Museum of Applied Arts

Sink deep into a soft and deep leather armchair and put up your feet as though you were settling into a well-used baseball mitt. If you’re lucky enough to own an Eames lounge chair, you’re familiar with the sense of comfort induced by this design classic. This is where form and function unite in the comfiest way — and how a piece of furniture soars out of the world of pure functionality and reaches the level of “applied art”.

If you’re interested in the creation and use of everyday objects and in modern design, you can’t pass up the opportunity to visit MAKK. That’s because this Cologne museum is home to the most significant European collection of applied art from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Design at the MAKK: outstanding collection and unique exhibition concept

The design collection has been systematically built up since the 1970s and includes most of the classics of European product design – from Alvar Aalto to Marco Zanuso. In 2005, the foundation established by Richard G. Winkler added further special focal points: American design, radios from the great era of early plastics, and European fine art. Since 2008, the exhibition’s motto has been “Art + Design in Dialogue”, which is unique in this form. This is because the design objects here encounter their contemporaries from painting and sculpture. Furniture by Charles and Ray Eames meets works by Josef Albers, while early Apple computers compete with pioneers of computer-assisted art such as Manfred Mohr and Peter Struycken.

Fascination Jewellery: the title says it all

The MAKK preserves a large, internationally renowned jewellery collection with more than 1,800 objects, spanning a unique arc across 7,000 years of jewellery history. In the permanent exhibition “Fascination Jewellery”, newly opened in 2024, around 370 selected exhibits from antiquity to the present day can be admired. The exhibition presents jewellery as an independent artistic medium between craft, design and fine art. Chronological as well as cross-epoch and cross-cultural themes offer fascinating insights into the diverse forms of jewellery design. In doing so, jewellery can be experienced not only as a work of art, but also as an expression of memory, faith, luxury, identity and social values.

Our tip for a relaxing break: The museum’s interior courtyard

In the gregarious city centre of Cologne, an oasis of calm awaits you in the interior courtyard of the MAKK, which features a fountain designed by Ewald Mataré. Here you can take a break from all of the visual impressions and objects you’ve experienced. It’s a good spot for contemplation, especially during the summer months.

The Museum of Applied Art: its history

The Museum of Applied Art, which was founded in 1888, is Cologne’s second-oldest museum, the oldest one being the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. The exhibitions draw mainly from the collections of the scholars Ferdinand Franz Wallraf and Matthias Joseph de Noël, which are continually supplemented by foundations, especially the Cologne Citizens’ Foundation. During World War II, the museum building on the Hansaring was destroyed — but fortunately the collection was saved. The museum was eventually resettled in the midst of the city centre in 1957 in a building designed by Rudolf Schwarz and Josef Bernhard. Although the building was controversial at the time, today it’s one of the architectural icons of the city of Cologne.

The museum building — a synthesis of tradition and modernity

The MAKK was built right next to one of Cologne’s oldest churches, and its ground plan and appearance, including the interior courtyard, refer back to the former Minorite monastery complex, which was torn down in 1855. Parts of the old cloister were integrated into the new building.

The museum building looks plain and closed from the outside, but a fascinating cathedral-like space opens up in the interior, with a main hall, an open staircase and galleries leading to the light-flooded exhibition rooms. However, before you enter you need to humbly cross the entrance foyer with its low ceiling — this is how the museum visualizes a conceptual bridge between tradition and modernity.