savings bank. It houses the world's most comprehensive collection of works by German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), encompassing drawings, prints, and sculptures across the artist's complete career. The museum reopened on October 11, 2025 after nearly three years of comprehensive renovation, rebranding its address as the Kollwitz Forum, and operates alongside a secondary memorial site, the Käthe Kollwitz Haus in Moritzburg near Dresden, where the artist died in 1945. The institution maintains a research library with over 3,000 volumes, a photographic and document archive from the artist's estate, and three authoritative Werkverzeichnisse (catalogues raisonnés) documenting Kollwitz's plastic works, prints, and drawings.

The museum operates a direct-to-consumer, event-driven business model anchored on physical admissions (€8 regular / €4 reduced), annual passes (€25), private and public guided tours in German and English, monthly children's workshops (€10), and image licensing for scholarly publications. Pricing is structured with broad free-admission categories — first Thursday of each month, children under 18, students, refugees, disabled visitors, and ICOM members — supplemented by half-price entry after 5:30 PM. Distribution spans on-site visitor services, online ticket purchasing, guided city walking tours connecting four Kollwitz-related sites in Cologne, and an externally managed Moritzburg memorial site. The institution employs approximately 8 staff, has no public API or app product, and relies on Kreissparkasse Köln as its sole institutional sponsor for capital expenditure and operating shortfalls.

Curatorial output follows a rotation of themed special exhibitions and contemporary art interventions, with 2026 programming encompassing a video installation by Isaac Chong Wai, a retrospective of sculptor Louise Stomps, and a centerpiece presentation of the 1920 Richter-Mappe. The museum generates ancillary revenue through digital image licensing for academic use, group tour bookings, and a dedicated bilingual press function. Marketing reach is delivered via the German/English website, GDPR-compliant newsletter, and traditional press relations — with no disclosed social media advertising, no API or developer surface, and no machine-learning components in its technology stack.

Name

Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln

Legal name

Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln

Website

https://kollwitz.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1985

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln operates a single-site cultural institution housing the world's most comprehensive collection of works by German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), serving general public visitors, school groups, tourists, and academic researchers through exhibitions, guided tours, workshops, and a specialized research library in Cologne, Germany.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Art Museum / Cultural Institution

NAICS

Museums (712110), Libraries and Archives (51921)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Art Museums (THAJADAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Art Galleries & Exhibition Spaces (Commercial & Nonprofit) (THAJADAH)

Keywords

• Art museum exhibitions
• Permanent art collection
• Guided museum tours
• Art education programs
• Research library archives

Headquarters

HQ city

Köln

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Museum Admission Fees: Single-entry tickets to the museum collection and special exhibitions. Regular admission €8.00, reduced €4.00, with free admission for children under 18, first Thursday of each month, and various other categories
2. Annual Passes: Yearly membership tickets valid from purchase date, offering unlimited visits with €25.00 regular and €15.00 reduced pricing
3. Guided Tours: Art educator-led tours through collection and exhibitions in German and English. Private group tours priced at €90 base (€100 weekends/holidays), English public tours €8.00/€4.00
4. Children's Workshops: Monthly Saturday workshops for children ages 7+ combining guided tour, play, and hands-on creative activities with materials included
5. Digital Image Licensing: High-resolution digital image licensing for scientific publications and educational purposes. Educational use may be waived for students and researchers

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln houses and exhibits the world's most comprehensive collection of works by German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945), comprising drawings, prints, and sculptures. It operates as a cultural venue in Cologne city center offering permanent and rotating exhibitions, guided tours in German and English, themed city walking tours, monthly children's workshops, art education programs, and a specialized research library and archive. The institution also maintains the Käthe Kollwitz Haus memorial site in Moritzburg near Dresden, where the artist spent her final months.

Product overview

The Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln operates as a single-mission cultural institution offering a unified experience centered on the world's largest collection of works by Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945). The museum provides access to its permanent collection of drawings, prints, and sculptures through rotating exhibitions, supplemented by related artist retrospectives. Visitor services include guided tours and themed walking tours through Cologne. Educational programming encompasses art mediation activities, children's workshops, and customized group tours. Research facilities include a specialized library and archive. The institution also manages the Käthe Kollwitz Haus Moritzburg memorial site and publishes authoritative Werkverzeichnisse (catalogues raisonnés) documenting the artist's complete works.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Permanent Collection (Dauerausstellung/Sammlung) The museum's permanent collection featuring the world's most comprehensive collection of works by Käthe Kollwitz, including drawings, prints, and sculptures; accessible to the general public through admission tickets.
• Rotating Special Exhibitions (Wechselausstellungen)

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 3,000 research library volumes available for scholars
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered supporting and minor.

• Municipality of MoritzburgsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe municipality of Moritzburg collaborated in the restoration and maintenance of the Rüdenhof as a public memorial site.
• Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe German War Graves Commission was significantly involved in financing the German federal memorial at Alt St. Alban, where copies of the 'Grieving Parents' monument are installed as the first federal memorial for casualties of both world wars.
• Werkstatt Ewald MataréminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerThe workshop of sculptor Ewald Mataré was commissioned in 1953 to execute the copies of 'Grieving Parents' monument for the Alt St. Alban memorial site. The workshop delegated the work to its master students Erwin Heerich (mother figure) and Joseph Beuys (father figure).

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Folkwang Museum: Established German art museum in Essen with comparable programs (exhibitions, guided tours, workshops) but a substantially broader collection spanning 19th-20th century art. Useful comparable for pricing and visitor benchmarks.
• Neue Nationalgalerie: Berlin's national gallery of modern art, recently renovated and reopened. Provides a relevant benchmark for post-renovation traffic recovery and ticket-pricing strategies.
• Städel Museum: Major Frankfurt art museum with extensive educational programming, online ticketing, and annual-pass model. Comparable for membership pricing and educational workshop formats.

Direct peers

• Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Dokumentationszentrum: Single-artist documentation center in Aschaffenburg focused on Kirchner with comparable scale, archives, and research-library infrastructure. Closely analogous institutional model.
• August Macke Haus: Single-artist museum in Bonn dedicated to August Macke, a contemporary and fellow member of expressionist circles. Directly comparable in scale, mission, and operating model as a German artist-house museum.
• Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung: Specialized sculpture collection in Frankfurt with a comparable curatorial, educational, and exhibition program. Operates a focused permanent collection with rotating exhibitions and guided tours.
• Käthe Kollwitz Haus Moritzburg: Affiliated memorial site at Rüdenhof in Moritzburg, operated in cooperation with Kreissparkasse Köln, holding secondary collections and tours. Direct sister site for the subject institution.

Others

• Akademie der Künste Berlin: Berlin arts institution with archives and exhibitions tied to the Prussian Academy of the Arts — directly relevant given Kollwitz's documented membership at the Preußische Akademie der Künste in 1927.

Regional players

• Sprengel Museum Hannover: Hanover regional art museum with a 20th-century German art focus including graphic works. Comparable as a public museum with educational and ticketing programs similar to Kollwitz's.
• Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig: Regional art museum in Leipzig with similarly diverse exhibition programming, educational offerings, and a German fine-art focus. Comparable as a German public art museum though broader in scope.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/k%C3%A4the-kollwitz-museum-k%C3%B6ln

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln