The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is regarded as one of the most important German collections of modern and contemporary art. Since it was established in 1961, the history of its development is situated in the middle of the economic miracle and thus in the interplay between cultural renewal and restoration, representing a new understanding of the state, and becoming reintegrated in the international alliance of nations. The author examines the development of the collection until it was finally consolidated at the end of the 1960s. She takes a look at the life and impact of the founding director Werner Schmalenbach - his childhood and early adulthood in Switzerland, his encounter with "degenerate art," and his role as a trailblazer for modern art in the young Federal Republic. weiterlesen