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Post by nycgirl on Sept 9, 2011 23:02:58 GMT
What an incredible, moody photo! Well done.
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Post by rikita on Sept 11, 2011 14:16:18 GMT
thanks!
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Post by rikita on Sept 11, 2011 14:24:15 GMT
After being destroyed in WWII, the New Guardhouse was reconstructed until 1960. It was then opened as a memorial to victims of militarism and fascism. It was then changed in the 1960s, with an "eternal flame" as a central point, and the remains of someone who had died in a concentration camp and of a soldier buried in there. In 1993 the current sculpture was put into the middle of the building, and it became the central memorial for the victims of war and tyranny.
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Post by rikita on Sept 12, 2011 6:02:40 GMT
These days, the Neue Wache consists of an empty room inside, with a sculpture in the middle: The sculpture is a much bigger copy of a small sculpture by Kätze Kollwitz, showing a mother with her dead soldier son. It is often called "Pietà". As the top of the building has a circular window without glass, the sculpture is subjected to all weather influences like rain and snow. In front of it, there are the words "To the victims of war and tyranny" in the floor. The use of this sculpture, however, has been subject to criticism: First of all it has been argued that blowing up a sculpture to 1,60 meters, when originially it has been designed as a small sculpture, is falsifying the intention of the artist. And secondly, it is said that by showing a soldier as the dead person the use of this sculpture is ignoring the two biggest groups of innocent victims of WWII: Jews and women.
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Post by bjd on Sept 12, 2011 6:53:46 GMT
I don't think that's a fair criticism. Obviously Jewish losses were enormous, but many other people suffered and died and I think this sculpture reflects those losses.
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Post by rikita on Sept 13, 2011 6:28:40 GMT
Well, i don't know if i think it is fair or not... It's just a poin tthat has been discussed...
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Post by rikita on Sept 13, 2011 6:31:11 GMT
This time not a sight, just a small detail: A manhole cover showing different sights...
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Post by rikita on Sept 13, 2011 20:27:42 GMT
The museum island in the northern part of the island on the river Spree is a Unesco world heritage site, and a main tourist attractin in Berlin... One of the museums there is this one, Alte Nationalgalerie (old national gallery), showing sculptures and paintings from the 19th century. This formerly swamp-type area was first used as a garden for the Berliner Schloss (Berlin castle), after the water there was drained in the 17th century, by building canals. End of the 18th century it was suggested to king Friedrich Wilhelm II to have a museum for antique and newer pieces of art built, and in 1810 king Friedrich Wilhelm III ordered to start a collection of pieces of arts for the public, as the educated public was asking for publicly accessible collections of art. In 1822 Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the same architect who built the Neue Wache, planned a building for this museum which included a new concept for the use of this northern part of the Spree island - apart from the museum itself he planned several bridges and a straightening of the moats draining the water there.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2011 5:15:43 GMT
Did that building survive the war, rikita, or did it have to be put back together again like so much of the rest of the city?
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Post by rikita on Sept 14, 2011 6:39:35 GMT
dunno, really, but i think i will find out as i read and write more about the museum island... (some things i am writing from memory, but others, like this one, i have to look up too...)
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Post by rikita on Sept 14, 2011 6:45:34 GMT
This is a sculpture in the entrance area of the Alte Nationalgalerie... The first building on the museum island was the Alte Museum (old museum) in 1830, Prussia's first public museum. In the following years more museums were built: Neues Museum (new museum, 1859), Alte Nationalgalerie (old national gallery, i.e. this one above, 1876), Bode Museum (1904), Pergamonmuseum (1930). Of course these aren't necessarily their original names. The name "Museumsinsel" (museum island) became commonly used by the end of the 1870s, and came from Prussia trying to open museums that were comparably with the ones in Paris and London. (will continue with the next picture, i guess there i will find out what happened with the buildings during/after the war...)
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Post by nycgirl on Sept 14, 2011 18:26:07 GMT
Cool statue. Do you know what it depicts? Maybe Prometheus having his liver eaten out by the eagle? Just guessing. Neat manhole cover. There's a color photo of that same one in the Image Bank. It's funny, I haven't given given manhole covers a thought in my life until I saw the photo thread, now I find myself glancing at them, trying to spot a good one.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2011 19:19:33 GMT
We all do that now, nycgirl. It's so hard to find a new and different one, but they're out there!
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Post by rikita on Sept 14, 2011 19:48:06 GMT
i tried to figure that out too, and was thinking it might be prometheus. but i might have to go back and check, i suppose there is a sign somewhere...
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Post by rikita on Sept 14, 2011 19:55:22 GMT
Alte Nationalgalerie again (sorry, i tend to photograph the same buildings, and not the others, has to do with which ones i find interesting angles of...) In the 3rd Reich, they planned the same type of monumentalistic buildings for the Museumsinsel as they planned for other parts of Berlin, replacing the original buildings. Due to the start of WWII, however, these plans were abandoned. During the war, over 70 % of the museum island were destroyed (the Alte Nationalgalerie, the building in the photos, was heavily damaged, and it is unclear which pieces of art were destroyed due to bombs, and which were taken to the soviet union). In 1950, the reconstruction of the museum island was slowly started. The area was now part of East Berlin. One of the museums, the Neue Museum, was so strongly damaged that at first they considered tearing the ruin down. However, there was no suitable building to replace it, and in 1987 it was decided to start reconstructing it too. Lack of money, however, kept the GDR government from a complete reconstruction of the area.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2011 20:34:52 GMT
Thanks for that information. Even after seeing so much restoration work all over Europe, I remain astounded at how so many of these places have been returned to their original glory.
