Museum for East Asian Art

Founded in 1909, the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln (Museum for East Asian Art) in Cologne was the first special museum of its kind in Europe. Today, it houses the most important collection of Chinese, Korean and Japanese art in Germany. By opening a museum for their extensive private collection, founders Adolf Fischer (1856-1914) and his wife Frieda Bartdorff (1874-1945) realised their goal to present a multifaceted and wholesome view on East Asian Art in all its genres and periods. Adolf Fischer died only shortly after the museum’s opening and thus the widowed Frieda Fischer (later to become Frieda Fischer-Wieruszowski) took over as one of the first female museum directors in Germany. Between 1922 and 1942, she also wrote and published significant books on Asian art, inspired by the Fischers’ early journeys throughout Asia.