The first pieces in the collection can be dated back to a time even before the museum was officially founded in 1925. Members of the Deutscher Werkbund already had the initial idea in 1907 to lay the foundation for a collection of contemporary objects that met modern technical production possibilities and social requirements. In the course of this, objects were purchased by the Munich association as early as 1911, which are still in the museum’s possession today: objects by artists from the Darmstadt’s Mathildenhöhe, the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk in Munich or the Wiener Werkstätte.
It is also thanks to the focus on the new that other important examples in the history of design were included in the collection shortly after their market launch, including products from the Bauhaus and Burg Giebichenstein in Halle. But it is also the comprehensive collection from the field of industrial design, ranging from the prototype to the finished serial product, that distinguishes the Munich museum as one of the most important museums for design. Exemplary designs have been continuously collected since its foundation, thus documenting the latest developments in the field of production, technology and design. Die Neue Sammlung therefore houses objects from Art Nouveau and Art Déco, functionalism and postmodernism to contemporary designs. It combines the opportunity for historical reappraisal and discussion on pioneering innovations.