The Hohenzollern Palace
The Hohenzollern Palace has existed for over 500 years, although over the centuries it has received a number updates. The most renowned of these would be the update by Architect Andreas Schlüter, a German man with a Baroque style of architecture. This is more or less how it remained until the Second World War where it was heavily damaged. Ultimately after the Nazi’s were defeated the city had little money to rebuild or restore the palace so it remained in ruin for several years until the German Democratic Republic decided to demolish it arising a great deal of debate. The GDR eventually built the Palast der Republik between 1973-76.
In 1989 when Berlin reached unification of the city the days of the Palast der Republik had ended, and chatter had begun of a rebuilt Hohenzollern Palace in its original location. This chatter clearly had opposition as some believed the Palast der Republik should be replaced while others appreciated the historic significance. Ultimately it the Palast der Republik was demolished in 2008 and the Rebuild of the Hohenzollern Palace was in motion, although this did not begin so effortlessly. Controversy arose as plans to rebuild the Palace included a more modern design, creating uproar as this is not what the community agreed to. This resulted in a updated design including a more Baroque facade, which has eased some of the Berlin community but is merely reference to the buildings history on a more modern building and not a complete replica of what once was.
References
Schneider, Peter. Berlin Now: The City after the Wall. Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, 2014.
Images
Hohenollern Palace 1894
Palast der Republik 1977
Hohenzollern Rebuild Project Estimated completion 2019
3 comments:
This is an interesting discussion since buildings are seen as symbols of the past so tearing down an important building is always controversial, especially in Berlin. What do you think should have been done? Do you think the Palast der Republik should have been kept or do you agree with the demolition and plans to rebuild the Hohenzollern Palace?
Given the history of the city I think it makes far more sense to tear down the Palast der Republik, and in order to rebuild the Hohenzollern Palace. This is due to the inherent negativity surrounding the Palast der Republik and it's ties to the east-west separation of Berlin, therefore rebuilding something such as the Hohenzollern Palace with a more positive overall history may bring more culture to the city.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but was there a reason why when they did tear it down and build the Palast der Republik they didn't just rebuild the palace?
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