[1] Alexander von Humboldt had recommended that an Egyptian section be created, and the first objects were brought to Berlin in 1828 under King Friedrich Wilhelm III.

Initially housed in Monbijou Palace, the department was headed by the Trieste merchant Giuseppe Passalacqua (1797–1865), whose extensive collections formed the basis.

In 1850, the collections moved to its present-day home in the Neues Museum, built according to plans designed by Friedrich August Stüler.

The Nefertiti Bust, discovered during the excavations by Ludwig Borchardt in Amarna, was donated to the museum by the entrepreneur Henri James Simon in 1920; it quickly became its best-known exhibit.

After World War II, during which the Neues Museum was heavily damaged by strategic bombing, the collections were divided between East and West Berlin.