The LehmbruckMuseum in Dusiburg stands out due to its collection of international modern sculpture – unrivalled in Europe – in combination with outstanding museum architecture, a sculpture park as well as a wide-ranging sculpture program in the surrounding urban area. The institute has been run as a foundation since 2000 and has its roots in a 1905 citizens’ initiative as well as the museum association and the city art museum created in 1931. The museum has been dedicated to German sculpture since 1925 and international sculpture since 1958. The listed museum building was built in two phases (1964, 1987) from plans by Manfred Lehmbruck and the architects Lehmbruck / Hänsch.

The basis for the collection is the lifework of the artist Wilhelm Lehmbruck. Born in Duisburg in 1881 and died in Berlin 1919, he received international recognition early on. Around 100 sculptures, 40 paintings and pictorial drawings, 900 drawings and 200 prints form the artist’s estate that was permanently acquired for the Lehmbruck Museum in 2008.

The aim of all of the museum’s activities is to create a living picture of the quality and topicality of modern sculpture and its relationship to other genres. Sculpture exhibitions from classical modernism to the present day demonstrate the numerous facets of modern art. The exhibitions in combination with Manfred Lehmbruck’s architecture and the surrounding sculpture park lend the museum its unique character.

Visitors look out onto the greenery of the park and the sculpture court (i.a. work by Henry Moore) that has belonged to the Lehmbruck Museum collection since it opened. This was enlarged in 1989/90 with the addition of the sculpture park in the Kant Park. From every angle, near or far, the park offers a variety of views creating interconnections and two-way links to the collection inside the building. The Kant Park contains around 40 large sculptures from artists including Meret Oppenheim, Richard Serra, Alf Lechner, Magdalena Abakanowicz, André Volten and Hans-Peter Feldmann.