An estimated 400 individuals and institutions have bestowed gifts of glass to the Glasmuseum Hentrich since its inception. Financial donations additionally enable targeted  purchases. Thus the quality of the collection is indebted to a considerable extent to the private commitment of our patrons. 

The Glasmuseum Hentrich owes its character most of all to the eminent collection of Düsseldorf architect, Helmut Hentrich (1905–2001). In 1961, he made a gift of his collection of glass to the North Rhine-Westphalian capital, with the proviso of his retaining the privilege to extend this collection with new acquisitions. This he then did, for the rest of his life, passing his finds on to the Glasmuseum as gifts on an annual basis. His primary aim was to see his own collection grow: initially, and primarily, with the emphasis on ancient Greek and Roman, Islamic and Art Nouveau glass. Hentrich’s donations comprise about 3000 glasses overall – a collection of consistently excellent quality.

Hentrich’s patronage continues after his death. In 1995, together with another generous patron of the Museum Kunstpalast, Udo van Meeteren, he established a foundation, the Stiftung Glasmuseum Hentrich. Its annual funding covers, for example, new purchases and the continuing research work at the Glasmuseum Hentrich.

If Art Nouveau glass-making was and is already splendidly represented by Helmut Hentrich’s own donations to the museum named after him, an extraordinarily valuable bequest assured the collection world status once and for all. Entering the Museum collection in 2005 on a permanent basis, the collection of Art Nouveau glass of Gerda Koepff (1919 – 2006), an entrepreneur in Heidelberg, is part of the permanent display at Glasmuseum Hentrich.

The Glass Museum benefits not only from gifts, but also from a large number of permanent loans which contribute in no small way to the coverage and standing of the collection. Thus, the world-famous collection of Krefeld architect Karl Amendt represents the Middle Ages at the Glasmuseum in a quality and fullness which may justly be regarded as unparalleled in the world. The glasses of the Amendt Collection have been at the Glass Museum on permanent loan since 1989.

The permanent loan of the collection of the Steinberg Foundation in Liechtenstein has lent the Museum another area of particular specialisation – the art glass-making of the 1930s to the 1970s in Venice/Murano, Scandinavia and the former Czechoslovakia.

The following lists some of the Glasmuseum’s foremost patrons.

 Klaus Breit, Schwäbisch Gmünd
Anthony Cragg, Wuppertal
Siegfried Cremers, Düsseldorf
Ruth-Maria Franz, Vienna
Helmut Hentrich, Düsseldorf
Brigitte Herrmann-Pfohl, Hadamar
Josef Klein, Recklinghausen
Brigitte Klesse, Bonn
Helen and Tijmen Knecht-Drenth, Oisterwijk
Gerda Koepff, Heidelberg
Inge Lenders, Düsseldorf
Uschi and Rainer Losch, Bonn
Florence Marinot, Paris
Manfred and Annemarie Rath, Dülmen
Dieter Schaich, Munich
Eva Schmitt, Freiburg
Christa and Achim Schürenberg, Aachen/Aix-la-Chapelle
Steinberg Foundation, Vaduz
Wilfried van Loyen, Düsseldorf
Hans-Günther and Bianca Velmerig, Düsseldorf

and the institutional patrons,
KulturStiftung der Länder, Berlin
Land Nordrhein-Westfalen
Stiftung Kunst und Kultur NRW, Düsseldorf

Considerable financial support has been received from
Ingrid Ursula Brock, Schwäbisch Gmünd
Ruth-Maria Franz, Vienna
Helmut Hentrich, Düsseldorf
Helen and Tijmen Knecht-Drenth, Oisterwijk
Udo van Meeteren, Düsseldorf
Steinberg Foundation, Vaduz

We owe particular gratitude, not least, to the City of Düsseldorf. The commitment of the regional capital has made possible some of the Glass Collection’s most substantial purchases.