In Braunschweig, Frankfurt and Potsdam the war, was rebuilt destroyed architectural heritage. Now Berlin has succeeded – the town is the castle. On the weekend it invites the Curious to visit.
Fortuna was always with us, says Wilhelm von Boddien. And then he smiles and is happy. The Berlin city Palace. The construction workers are in the process of the scaffolds in the Schlüterhof reduce the unobstructed views of the splendid reconstructed Baroque facade.
A good year, and then to celebrate the opening of 2019. Then, Berlin has finally a new landmark. And opposite the Museum island, there is then enough room for the non-European collections of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. “Humboldt-Forum” will be called this quarter – a place of international exchange and the encounters of cultures, he is supposed to be.
2015: topping-out ceremony for the new building of the Berlin city Palace
A long cherished life’s dream
As a high school student in the North of Germany, raised by Wilhelm von Boddien has visited the divided Berlin. Then he began to deal intensively with Prussian history and to dream of rebuilding the Berlin city Palace.
In the war, the building had been severely damaged and, in 1950, under the direction of Walter Ulbricht blew up. A few years later, was then built on part of the site of the legendary Palace of the Republic.
After the fall of the Berlin wall, as much of it suddenly was no longer the case and Berlin has been thought of, let Boddien, now a successful businessman, in front of the Palace of the Republic of bright yellow-painted Baroque-scenes set-up and sparked one of the toughest debates in the newly re-United Germany.
Long the site of a plastic covered plane
As the “castle spectre,” he was mocked by the media, his stated Plan, at least 85 million euros in donations to support the reconstruction of the castle to collect the mildly ridiculed. But Fortuna was with him all the time.
And at some point, commissions, juries, and the Bundestag agreed to The demolition of the asbestos-infested Palace of the Republic and the reconstruction of the city Palace have been decided.
The castle stands again
Since the Foundation stone was laid five years have passed. In that time, cue has been debated – predator and prey art – much about the future Humboldt – Forum and dealing with all of the artifacts from Africa, Asia and South America. But the castle no one is more in question.
The critical Berlin have made it their thing. The donations were channeled funds from the capital initially sparse, so they now make up more than 50 percent. 85 million Euro has driven William of Boddiens friends already. Only for the dome to get to the castle now, still missing 20 million. By the end of 2019, Wilhelm von Boddien want to have this money.
What has been built, can be interested on 25. and 26. August 2018 to view more detail, in two days, the castle is an open site. To visit the non-reconstructable, because originally, arg winding East wing is on the one hand, in its place, the Italian architect, Frank Stella has an extremely sober concrete tie has build.
And then the other wing: the Interior is mostly decorated in a modern style, spacious, with escalators and air conditioners, but on the facades and, above all, in the large courtyard, which is named after its original owner Schlüter, of the finest Baroque.
The finest architecture: the robots have cut the stuck parts
Elaborate arcades, and deep porticos, columns, friezes, garlands, lion heads and eagles, a gewitztes With – and confused, and reconstructed according to old photos, to color, and Rock fragments. Everything from robots and experienced master craftsmen brought in the final shape. On Saturday afternoon the Berlin Philharmonic give a concert free of charge – the entrance fees to complete the construction.
On the final straight
Still to do on the large construction site in the centre of Berlin. But it is going well, it is in the time – and cost plan of the total of 600 million euros. This is a small miracle, Wilhelm von Boddien is now 76 years old. Just in time to Alexander von Humboldt’s 250. Birthday on the 14. September of 2019, he wants to celebrate the opening.