My wife is an artist and wanted to visit this museum specifically before we left for home. I am a wheelchair user. Given the great quality of museums and exhibits we had previously visited in the city over the week and the superb help we had received throughoutwe expected similar standards from this gallery. At the front there were no obvious notices guiding wheelchair users into the building. I managed to use two sticks to walk up a flight of stairs. An attendant shouted something unintelligible to me from the top of a steep/long flight of stairs and waved his arms at me without taking the trouble to come down to speak to me. We wondered if he was advising that there was an accessible entrance round the side of the building. With difficulty we made our way down the steps again and round the side where we encountered two staff members having a smoke outside. They didn’t give us any advice either and similarly we didn’t see any obvious signs guiding us in. We made our own way into what appeared to be a back entrance to the gallery shop - again no-one assisted us. A member of the public approached us to help guide us through a locker system and told us where we might be able to find a lift. She also advised that although she was German herself she also found the whole place confusing. The lift was hidden away in a corner with no on obvious signage. Two staff members were using the lift which gave us no indication of which floor we needed to be on. The staff members didn’t offer any help or advice and we had to guess that we might need floor 1 for ticket sales and access. At floor 1 we went to the ticket counter. The sales assistant told us that the Berlin Welcome Card wasn’t valid here and said that we would have to buy two full priced tickets (cost €12 each). We left the ticket desk to discuss whether we still wanted to enter the gallery at this price. My wife went to the information counter to raise a question about whether there was a senior persons discount. The helper there advised that the only discounted tickets were for students and disabled people. My wife pointed to me in my wheelchair and asked why the ticket sales staff member hadn’t mentioned this only to be asked herself whether we had asked for this discount (despite my having presented at the desk in my wheelchair). At this point we left. In order to meet the standards of other museums and attractions in Berlin this gallery needs to improve a) access notices, b) staff attitudes. c) general communications with would-be attendees d) widen discount eligibility for other needs groups. A great disappointment after having taken a long and difficult journey to get there.

Went there with my partner who had booked a 2 day break-whilst i respect that different countries have their national languages-i am a Welsh speaker-if someone can't speak the language i will speak English as a matter of courtsey. I explained this to receptionist we couldn't speak German and asked politely for directions. Instead he carried on in German and gave a look of exsaaperation and dismissinesivess. We turned around and exited. I have never experienced such rudeness, and he is meant to be the public face of the museum and meant to encourage tourism. I suggest he goes on a course.

To me, the problem with the Museuminsel museums is their extreme conservatism and dated presentation, with no information given on the labels except name of the artist, title of the work, and its date. OK, fine, for once no trendiness nor glitz. That's a relief. But overall, it's heavy sledding. Maybe the audioguide offers more. The Alte Nationalgalerie is dedicated entirely to 19th-century painting and some sculpture, meaning French and German Impressionism and post-Impressionism, and German painting in general from the French Revolution to the Secession. At the moment, the entire second floor is closed, in preparation for an exhibition to be centered around the artist Max Liebermann. So no Monet, Manet, or any of those usual suspects, nor one of my favorite German painters of the period, Arnold Böcklin. Thus, the big remaining attraction for now is the German Romantics: CD Friedrich, Blechen, and Schinkel who are represented by some truly great masterpieces. As far as I am concerned, the entire rest of the third and first floors is devoted to specialist pieces of little interest to the general visitor, and some very inferior examples of painters like Corot, Corinth, Constable, Courbet, and (early) Beckmann. I was "finished" the whole thing in an hour but may go back just to focus on the trio of Blechen, Schinkel, and Friedrich.

Majestic exterior but a somewhat underwhelming interior - both in terms of the spaces and the artwork. Some nice rooms but clearly a 19th century building with many small or oddly-shaped rooms. And as for the artwork - unless you're into bland, repetitious 19th century German romanticism you're likely to be as disappointed as we were. Not at all what we expected from the national gallery of one of the great European capitals. We much preferred the quite superb art museums in Munich and Dresden. If you're into art you'll no doubt want to visit but don't expect too much.

After waiting in line for 50 minutes in 30 degree Celsius heat we were finally let in and could go for a well needed toilet visit and put our bags etc in a locker. When I then went to to buy tickets for me and my girlfriend I am told that they are sold out a minute ago, and that the tickets are based on a time slot system that covers the entire museum island. Although we were let in and the door man clearly made some kind of head count, there was nothing he could do, and he blamed people that had skipped the line before us. No one informed us when we were let in that we should gocand by tickets immediately. I ask to speak to a manager about this, and when telling him about our 50 minute wait, he verbatim told us he "could imagine how we felt since he would never have waited 50 minutes in line". I left in complete shock. Extremely rude staff and incomprehensible ticket system. Avoid.