The cofounder and longtime chairman of the software company SAP, Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. Hasso Plattner is one of Germany’s most prominent entrepreneurs, whose name precedes him throughout the world. Plattner has been a patron of science and innovative technologies for many years through his establishment of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Software Systems Engineering (HPI) at the University of Potsdam and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University in the United States.

With an impeccable eye for quality, Hasso Plattner has amassed one of the most significant collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works over the past two decades. His collection of 115 paintings by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Gustave Caillebotte, and Paul Signac, as well as many other artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, contains masterpieces such as Caillebotte’s The Argenteuil Bridge and the Seine (ca. 1883), Monet’s Grainstacks (1890) and Water-Lilies (1914–17) as well as Signac’s The Port at Sunset, Saint-Tropez (1892).

Plattner began collecting his first paintings from this art period in 2000. As a water-sport enthusiast, his choice of subjects initially reflected his passion for the sea, although his focus increasingly shifted to other subject matter of the Impressionists, including urban life in Paris and rural scenes from the periphery of of the capital. Plattner was especially fascinated by the landscapes of the Impressionists, whose compositions, colors, and painting technique served to make the temperature, the weather, and the play of light in nature tangible with all the senses. Plattner explains: “The Impressionists describe the atmosphere in such a direct way that when I look at Caillebotte’s painting of the Seine, I feel involuntarily compelled to jump into the water, in the same way that Monet’s evening scene with the sailboats near Argenteuil invites me to immediately set sail and his painting of a field of grain fills me with the desire to walk through the undulating rows of grain.”

Since autumn 2020, the largest part of Plattner’s collection has been on permanent display at the Museum Barberini. Over 110 paintings give visitors an overview of the history of French Impressionism, from its beginnings with Monet, Renoir, and Sisley to the exhibition collaborative of Pissarro, Morisot, and Caillebotte and its further development by the Pointillists and the Fauves. Exhibiting 40 paintings by Monet, no venue in Europe outside of France shows more works by this artist in one place. Potsdam is thus one of the most important centers in the world for Impressionist landscape painting.

Hasso Plattner’s motto of “experiencing originals and sharing enthusiasm” is also reflected in the up to three temporary exhibitions a year which the Barberini organizes in cooperation with museums all over the world, in the extensive program of events and education, and the daily exchange with visitors and art fans, locals and guests from far away, as well as families and children.

Hasso Plattner’s commitment to his adopted hometown, Potsdam—including the Museum Barberini, the HPI at the University of Potsdam, and his funding of the reconstruction of Potsdam Palace—was acknowledged in 2017 when he was granted an honorary citizenship of Potsdam.