It took a long time for the Museum Reinhard Ernst (MRE) in Wiesbaden to open. Three years of planning and five years of construction, as the museum's founder Reinhard Ernst said at the opening press conference. It was held on 20 June in the newly built museum building on Wiesbaden's magnificent Wilhelmstrasse. The museum offers a highly impressive cross-section of abstract art since 1945 – from Europe, the USA and Japan. The museum was built by the Reinhard & Sonja Ernst Foundation at a cost of over 80 million euros. The foundation will also pay for its upkeep in the long term.

All of the around 60 artworks on display come from the collection of Reinhard Ernst, which he has acquired from around the world over the course of around 40 years. On display in seven very different rooms are mostly large-format works by world-famous artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Hans Hartung, Judit Reigl, Shinoda Tōkō and Frank Stella. The forms of range from oil painting, watercolour, ink and lacquer, to glass, photography and sculpture in steel or bronze. The opening presentation „Colour is everything“ lives up to its motto, and shows many of the patron's artworks to the public for the first time. After around two years, some will be replaced by other notable works from Ernst's collection.

The MRE's first special exhibition (until 9 February 2025) is dedicated to the work of the recently deceased Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki. The Pritzker Architecture Prize winner designed many buildings around the world, including 4 World Trade Centre in New York, as well as museums. The new building in Wiesbaden is his tenth museum – and the only one he designed in Europe. The modern white building blends in well with its Wilhelminian-style surroundings.

Ernst is particularly keen to make his collection, which now comprises around 900 works of art – all of which is abstract art created after 1945 – accessible to everyone, especially young people.

„This house belongs to art, and art belongs to everyone,“ he said at the opening on 23 June. As a collector, he sees himself as having a responsibility to society, saying that "private collectors can own the artworks – but they should make them accessible to a large audience.“

Reinhard Ernst and his wife Sonja were recently honoured with the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany for their services to education, art, culture and the protection of historical monuments.

Founding director Oliver Kornhoff describes the MRE as an „artistic building and a building full of art“. A museum creates community, and „we want to create a place of learning, wonder and encounter,“ he adds. The new building should „contribute to making art and culture tangible as the binding agent that holds our society together – museum building is community building.“