The Glamour of the Gala Comes to Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof

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Hamburger Bahnhof celebrated its 30th anniversary last weekend with its very first gala. The 2,500-square-metre former railway station turned German national gallery of contemporary art staged an invite-only, black-tie event titled A Night in Berlin, which saw 100 performers take part in an intervention conceived by Elmgreen & Dragset. 

Around 500 guests—including artists Wolfgang Tillmans, Anne Imhof and Olafur Eliasson, actors Cate Blanchett and Matt Dillon, and techno icon Ellen Allien—enjoyed dinner amid the theatrical spectacle.

Alongside the performances, the gala—co-chaired by Sam Bardaouil, Till Fellrath, Monique Burger, and Christine Würfel-Stauss—introduced four new annual awards. The Hamburger Bahnhof Studio Award went to Abdulhamid Kircher, Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju and Jonas Roßmeißl, who each received €15,000.

Meanwhile—positioning support for artists and institutions as a central thread in the evening’s programme—Mona Hatoum received the Lifetime Achievement Award, collector Kiran Nadar was recognised for global arts patronage, and London’s Delfina Foundation received the Changemaker Award.

US-style galas appear in Europe

Although this was Hamburger Bahnhof’s first gala, overall, the format felt familiar. Glitzy events—long perfected in the US by occasions such as the Met Gala—have been steadily migrating to Europe. 

Earlier this month the second edition of The Grand Dîner du Louvre raised €1.6 million for the embattled institution. And in October last year, the British Museum’s £2,000-per-ticket Pink Ball drew both money and criticism. 

In a recent interview with Frieze, Hamburger Bahnhof’s director Sam Bardaouil emphasised that the gallery was not “importing a US model”, and that the evening was “not a traditional fundraiser”. Instead, he said, it was an attempt to build long-term relationships.

Even so, the adoption of the gala format—and the recent announcement of a large-scale partnership with Chanel Culture Fund—marks a noticeable recalibration in how the gallery positions itself within Berlin’s changing funding landscape.

Of course, Germany is far from the only country to see cuts to museum spending, which begs the question: which institution will be next to embrace the glamour of the gala?