In the 1980s, DAM founding director Heinrich Klotz laid the foundation for a large and internationally oriented architecture collection, which today comprises around 250,000 plans and drawings, approximately 1,700 models, more than 60 bequests and estates, and 35,000 photographs. In the United States in the late 1960s, Klotz witnessed how important material from architects was carelessly thrown away after construction was completed. This prompted him to build up a collection that is still being expanded today: sketches, construction drawings and architectural models as testimonies to important architects.

The new image database will gradually make the contents of the DAM archive visible online and enable location-independent research. In addition to the well-known objects from the former ‘online model collection’, drawings and sketches from the plan collection will also be presented there for the first time, and documents from the DAM’s estate archive will soon be added.

The focus

There is a small selection of drawings of the 18th and 19th century, but the main focus is on 20th century architecture. Some of the most significant holdings include works by Giambattista Piranesi and Gottfried Semper, Louis I. Kahn, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Hans Scharoun, Hans Poelzig and Ernst May, or for example Aldo Rossi, Rem Koolhaas, Frank O. Gehry and Norman Foster. Works of painters such as Ben Willikens, Martin Kippenberger and Christo are also part of the Collection.
The DAM currently holds more than 33 estates, including the archives of Hannes Meyer, Mart Stam and Heinz Bienefeld.