A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

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Adam Carr
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A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#1

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 19:54

Today I visited the site of the former Berlin Stadtschloss (City Castle) to see how the rebuilding is progressing. The answer is that the European financial crisis has forced the project to be delayed. Work is now not scheduled to begin until 2014, with completion promised in 2018. Here I am looking east from the Schlossbrücke, the bridge over the Spree which used to lead from Unter den Linden to the Schloss. Visible are (from left) the Berliner Dom (the Protestant Cathedral), the Fernsehturm (the TV tower in east Berlin), the Humboldt Box (see below), and one of the classical-style sculptures on the bridge: a typical Berlin mix of historical landmarks.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#2

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 19:54

When I first came to Berlin in 2006, the GDR monstrosity built on the Schloss site in the 1970s, the Palast der Republik, was still standing, although it had been gutted and was slated for demolition, and no decision had been made about the future of the site.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#3

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 19:55

When I came back in 2008, the Palast was reduced to a skeleton, and the decision to rebuild the Schloss had just been announced.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#4

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 19:56

When I was here in January 2011, the Palast was gone, and grass had been sown over the site, and with the financial crisis setting in, no building work had commenced.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#5

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 19:56

This is a projection of what the rebuilt Schloss will look like. While the original baroque facades will be faithfully recreated, there will be a modern side to the building facing the Spree. The architect has made it clear that there will be no “baroque pastiche” in the modern sections of the building.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#6

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 19:58

The new building will not be called the Berliner Stadtschloss. It will be called the Humboldt Forum (after the famous German scientists Alexander and Wilhelm Humboldt), and will house natural history and anthropology museums as well as a museum about the history of the Schloss. This rebranding was necessary to overcome left-wing opposition in Berlin to rebuilding what many see as a symbol of Prussian militarism.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#7

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 19:58

There is plenty of building activity on the site, but it is not directly connected with the Schloss project. A new U-bahn line is being built from the Hauptbahnhof to Alexanderplatz. This will connect the Hauptbahnhof directly to the U-bahn for the first time and make life much easier for people arriving in Berlin by train.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#8

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 19:59

This map shows where the new line will run. As will be seen, it runs directly under the Schloss site, so the tunnel has to be built before work on the Schloss can start.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#9

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 20:00

Meanwhile, next to the Schloss building site, a private company has built the Humboldt Box, which has four floors devoted to promoting the rebuilding project and showing some of what will be displayed there. The fifth floor has viewing terraces and a restaurant.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#10

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 20:00

Part of the display is this scale model of the centre of the city as it was before the destruction of World War II.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#11

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 20:01

On a beautiful Berlin autumn day, the Box is a great place to have lunch while looking out over the city. This is the view over the lawn that currently covers most of the Schloss site, which will eventually be built over. In the distance can be seen the red-brick tower of the Rotes Rathaus and the twin spires of the Nikolaikirche.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#12

Post by Adam Carr » 21 Oct 2012, 20:02

To encourage interest in the project, a small section of the façade of the new Schloss has been faked up and put on display nearby. The publicity stresses that all the original materials will be used, and all the stonework will be authentic and done by skilled craftspeople who are currently being trained. There will be no attempt, however, to recreate the ornate baroque interiors.
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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#13

Post by Cor » 31 Oct 2012, 00:09

Adam Carr wrote:This is a projection of what the rebuilt Schloss will look like. While the original baroque facades will be faithfully recreated, there will be a modern side to the building facing the Spree. The architect has made it clear that there will be no “baroque pastiche” in the modern sections of the building.
hmm its nice they will bring back the schloss, and then we must accept this modern section, but i dont like this modern part. Why must there be a modern part? Is there reason for it?

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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#14

Post by nondescript handle » 02 Nov 2012, 23:48

Cor wrote:[...] Why must there be a modern part? Is there reason for it?
This isn't primarily a rebuilding of the Schloss. The building is build for the express purpose to act as a modern exhibition building for parts of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz collection.
The reconstruction of the Schloss facades and the Schlüterhof is an added "extra," which isn't included in the public budget but has to be financed by donations.

Reconstructing dressed stone walls is expensive, the Förderverein Berliner Schloss has already pledged that they will collect 80 million euros in donations for the three reconstructed facades and the Schlüterhof, to expect that they could raise even more in the current economic climate is IMHO illusionary.

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Mark

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Re: A visit to the Berlin Stadtschloss site

#15

Post by Adam Carr » 03 Nov 2012, 09:08

We need to remember the politics of Berlin here. At the last national election, which the conservative parties won handily, Berlin voted 62% for the parties of the left. Berlin is a left-wing town, and many Berliners are opposed to rebuilding the Schloss which they see as a symbol of Prussian militarism - as indeed it was. Hence the need to rebrand the Schloss as the Humboldt Forum, and to reassure Berliners that the only part of the Schloss which is being rebuilt is the facades, and that public money isn't being used for that purpose.

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