Stiftung Insel Hombroich

Karl-Heinrich Müller

Born in Düssel­dorf as the son of a master shoemaker in 1936, Karl-Heinrich Müller disco­vered his passion for art while still a young man. He opened a real estate agency in 1958, which soon estab­lished itself as the first port of call for indus­trial buildings, with some 450 employees and offices all over Germany and Europe.

From 1968, Karl-Heinrich Müller began actively coll­ec­ting 20th-century art, focusing on indi­vi­dual artist perso­na­li­ties such as Kurt Schwit­ters, Hans Arp, Jean Fautrier and Yves Klein. Just two years later, he had the initial idea of creating a museum as a way of giving something back to society. However, he was unable to find a suitable location until 1982, when he acquired the ‘Erft island’ just outside the city gates of Neuss. Here, Müller developed a unique space together with artists Gotthard Graubner (coll­ec­tion instal­la­tion) and Erwin Heerich (archi­tec­ture) and also with landscape designer Bernhard Korte (landscape).

Foundation origins

Over the course of 20 years, Karl-Heinrich Müller acquired a further 40 sites, some of which were in the direct neigh­bour­hood. With the purchase of the former NATO missile base in Hombroich, he even­tually added to the museum ensemble an inno­va­tive space for producing art.

In November 1996, Karl-Heinrich Müller contri­buted almost his entire art coll­ec­tion and all his sites in Hombroich – together with the buildings on a space of around 64 hectares – to Stiftung Insel Hombroich, a foun­da­tion that he set up together with the City and Rhine district of Neuss. To this day, its sole purpose remains to preserve and continue the museum and Rake­ten­sta­tion as intended by the founder, who died unex­pec­tedly in November 2007, full of new ideas for the future of the project.

Since then, Stiftung Insel Hombroich has been evolving conti­nu­ally – all the time remaining true to the spirit of Karl-Heinrich Müller. As well as the extensive resto­ra­tion of the exhi­bi­tion pavilions, the orga­ni­sa­tional struc­tures are expanding, aided by a compre­hen­sive mission and strategy process that was intro­duced in 2021.

Mission Statement

Hombroich
Hombroich is the dynamic and diverse interplay of art, nature, buildings, coll­ec­tions, archives and people. The Hombroich site connects artists, scien­tists, foun­da­tion staff, volun­teers and asso­ciated insti­tu­tions. It was founded by the patron Karl-Heinrich Müller. Hombroich encom­passes the material and intellec­tual legacy of the founding gene­ra­tion as well as deve­lo­p­ments and endow­ments arising from it. It is a place of creative processes, of expe­ri­ments and their open-ended outcome. Hombroich sees itself as an island in a present of fast-paced life, utility orien­ta­tion and consump­tion.

Foun­da­tion
Stiftung Insel Hombroich serves the Hombroich community and society as a whole. It was estab­lished by the founder together with the city and district of Neuss in order to preserve Hombroich’s place and concerns and to lead them into the future. The foun­da­tion ensures the nego­tia­tion of the various interests gathered there in order to further develop Hombroich in its entirety. To this end, it estab­lishes commit­tees and formats in which content and strategy are nego­tiated. The expertise of external parties is sought and incor­po­rated. The foun­da­tion ensures that new gene­ra­tions of artists and scien­tists are present at Hombroich and that their voices are heard. The foun­da­tion is an advocate for nature, which is essential for Hombroich and which it cares for and preserves. Its actions are ecolo­gi­cally oriented. The foun­da­tion manages the coll­ec­tions and archives in its posses­sion, rese­ar­ches them and makes them acces­sible to the public.

Orga­ni­sa­tion
Hombroich stands for self-respon­si­bi­lity and the reciprocal exchange between the people working there. Inde­pen­dent projects by those working at Hombroich are necessary for indi­vi­dual deve­lo­p­ment and for the site as a whole. The foun­da­tion develops and supports suitable forms of orga­niza­tion. With the goal of diverse basic financing and the greatest possible autonomy, the foun­da­tion acquires public and private donors. It is respon­sible for and commu­ni­cates the material concerns of Hombroich as a whole. The foun­da­tion is an employer of employees and a partner of artists, volun­teers, sponsors and asso­ciated insti­tu­tions. It estab­lishes struc­tures that reflect the diverse fields of activity of the actors and involve them in decision-making processes

Community
Hombroich is above all the people who work here. The ways in which they connect with the place differ in intensity and duration. In order to ensure that this open community also forms a continuum, the foun­da­tion estab­lishes suitable rituals and formats. Hombroich is hospi­ta­lity in action. The foun­da­ti­on’s attitude is that everyone is welcome at Hombroich. It enables those working on site to be multi­pliers of Hombroich in their own way. The foun­da­tion culti­vates and shapes the rela­ti­onship with the region — whether through contact with educa­tional and cultural insti­tu­tions or by engaging with the surroun­ding cultural landscape. Hombroich sees itself as part of inter­na­tional artistic and scien­tific networks. The foun­da­tion promotes their main­ten­ance and expansion. It knows and under­stands the topics and compe­ten­cies worked on locally and links them beyond Hombroich.

Public
Hombroich is an invi­ta­tion to the whole of society. All people, regard­less of their back­ground and education, should be encou­raged to perceive and act in an unbiased and self-deter­mined manner. To this end, the foun­da­tion develops offers oriented toward dialogue. It bundles the program­matic acti­vi­ties of different actors in Hombroich and commu­ni­cates projects developed there to the general public. The foun­da­tion makes it possible for Hombroich to parti­ci­pate in the profes­sional discourses of the present based on its coll­ec­tion and knowledge stocks, also with its own program­matic impulses.

This mission statement was developed jointly by the stake­hol­ders in Hombroich.