Sometimes it’s the small details that entice: When I first heard about the Hoffmann collection and that you had to wear slippers because you are literally walking in the art collector’s home, I wanted to find out more.

The experience at Hoffmann Collection was even better than what I had imagined: In the enormous grey slippers (worn over my shoes that I actually did not have to take off), I was sliding through what seemed an endless number of rooms, “furnished” with modern art work and only few actual pieces of furniture in matching colors. The following year I came back: The enormous apartment of Erika Hoffmann in a industrial brick-stone building is re-decorated every year in July, offering her curious guests a new theme under which part of the collection, the antique furniture and last but not least, the collector’s life stories come together.

Every tour guide tells different bits and pieces about the life of Erika Hoffmann, who together with her deceased husband built this collection, showing in at their home because the dream of a designated museum in Dresden (designed by their famous architecture friend Frank Stella) was too revolutionary for the historical city. However, soon, in 2022, the Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden will receive the Hoffmann collection, an internationally significant art collection – a generous gift, which can still be admired in Berlin until then. 

PS: I have not been lucky enough but apparently Erika Hoffmann also greets the visitors herself sometime…