About
Sammlung Hoffmann is a private art collection spanning works from the 1920s through the 2010s, distinctive in that it is presented not in a conventional museum but within the living and working spaces of the Hoffmann family in Berlin Mitte. The collection's origins trace to the 1960s and 1970s, when Erika and Rolf Hoffmann began collecting through their engagement with the Rhineland art scene, particularly the ZERO group of Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker, and through related movements such as ZERO International and Arte Povera. At the Städtisches Museum Mönchengladbach they befriended artists including Marcel Broodthaers, James Lee Byars and Lawrence Weiner, while their connection to Galerie m in Bochum introduced them to the work of François Morellet, Arnulf Rainer and Richard Serra.
Following the sale of their company in the mid 1980s, the Hoffmanns devoted themselves more intensively to what remained, for a long period, a purely private passion, deepening their engagement with Cologne based artists such as Thomas Ruff and Wolfgang Tillmans and, through extensive travel, with figures including Nan Goldin, Bruce Nauman, Yayoi Kusama and Donald Judd. The opening of the Iron Curtain allowed the collection to expand into direct contact with Eastern European artists, and in 1990 the Hoffmanns developed plans, together with architect Frank Stella, for a public private Kunsthalle in Dresden intended to complement the city's historic collections. Although this ambitious project could not ultimately be realised, it reflected the couple's long standing interest in bringing private collecting into public dialogue.
In 1994 the Hoffmanns found a disused factory in Berlin Mitte, and after its renovation opened their collection to the public within their own living and working spaces at the Sophie Gips Höfe in the autumn of 1997, a model that has defined the institution ever since. Following Rolf Hoffmann's death in 2001, Erika Hoffmann continued to lead the collection until 2025, presenting twenty eight distinct annual arrangements, each organised around a guiding keyword that invited visitors to view selected works through a particular contemporary lens, accompanied by monthly gatherings, concerts and conversations with participating artists.
In 2025, Corinna Hoffmann assumed leadership of the collection from her mother, with parts of the holdings passing to other family members and significant gifts made over the years to major institutions including the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, MoMA in New York, Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, Tate Modern in London and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Under the direction of Clara Meister, the collection continues its tradition of yearly changing presentations paired with guided, dialogue based tours led by art historians and artists on Saturdays.
Since 2025 the collection has also hosted CENTRE DE GRAVITÉ, a research project on the theme of gravity initiated by artist Saâdane Afif and curated by Yasmine d'O, alongside a project space in the building's souterrain made available to invited non profit groups for independent exhibitions, talks and performances. Sammlung Hoffmann is privately funded, sustaining an intimate, ever evolving model of collection display rooted in direct and personal encounter with art.