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Post by rikita on Sept 15, 2011 6:41:47 GMT
End of the 1990s, an wide restauration of the museum island was started, in 1999 the "masterplan museumsinsel was decided. For this, the buildings are to be restaured, the museums gathered as an ensemble of museums, and the collections, that had been separated before 1990, newly ordered. The Old National Gallery in the pictures above had been inspired by antique temples, the horse statue in front shows Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who made the first sketches for constructing this building. In front of the building is a free area, called "Kolonnadenhof", which is surrounded on three sides by passages between columns (as in this picture, not sure how to describe it).
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Post by rikita on Sept 15, 2011 21:06:07 GMT
on the front part of the museum island, there is a kind of small park (a meadow, really) and this fountain... Here, some boys are cycling in the fountain... On summer days, the meadow is quite full of people usually...
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Post by rikita on Sept 16, 2011 13:20:43 GMT
Right next to the museum island is the Berliner Dom (berlin dome, or berlin cathedral). This is a protestant (in the sense of German evangelic church), whose current form dates back to the turn of the 19th to 20th century. The plans for that church were influenced by italian high renessaince and baroque architecture. The main door points to the Lustgarten (the park or meadow I wrote about in the post above). In its crypt there are many members of the Hohenzollern family. There are still regular services in the church, both of the local church community, and services for specific national events or political events. Of course the church suffered damage during the war, but services continued in its cellar until reconstruction. Though the current form of the dome isn't that old, there were predecessing buildings there since the 15th century.
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Post by Jazz on Sept 16, 2011 17:11:35 GMT
I love this thread. Rikita, your photos are exceptional and I enjoy the way you've chosen to present your Berlin to us. Much to think about and even more to absorb aesthetically.
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Post by rikita on Sept 18, 2011 15:57:42 GMT
On this photo, you see the Nikolaiviertel, with the two towers of the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicolas church), and in the background the TV tower. THe Nikolaiviertel could be seen as the original Berlin... As I said earlier, Berlin grew from two villages at the Spree river, Berlin and Cölln. Cölln was a fishing village on an island (the same island whose northern part today is the museum island), and Berlin was a merchant village north of the Spree. Around 1230 both villages received the right to be called a city, and around the same time they built their first stone churches. In the case of Cölln, that was the Petrikirche (St. Petrus church, as Petrus is the saint of fishermen), and in Berlin the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicolas church, as Nicolas is the saint of merchants). The first documents mentioning Cölln is from 1237, for Berlin it is 1244. From the 14th century onwards the two places grew together as a double town, with time incorporating the surrounding villages and towns...
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Post by rikita on Sept 19, 2011 6:04:30 GMT
Of the original St. Nicolas church (Nikolaikirche), only the lower part of the tower remains. The hall of the church was already replaced in the same century, as the people of Berlin became richer and wanted to show their grown status by having a church of red brick rather than grey stone - a priviledge that before was reserved to monastery churches... Later, a new and very modern choir was built, with a choir ambulatory that was following the newest in the architecture of the time. The hall of the church was rebuilt a second time (I think in the 15th century, not sure now, too lazy to look it up), and additions from that time period are also the sacristy, and the liebfrauen-kapelle (chapel of our lady)... During the baroque period also first smaller and later bigger balconies were installed inside the church to provide more space for people. Throughout all that time, the church had only one assymetric tower (i.e. a tower that was on one side of the tower base, while on the other side there was a small roof. Only during the final reconstruction in the end of the 19th century (after an earlier reconstruction in the same century already removed the balconies inside again) the double tower was built, hoping to give the church the image that might have been originally intended... By the way: On the top of the original tower, documents and coins had been stored each time there was restoring work done at the church, since the time the first tower was built. During the reconstruction this treasure was found, counted, and placed again in one of the spheres on the top of the towers. During the bombardments during WWII, however, the towers collapsed, but the treasure could first be saved and was placed in the cellars of a museum. WHen the war was over, however, it was gone! In the end, no one thought it could ever be found again, but after the fall of the wall (so almost 50 years after its disappearance) a man came to the "Märkische Museum" saying he inherited a coin collection and would like to know more about it. When his collection was checked by some experts, they realized it was the treasure from the St. Nicolas church! And it was almost complete, only a few documents and a red sammet bag that had belonged to the elector were missing... Against a recompensation, the treasure was thus returned to the museum and is now part of the exhibition in the St. Nicolas church...
