The first institutions to bring contemporary art to the German public were supported by the middle class and called Kunstvereine, or "art associations." The 200th anniversary of the Kunstverein in Hamburg, the oldest of these associations in Germany, is the perfect opportunity to examine within a larger framework the checkered history of this institution and its specific artistic and social roles in the German cultural landscape. The Kunstverein in Hamburg initiated the exhibition and sales of contemporary works of art in the old Hanseatic city, instigated the founding of the Hamburger Kunsthalle and its gallery of prints, and in the twentieth century it erected for itself the most modern of all exhibition spaces. Since 1817 the Kunstverein in Hamburg has been offering its audiences chances to explore contemporary artworks that are not devoted so much to the museum canon as much as they are to new, occasionally provocative forms of expression.