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The beginnings of today’s Museum Abteiberg go back to the first half of the 20th century. Mönchengladbach was one of the major centres of the cotton industry in Germany – having a similar position to Manchester in England. The area’s growing prosperity produced a confident bourgeoisie on the lower Rhine, which also sought to demonstrate its social prestige in its appreciation for art. The donation of a collection of Expressionist paintings in 1922 was initially housed in a local entrepreneur’s villa from the Wilhelminian era. But when the collection expanded it soon outgrew the available space. A new building was needed. Former head of Mönchengladbach’s Culture Department Dr. Busso Diekamp recalls how contact with Hans Hollein came about, and why the planning and building of such a major project was entrusted to a then still relatively unknown architect.