The Alte Nationalgalerie was conceived as a "sanctuary for art and science". The occasion for the construction of a National Gallery was the donation of a collection of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich to the Prussian state.
In 1876 the National Gallery was opened as the third museum on the Spree Island. During the Second World War the building was severely damaged. It was only reopened in 2001 as the Museum of the National Museums in Berlin.
