 The collection was initially compiled from works that the Nazis had classified as "degenerate art".The "Gröppel Collection", containing around 200 paintings, sculptures and graphics, was acquired in 1957 and is now one of the keystones of the museum.At the heart of the collection are works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Mueller, Emil Nolde and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, who founded the movement "Die Brücke" in Dresden in 1905.