Among the five museum buildings on the Museum Island, Stüler’s Neues Museum is the only building which is still left ruined by the war. In contrast to the other reconstructed museum buildings, the Neues Museum ruin demonstrates both history and decay in an impressive manner with the degrees of destruction varying greatly throughout the building. The southeast bay and the whole of the northwest wing are entirely destroyed. Next to conserved interiors with highly elaborate finishes including mural cycles, there are parts of the building, such as the stair hall whose exposed brick walls enclose a shocking void. The power of the ruin stems not least from the exposure of the brickwork shell, making an indelible impression through both the knowledge of the building’s history but also through the Italian-style reflection of a classical ruin. The task of reconstructing the Neues Museum involves securing and restoring the historic building fabric of the ruin, in conjunction with the completion of the building through new additions. The restoration conserves whilst reinforcing the already conserved elements. The design uses the conserved parts, restores the building context and completes the building, thus providing appropriate exhibition rooms for the outstanding Egyptian collection and Pre- and Early History Collection, as was the case before its destruction. New and old remain authentic, are however coherent and not incongruous. In this context, the architectural theme is oriented toward continuity rather than contrast. Concern should be applied to the transition rather than the borderline. The rebuilding of the Neues Museum should avoid a complete reconstruction denying history as well as a romanticised old-new rhetoric or the monumentalisation of its destroyed state.