DG Kunstraum

The art association Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst e.V. (German Society for Christian Art) is dedicated to the promotion of art and contemporary discourse. Its executive board brings together the fields of art, architecture, and theology, and understands exchange from a Christian perspective as a space for spirituality and transcendence. Values such as openness, respect, responsibility, and compassion are central to its work.

DG Kunstraum functions as an interdisciplinary workshop where visitors can engage in dialogue on current topics relating to visual art and music, science, architecture, theology, and philosophy. The association collaborates with other institutions on joint events, exhibitions, and traveling exhibitions in order to foster a pluralistic dialogue.

The art association was founded in 1893. During the National Socialist period, the Catholic Church and the Archbishop of Freising guaranteed the association’s independence, as it was protected under the Concordat. The Nazi regime therefore had no access to the association and could not subject it to National Socialist cultural policy. On 26 March 1946, the president of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst signed a declaration affirming that the association would not tolerate supporters of National Socialism or active party members in influential positions.

As the office building at Wittelsbacherplatz 2, which also housed the premises of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst, was heavily destroyed during the Second World War, the association no longer had its own exhibition space after 1945. It therefore organized exhibitions at various locations in and outside Munich. The first postwar exhibition of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst, titled Contemporary Christian Art, took place at the Neue Sammlung in Munich, in the garden wing of the Bavarian National Museum.