Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Empire Years
The architecture in vogue after the creation of the German Empire in 1871 reflects the rep-
resentational needs of the united Germany and tends towards the pompous. No new style, as
such, emerged as architects essentially recycled earlier ones (eg Romanesque, Renaissance
and baroque, sometimes weaving them all together) in an approach called Historismus (His-
toricism) or Wilhelmismus, after Emperor Wilhelm I. As a result, many buildings in Berlin
look much older than they actually are. Prominent examples include the Reichstag by Paul
Wallot and the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) by Julius Raschdorff, both in neo-Renais-
sance style. Franz Schwechten's Anhalter Bahnhof and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächt-
niskirche (Memorial Church), both in ruins, reflect the neo-Romanesque, while the Bo-
demuseum by Ernst von Ihne is a neo-baroque confection.
While squalid working-class neighbourhoods hemmed in the north, east and south of the
city centre, western Berlin (Charlottenburg, Wilmersdorf) was being developed for the
middle and upper classes under none other than the 'Iron Chancellor' Otto von Bismarck
himself. He widened the Kurfürstendamm, lining it and its side streets with attractive town
houses. Those with serious money and status moved even further west, away from the claus-
trophobic centre. The villa colonies in leafy Grunewald and Dahlem are another Bismarck
legacy and remain among the ritziest residential areas today.
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