Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Scharoun, with the exception of Mies van der Rohe's impressive Neue Nationalgalerie
- but mostly the area lay dormant on the fringe of West Berlin until after the
Wende
,
when building work was completed.
5
KULTURFORUM TICKETS
Bereichskarte
A Bereichskarte (€12), available at any of
the museums in the Kulturforum - the Gemäldegalerie,
Kunstbibliothek, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Kupferstich-
kabinett, Neue Nationalgalerie and Musikinstrumenten
museum - will give you same-day entry to all of them, and
includes their excellent audio tours. You will be
automatically sold this ticket at all museums except the
Musikinstrumenten museum. You might also consider the
good-value three-day ticket that includes all Berlin's
municipal museums (see p.23).
Staatsbibliothek
Mon-Fri 9am-9pm, Sat 9am-7pm • Free •
W
staatsbibliothek-berlin.de • U- & S-Potsdamer Platz
As you walk west from Potsdamer Platz, the first building on your left is the
Staatsbibliothek
, which has more than three and a half million topics, occasional
exhibitions, a small concert hall, a reasonable café and a wide selection of British
newspapers. he final building to be designed by Hans Scharoun, the
Staabi
is the
most popular of his works among his fans; it was used as an important backdrop in
Wim Wenders' poetic film elegy to the city,
Wings of Desire.
Berliner Philharmonie
Tours (in German and English) daily 1.30pm • €5 •
W
berliner-philharmoniker.de • U- & S-Potsdamer Platz
At the northeast corner of the Kulturforum, the honey-coloured
Berliner Philharmonie
is home to the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra, frequently considered to be the world's
best. Conducting here is a huge privilege, and to be the resident conductor - as supremo
Austrian conductor
Herbert von Karajan
(1908-89) was between 1955 and his death in
1989 - the ultimate accolade, since it's the members of the orchestra themselves that
vote for this. Looking at the gaudy gold-clad building, designed in the 1960s by Hans
Scharoun, and bearing in mind von Karajan's famously short temper with artists and
rigid discipline that alienated many who worked under him - yet proved fabulously
successful in the field of popularizing classical music - it's easy to see why Berliners
nicknamed it “Karajan's circus”. However, Scharoun's complicated floor plan around the
orchestra offers top-notch acoustics and views, regardless of your seat. Other than on
tours, you could attend a
performance
(see p.219). Free classical concerts are held most
Tuesdays at 1pm in the foyer - food is available then, but there's no seating.
Musikinstrumenten museum
Tues, Wed & Fri 9am-5pm, Thurs 9am-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-5pm • €4 or €12 with Bereichskarte (see p.23) •
W
sim.spk-berlin.de • U- &
S-Potsdamer Platz
Overall the
Musikinstrumenten museum
, in the same building as the Philharmonie,
comes as something of a disappointment, but there are a few high points in the
collection of (mostly European) keyboards, wind and string instruments from the
fifteenth century to the present day, including the flute Frederick the Great played to
entertain his guests. Recordings give a taste of the weird and wonderful sounds of the
instruments, the most memorable of which are the seventeenth-century cembalo, a
nineteenth-century glass harmonica, consisting of liquid-filled glasses, and a three-
storey-high 1929 Wurlitzer organ.
Kunstgewerbemuseum
Tues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat & Sun 11am-6pm • €10 or €12 with Bereichskarte (see p.23) •
W
smb.museum • U- & S-Potsdamer Platz
Across the road from the Philharmonie is the
Kunstgewerbemuseum
(Museum of
Applied Arts) with its encyclopedic, but seldom dull, collection of European arts and
crafts. It closed in 2012 for refurbishment and is due to open in the spring of 2014,
though until then some key treasures are viewable at the Bodemuseum (see p.58).
