Dr h.c. Ingrid Mössinger

Ingrid Mössinger, who grew up in Stuttgart, initially studied library science and later art history, archaeology, ethnology and philosophy. She worked as a curator at the Frankfurter Kunstverein, served as director of Art Frankfurt in 1992/93 and subsequently as director of the Kunstverein Ludwigsburg. In 1996, she was appointed director of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. Just under a decade later, in 2005, she was appointed General Director of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, which today includes the Museum am Theaterplatz, the Museum Gunzenhauser, the Schloßbergmuseum, the Henry van de Velde Museum in the Villa Esche and the Carl Friedrich Claus Archive Foundation. With around 106,000 objects, the Chemnitz Art Collections are among the largest municipal museums in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Ingrid Mössinger has been honoured many times for her work. In 2007, she was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. This was followed in 2016 by the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany. Mössinger is also a recipient of the Saxon Constitutional Medal (2010) and the Saxon Order of Merit (2014). She has been a Knight of the French Legion of Honour since 2008 and has also held the Knight's Cross of the Danish Order of Dannebrog since 2010. In the same year, she was also awarded the Central German Business and Communication Prize "Hot Potato". In 2015, the Director General was awarded an honorary doctorate from Chemnitz University of Technology.

Ingrid Mössinger was also a member of the University Council of the Berlin University of the Arts and a member of the ZDF Television Council. She is currently a member of the University Council of the Dresden University of Fine Arts and a member of the Board of Trustees of Burg Giebichenstein University of Applied Sciences Halle.

The awarding of honorary citizenship for her services to the art collections and the city of Chemnitz took place in a ceremony with more than 500 guests in the Chemnitz Opera House, including honorary citizens, representatives from politics, business, culture and society.

The laudatory speech was given by Dr Thomas de Maizière, a long-standing federal and state minister. The Prime Minister of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, gave a welcoming address. Ingrid Mössinger also signed the Golden Book of the City of Chemnitz.

An almost normal week for Dr phil. h.c. Ingrid Mössinger. "I'm just making a quick phone call. The sculpture catalogue still has to be finished. Then I'll be right there," the General Director of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz asks her guests for patience, only to take a short time later to talk at length. These are questions that she has often answered in recent weeks. Because it's time to look back - a perspective that Ingrid Mössinger doesn't really like. But on 30 April, her professional engagement as General Director of the Art Collections in Chemnitz comes to an end.

Ingrid Mössinger has shaped the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz since 1996 and has not only been instrumental in expanding the museum for more than two decades, but has also understood the potential of the collection and its tradition and utilised it for the benefit of the city. Her high-calibre and internationally acclaimed exhibitions have made the museum a first-class address in the art world. Under Mrs Mössinger's leadership, the art collections were named "Museum of the Year 2010" by the art critics' association AICA.

The art collections have been listed in the Blue Book of nationally significant cultural institutions in eastern Germany since 2001. In 2003, they were honoured by the "Lebendige Stadt" foundation for the best German museum concept out of 163 competitors.

The reputation that the art collections enjoy thanks to Ingrid Mössinger has made Chemnitz better known throughout the world. It is thanks to Mrs Mössinger's work that Chemnitz is mentioned in a row with art metropolises. In terms of artistic quality, the museum can compete with the big names in the industry.

The exhibitions organised by Ingrid Mössinger have often caused a stir in the international arts pages. Among others, she focussed on "Picasso et les femmes" (2002), showed Edvard Munch (1999), Lucas Cranach (2005), Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (2016), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (2007), the Peredwischniki (2012), Andy Warhol (2014) and many others. She achieved a celebrated and marvelled world premiere with the first exhibition of Bob Dylan's works (2007). The number of exhibitions during Ingrid Mössinger's tenure has totalled around 170, with more than 500 artists from 45 countries shown.

Ingrid Mössinger has made an outstanding contribution to the expansion of the collection. The complete estate of Carlfriedrich Claus should be mentioned here, as well as the Loebermann Collection, a unique bundle of works by Lyonel Feininger. The city also has Ingrid Mössinger to thank for donations including the entire graphic oeuvre of Wolfgang Mattheuer by Hartmut Koch, donations from the Flügge family, the Bastian family and, most recently, the Jacques and Yulla Lipchitz Foundation New York. Neo Rauch's painting "The Weighing Up", which has adorned the council chamber of the town hall since 2013, was put in its place on the initiative of the museum director.

It is primarily thanks to the museum director that the unique collection of more than 2,400 works of classical modernism by the Munich gallery owner Dr Alfred Gunzenhauser found a home in Chemnitz in 2003. In 2007, the Gunzenhauser Museum, which had been remodelled especially for the collection, was opened in the presence of the then German President Horst Köhler. Ingrid Mössinger has put her profound knowledge, her exceptional professionalism, her own charming perseverance, unwavering courage and an excellent network at the service of the city of Chemnitz for decades. She has proven what is possible when ability and ambition are successfully combined.

At the same time, the museum director has managed to live the pride in "her" art collections together with the citizens. The "Friends of the Chemnitz Art Collections" association alone now has more than 1,000 members, making it the association with the most members of any fine arts museum in Saxony. Making art accessible to everyone has always been one of Ingrid Mössinger's maxims - the Konrad art bus, which has been taking schoolchildren to the art collections since 2011, is a product of this aspiration that has had a lasting effect. Since then, more than 50,000 children have taken advantage of the programme.

Chemnitz Art Collections

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