(August 31), Elberfeld and Barmen merged to form the city of Wuppertal. The first museum director, Dr. Friedrich Fries, retired in 1929 after 27 years in office. Dr. Victor Dirksen was appointed as the new museum director in 1929 (in office until 1952). The artistic director of the Barmer Kunstverein, which had existed since 1866, Dr. Richart Reiche, resigned in 1931. Dr. Dirksen was now the director of both, the Elberfeld Municipal Museum and the Hall of Fame in Barmen. The museum was renamed the Städtisches Museum Wuppertal. After August von der Heydt died in 1929, his widow, Selma von der Heydt, donated paintings by Paul Gauguin, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Emil Nolde, Heinrich Nauen, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Max Pechstein to the museum in his memory. 

The city of Wuppertal now had two museums under one management: the Kunsthalle Barmen with its progressive exhibition policy and the Städtisches Museum in Elberfeld with its collection of old and new art. A new era dawned. The collection of antique plaster casts was handed over to the schools.