Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Opposite the Palast der Republik and next to the Lustgarten, the
Berliner Dom
is a
hulking symbol of Imperial Germany that managed to survive the GDR era. It was
built at the start of the twentieth century, on the site of a more modest cathedral, as a
grand royal church for the Hohenzollern family. Fussily ornate with a huge dome
flanked by four smaller ones, it was meant to resemble St Peter's in Rome, but comes
across as a dowdy neo-Baroque imitation.
he Berliner Dom served the House of Hohenzollern as a family church until 1918,
and its vault houses ninety sarcophagi containing the remains of various members of
the line. he building was badly damaged in the war, but laborious reconstruction has
created a simpler version of its prewar self, with various ornamental cupolas missing
from the newly rounded-off domes.
he main entrance leads into the extravagantly overstated
Predigtkirche
, the octagonal
main body of the church. From the marbled pillars of the hall to the delicate plasterwork
and gilt of the cupola, there's a sense that it's all meant to reflect Hohenzollern power
rather than serve as a place of worship. As if to confirm this impression, six opulent
Hohenzollern sarcophagi, including those of Great Elector Wilhelm I, and his second
wife, Dorothea, are housed in galleries at the northern and southern ends of the
Predigtkirche. he spiritual underpinnings of the society they ruled are less ostentatiously
represented by statues of Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin and Zwingli, along with four
German princes, in the cornices above the pillars in the main hall.
For an overhead view, head for the
Kaiserliches Treppenhaus
(Imperial Staircase),
a grandiose marble staircase at the southwest corner of the building, which leads
past pleasantly washed-out paintings of biblical scenes to a balcony looking out
onto the Predigtkirche. Here you'll also find a small exhibition on the history of
the building.
Back downstairs and to the south of the Predigtkirche is the restored
Tauf- und
Traukirche
. At first sight this appears to be a marbled souvenir shop, but it is in fact
a side chapel used for baptism and confirmation ceremonies.
2
THE PALAST DER REPUBLIK AND THE HUMBOLDT FORUM
It was no coincidence that the GDR authorities chose the site of the Imperial Schloss for
their
Palast der Republik
, a piece of brutal 1970s modernism in glass and concrete, to
house the Volkskammer, the GDR's parliament. This huge angular building with its bronzed,
reflective windows was completed in less than a thousand days, and became a source of
great pride to Erich Honecker's regime. As well as the parliament, it also housed an
entertainment complex: restaurants, cafés, a theatre and a bowling alley. It would host
craft fairs, discos, folk nights and Christmas festivities, and going there on a day out
- something that all East German children were entitled to do once they'd turned 14 -
was considered a highlight of growing up.
The interior was at once a showcase of East German design and a masterpiece of
tastelessness, the hundreds of lamps hanging from the ceiling of the main foyer giving
rise to the nickname,
Erich's Lampenladen
- “Erich's lamp shop”. Shortly before unification
asbestos was discovered, and on October 3, 1990, the building closed for almost thirteen
years while it was stripped out. With only the glass and a skeleton of steel beams left inside,
the Palast then became the chic venue for a guerrilla combination of
exhibitions,
concerts
and
installations
, as well as a
nightclub
on the night of the fifteenth
anniversary of the fall of the Wall.
In 2006, by order of the German Parliament, work started to dismantle the Palast. In its place a
version of the original Prussian palace, dubbed the
Humboldt Forum
(
W
sbs-humboldtforum
.de), will be built, to house a mix of cultural and scientific institutions, probably including all the
state museums in Dahlem (see p.160). The new palace will copy the original's dimensions and
facade, but due to budget constraints, sadly not its central dome - which, in truth, made the
building. Construction has started, but will take until at least 2019 and cost between €670
million and €1.2 billion.
