Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Monbijoupark
Sitting next to Monbijouplatz,
Monbijoupark
was once the grounds of a Rococo royal
palace, reduced to rubble by the war and, like so many Hohenzollern relics, never
rebuilt. he park makes an unexpected and shady refuge and is a good place to picnic
or lie out with a book. he pleasant promenade that separates it from the Spree leads
to a footbridge to Museum Island (see p.55).
Ramones Museum
Krausnickstr. 23 • Mon-Thurs 9am-6pm, Fri 9am-8pm, Sat 10am-8pm, Sun noon-6pm • €3.50 (concerts vary but mostly free) •
T
030 75 52 88 90,
W
ramonesmuseum.com • S-Oranienburger Strasse
Berlin's own shrine to the American proto-punks, the
Ramones Museum
began two
decades ago with little more than a few signed posters and some T-shirts. he collection
has now expanded to more than three hundred items of memorabilia - an eclectic
assortment, ranging from childhood photos of the group to gig set lists and flyers. he
museum also hosts film screenings, the odd acoustic show and special events.
Neue Synagoge
Oranienburger Str. near the corner of Krausnickstr. • March & Oct Sun & Mon 10am-8pm, Tues-Thurs 10am-6pm, Fri 10am-2pm;
April-Sept Sun & Mon 10am-8pm, Tues-Thurs 10am-6pm, Fri 10am-5pm; Nov-Feb Mon & Sun 10am-6pm, Tues-Thurs 10am-6pm,
Fri 10am-2pm • €4.60 •
W
cjudaicum.de • S-Oranienburger Strasse
During the initial waves of Jewish immigration from the seventeenth century onwards
the area around Oranienburger Strasse was a densely populated and desperately poor
ghetto, but by the nineteenth century Berlin's Jews had achieved a high degree of
prosperity and assimilation. his was reflected in the building of the grand
Neue
Synagoge
, to a design by Eduard Knoblauch, halfway down Oranienburger Strasse
just off the corner of Krausnickstrasse. he synagogue was inaugurated in the presence
of Bismarck in 1866, a gesture of o
cial recognition that, coming at a time when Jews
in Russia were still enduring o
cially sanctioned pogroms, must have made many feel
that their position in German society was finally secure. he acceptance that they had
enjoyed in Wilhelmine Germany contributed to the sense of disbelief many Jews felt at
the rise of Nazism during the 1920s and 1930s.
he Neue Synagoge was built in mock-Moorish style, with a bulbous gilt and
turquoise dome. It was Berlin's central synagogue for more than sixty years, serving
also as a venue for concerts, including one in 1930 by Albert Einstein in his
lesser-known role as a violinist. A Jewish museum was opened next door on January
24, 1933, just six days before the Nazi takeover. Neither museum nor synagogue
survived the hird Reich. Both were damaged on
Kristallnacht
(see p.255), though
the synagogue wasn't actually destroyed thanks to the intervention of the local police
chief who chased off SA arsonists and called the fire brigade to extinguish the flames.
It remained in use as a place of worship until 1940 when it was handed over to the
Wehrmacht, who used it as a warehouse until it was gutted by bombs on the night
of November 22, 1943.
After the war the synagogue remained a ruin, and in 1958 the main hall, which was
thought to be on the verge of collapse, was demolished, leaving only the building's
facade and entrance rooms intact. For many years these stood here largely overlooked,
a plaque on the shattered frontage exhorting the few passers-by to
Vergesst es nie
-
“Never forget”. he Jewish community pressed for what was left to be turned into
a museum, but the authorities did not respond until 1988, when it was decided to
resurrect the shell as a “centre for the promotion and preservation of Jewish culture”.
A new plaque was a
xed to the building amid much o
cial pomp on November 9,
1988, the fiftieth anniversary of
Kristallnacht
,
and work began on restoring the facade
and reconstructing the gilded dome, which, visible from far and wide, has once again
become a Berlin landmark. In 1995, the building was reopened as a museum and
cultural centre, o
cially called
Centrum Judaicum
-
Neue Synagoge
. Inside are two
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