Barndt, in “Working through Ruins”, postulates that “…no other museum today speaks more poignantly to the relationship between the ruin and the museum” than the Neues Museum in Berlin. Barndt specifies three points in the Museum’s history to prove his point:

1.       From its inception, the museum utilized its exterior convey a neoclassical motif, and the interior’s décor would supplement the museum pieces. Artifacts from Egypt are showcased in a room with wall paintings befitting their time and place. Wall paintings could be from architectural or mythological scenes, and depicted them intact. Their intact states would serve as a frame of reference for the damaged artifacts.

2.       Damaged from WWII and the subsequent neglect, the Neues Museum underwent restoration from 2003 to 2009. Damaged areas were restored, but not recreated thus preserving its own ruin. Chipperfield, architect in charge of the reconstruction of the Neues Museum deliberately differentiated the new from the old. The new grand staircase, without ornamentation and made of concrete is one way visitors appreciate the museum as its own historical object. Maintaining the scars of the museum’s past opens a discourse to the events that precipitated its ruination. 

3.       The Greek Courtyard with the “Berliner Skulpturenfund” as its focus opens a connection to Nazi Germany. The Greek Courtyard features artworks that were originally confiscated by the Nazis.  They were found years after the war accidently at Berlin’s city hall. The “Berliner Skulpturenfund” a bronze face without forehead and detached from body became the highlight of the find. The artworks serve both as pieces of history and art history.

Works Cited

Barndt, Kerstin. "Working through Ruins: Berlin's Neues Museum." The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, 2011, 294-307.