Neue Wache was originally
built 1816 as a guardhouse for the troops of the prince of Prussia, whose
palace was right next door. It served
this purpose until the fall of the German monarchy in 1918. In the following years it sat relatively
unused until in 1931 it was repurposed by the Weimar Republic as a memorial for
soldiers lost in the First World War. The
interior was cleared, and a circular hole was made in the ceiling under which a
metallic wreath was placed on a block of granite in the floor. It served in this capacity until it was
severely damaged by a bomb in World War II.
The building’s
significance resulted in it being repaired and restored by the German Democratic
Republic (East Germany) in 1960, and served as the “Memorial to the Victims of
Fascism and Militarism” until reunification.
In 1969, an eternal flame was lit in the middle of the room, under which
the remains of an unknown soldier were buried.
A few years after
reunification, in 1993, the memorial was again re-dedicated as the “Central
Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Tyranny”. The room has largely been emptied once again,
and where the eternal flame once stood now sits an enlarged version of Käthe Kollwitz’s sculpture “Mother with her Dead Son”. It now serves as a memorial to commemorate
victims of war and tyranny in the broadest sense, since previous incarnations
failed to recognize those who lost their lives as a result (and not just in)
the two World Wars.
2 comments:
This building was not what I thought it was going to be like. By this I mean it was much smaller than I thought. For it to be a guard house it must have had a second layer in order to accommodate all of the people.
It surprised me as well. I thought that for a guard house, there would be a ton more guards, especially for an important figure like the one next door.
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