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Post by rikita on Sept 19, 2011 20:17:44 GMT
The church was used for services until 1938 or 1939, I think. Then it was closed for reconstruction. During the war, the towers fell down due to bombs in 1944, and in 1945 first the hall burned out and then a little while after the war, the roof collapsed, so the church was in ruins - with everythng inside exposed to wind and weather. It remained in ruins for several decades, and the area around it (i.e. the historic center of Berlin), was destroyed too. Among the plans what to do with it, in the 1950s or 1960s there was the idea to tear everything down and flood the area to create a lake. In the end, however, it was decided to revive the Nikolaiviertel for the 750-year celebration of Berlin in 1987. So during the 1980s, the church was reconstructed, as well as other houses in the area (one historic house remaining on its original spot is the so-called "Knoblauchhaus"). Other houses were movied here from other parts of town and rebuild in their original shape. Yet others were constructed again, for example the "Ephraimpalais", today housing a museum: The facade of that house had to be recovered for an unknown amount of money from West Berlin, so that it could be rebuilt, though a few meters away from its original location as there was a street there now. ALso, new apartment houses were build, but with facades that integrated into the other buildings there. A lot of people these days complain that the Nikolaiviertel is not real, as the houses there are rebuild, moved there, or new - but I think there is a certain historic continuity nevertheless, especially due to the different museums there, and due to the church as its central point. The Nikolaikirche (St. Nicolas church) was rebuilt as a museum too, and it was rebuilt using old techniques, using shaped bricks found in the rubble as a model, and the insides were repainted after what could be recovered of the first colours of each building part...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2011 20:23:32 GMT
I really appreciate places that make the effort to reconstruct what was destroyed, and I don't think it is fake at all. Most of Paris and quite a few other French cities would be fake if that were true. What Germany has done is all the more admirable for having to rebuild so many things from "rubble" rather than just "ruins."
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Post by rikita on Sept 20, 2011 19:40:02 GMT
One of my favourite indoors-views of the Nikolaikirche: From 2007 (I think) to March 2010 the Nikolaikirche was closed, then it reopened with a new permanent exhibition dealing with the role of the church, important people connected to it, the graves in the church of important people in Berlin's history, sacramentes and lithurgy and objects connected to it, etc. ... My father was quite involved with this exhibition, so that's one of the reasons this church interests me particularly... The sculpture in the front of the picture is one of the "Baroque Altar Angels" exhibited in the church: In the time of the baroque, the old high altar was replaced with a new one, whose top was decorated with different "angels": Two angels holding a golden plate with a cross, two cherubim (this is one of them), and different women representing qualities such as faith, hope, love etc. In WWII, the altar was destroyed, but the angels were recovered with many other things, taken apart (or well, I suppose they had broken into pieces already) and stored in the archives of the Märkische Museum, where they were forgotten. In the 1990s, this one was rediscovered, put together, and it was realized that it is one of the baroque altar angels. So then the others were searched for. Most of them could be recovered, and there was a big activity about people who wanted to (and could afford it) becoming a "god-parent" to one of the angels, financing its restauration. Now the angels are exhibited at the place where the altar once stood, and in the formation they once took at the top of the altar - just that now all but one of them are close to the ground...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2011 19:44:26 GMT
I like the white ceilings -- a big contrast from the "stone-coloured' ceilings in so many places.
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Post by rikita on Sept 21, 2011 6:27:54 GMT
yeah, afaik this is how the church used to be, as well - the ceilings were brick-coloured in the 19th century, because they assumed that is the original style, but when reconstructing it, the parts of paint they recovered, suggested that the lowest layer was white and light gray, with colourful beams... btw, most colours' meanings are not known, but some parts have blue and orange beams, and that suggests that there was an altar dedicated to mary underneath them...
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Post by rikita on Sept 21, 2011 6:33:27 GMT
Here is the other cherub, the one higher up... Btw, the Nikolaikirche was the church where the citizens of Berlin officially announced their change to protestantism (lutheranism), where the first meeting of the city parliament took place, and in that tradition also, where the first meeting of the city parliament of reunited Berlin took place... It is also the place where Paul Gerhardt, one of the most famous hymn writers in Germany, and Johann Crüger, who wrote the music for many of his hymns, worked throughout many years. Also Philipp Jacob Spener worked here. And among the many important people buried here is for example Samuel von Pufendorf...
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 21, 2011 7:16:39 GMT
Rikita, this thread is a marvel. Really, it should be a book. Well, lucky us to get to revel in your beautiful pictures and excellent commentary.
I totally love the photo in #76, with that rich timeless look. And the statue in #70 -- you surpassed yourself in that one!
Re: reconstructing of buildings -- one of the plantation houses in my home town burned to the ground back in the 1960s. When new owners of the property decided to rebuild, they received photos from all over the world from tourists who'd visited the house. And that was only a single dwelling, not something important that belonged to a community, such as a museum or church. So it seems there is a strong impulse for continuity, even if something has to be recreated.
It's great to have all this background from a daughter of the city, especially in the way you present it. It feels as though we're walking around the city with you.
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Post by rikita on Sept 22, 2011 17:06:45 GMT
thanks bixa... i am glad you like the pictures!
yeah, i think people often like this type of continuity - after all, why else would we go to museums, like historic novels/movies (even though they often give a quite wrong version of the past i suppose), visit preferably the old buildings in towns we visit, etc. ...
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