When the Schnütgen-Museum in Cologne opened as an autonomous institution in 1932, it became the first collection of medieval artifacts presented in a quasi-“white-cube” display. Despite growing scholarly interest in the rise of modernist museum design in Germany and the museumification of medieval heritage, the radically modern mise-en-scène by the museum’s first director, Fritz Witte, has received little attention from architectural historians. The Schnütgen’s early participation in these dramatic changes reveals how curators and art critics viewed the role of modern architecture and museum curation in demonstrating the relevance of medieval religious art for modern society and culture.