Nicolaus Schafhausen (born 1965 in Düsseldorf, Germany) is a curator.
Since 2006, Schafhausen is the artistic and financial director of Witte de With[1], Center for Contemporary art in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He was the founding director of the "European Kunsthalle"[2] initiative in Cologne, which began in 2005. He worked during the 1990s as the artistic director at the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart[3] and he was director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein from 1999 - 2005. Schafhausen was the curator of the German Pavilion[4] for the 52nd in 2007 and the 53rd in 2009 Venice Biennial
His thematic orientated group exhibitions have in the most part examined specific art practice in relation to contemporary social-political issues. This approach was made visible in projects such as "Populism" at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, CAC in Vilnius, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo and the Frankfurter Kunstverein in 2005. His curated group exhibitions include: "Adorno, The possibility of the impossible" (2003), "Neue Welt", "non-places", "New Heimat" (2001-2002). He curated several one-person exhibitions, including Kai Althoff, Gerard Byrne, Olafur Eliasson, Brian Jungen, Isa Genzken, Liam Gillick, [Billy Apple] Billy Apple Mathias Poledna, Stephen Prina and Cerith Wyn Evans.