Marion Ackermann, Museum Director

She is an influential figure in the art world and the only woman to head a major public collection in Germany. On Talking Germany, Dr. Ackermann takes us behind the scenes at her museum.

Marion Ackermann was born in Göttingen in 1965. As a child she spent some years in Ankara, where her parents worked at the university. She studied art history, history and German in Göttingen, Kassel, Vienna and Munich. She completed her doctorate at Göttingen in 1995 with a dissertation on Wassily Kandinsky. She worked at the Lenbachhaus in Munich before becoming director of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart in 2003. She is credited with invigorating the museum, purchasing important works and attracting more visitors, especially young people. In 2009 she accepted an offer to become director of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf, one of the most important art museums in Germany.