The Neues Museum (New Museum), built between 1843 and 1855, is considered an outstanding document of museum building in the 19th century. Since the Altes Museum did not offer enough space shortly after its opening, Friedrich August Stüler was commissioned to build the museum, which opened in 1859.

The interior decoration of the three exhibition floors, such as the famous Kaulbach frescoes in the staircase, was realized by the most important painters of Berlin's late classicism.
Bombing raids in 1943 and 1945 severely damaged the museum. It was not until 1985 that the reconstruction of the wartime ruins began with emergency securing and foundation restoration.

In 1997, the British architect David Chipperfield was commissioned to restore the building. The lost room sequences and volumes were restored without imitating the historical original in detail. The restoration of the facade and the interiors respects the historical traces of the monument.

After more than 60 years, the collections of the Ägyptisches Museum and the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte are reunited in their historically ancestral place.