City Centre Sights | Berlin Unwrapped

Berlin’s Green Heart

Sep 2, 2019 | Berlin, City Centre Sights

The Tiergarten is a splendid park. Spread before the Brandenburg Gate, for Berliners it has long been synonymous with both pleasure and leisure. Its name, literally meaning ‘Animal Garden’, derives from its original 16thCentury role as a hunting ground for the Elector of Brandenburg. In the 1740s, Frederick the Great, who did not appreciate the hunt as much as his royal antecedents, instructed his architect, Knobelsdorff, to turn the area into a baroque style public park. There were even ‘salons’ where people could meet and discuss, and tents selling refreshments.

Walking through the Tiergarten today

A century later, landscape designer Lenné drew up new plans for the park, modelling it on the English garden style with wide grass lawns and clusters of trees. He included many more footpaths and bridleways and featured small lakes with islands and streams crossed by bridges. By the end of the 19th Century, a host of nationalistic memorials had been constructed in the Tiergarten, especially on the Siegesallee (‘Victory Avenue’) and the Prachtboulevard (‘Magnificence Boulevard’). The park became covered in statues commemorating famous Prussian royals, as well as German cultural greats.

Beethoven Mozart Haydn Memorial

Statue of Queen Louise of Prussia

The original ‘Prachtallee’

When the Nazi Party came to power, Hitler and Speer planned the complete renovation of Berlin to become the Welthauptstadt Germania (World Capital Germania) and had grand visions for the Tiergarten. The road running through the middle of it (formerly Charlottenburger Chaussee, now Straβe des 17. Juni) was widened to form the east-west axis into the capital and the Siegessäule (Victory Column) was moved to the Grosser Stern (Great Star), the central point of the park, from its original site in front of the Reichstag.

Aerial view of Tiergarten, with the Victory Column at its centre

Then came the Second World War when Allied bombing caused terrible devastation to the Tiergarten. In its aftermath many of its surviving trees were felled for firewood and the empty ground was used for growing vegetables because of food shortages.

The devastated Tiergarten

In 1945, the Tiergarten was initially under the direct control of the British Occupying Forces, but four years later in 1949, when the two cities of East and West Berlin were officially established, the reforestation of the Tiergarten was started by the authorities in West Berlin. 250,000 young trees were flown in from West Germany and the Tiergarten was gradually transformed turned into a park landscape once more. There were fewer statues and formal features with the accent being on rest and relaxation for West Berliners, marooned from their homeland by the Berlin Wall.

Relaxing in the Tiergarten

Since re-unification, all Berliners have access to the Tiergarten and it has truly become the green heart of their city again, providing 520 acres of parkland perfect for walking, jogging, cycling, horseriding and boating. In summer the grass areas are popular for picnics, barbecues and sunbathing and in winter it is sometimes possible to ice-skate on the small lakes. There are two excellent eating establishments as well; the ‘Café am Neuen See’ was featured in my Berlin Unwrapped guidebook and remains a huge favourite.

By the lake at the Café am Neuen See

However, less well-known is the wonderful ‘Teehaus im Englischen Garten’ an enchanting reed-thatched ‘teahouse’ hidden away in the north-west corner of the Tiergarten. As its name suggests, it’s located in the ‘English Garden’ and even serves a typical English afternoon tea. The beer garden seats up to 500 people and has a wide menu of light meals, including German specialities. Sunday breakfast is popular all year round and I went there recently on a summer evening for dinner. We started with a cocktail outside on the terrace, then moved into the elegant interior, looking out on to the pretty gardens at dusk. It was a magical setting and a very good meal.

The Teehaus im Englischen Garten

Inside the Teehaus

Map showing location of the Teehaus in the Tiergarten

Making a Grand Entrance

Jul 19, 2019 | Berlin, City Centre Sights, Cool Collections, Entertainment

One of this summer’s top Berlin cultural events was the much-anticipated opening of British architect David Chipperfield’s stunning new James-Simon-Galerie on Museum Island. Over the past decade, the serene beauty of this unique and impressive ensemble of museums, built between 1830 and 1930 and originally conceived as ‘Athens on the Spree’, has been scarred by cranes and construction work. Now the key part of the project has been completed and on Friday 12th July Angela Merkel, whose Berlin home is just across the street from the Pergamon Museum, officially opened the James-Simon-Galerie. It is named after one of the city’s most important patrons, 19th Century Jewish philanthropist James Simon (1851-1932).

Angela Merkel at the opening of the James-Simon-Galerie

The 21st century addition to Museum Island has attracted great interest in the media, but opinion seems to be divided about its aesthetic qualities. Personally, I think that the clean lines and generous proportions of its modern design reflect and complement the classical grandeur of Museum Island. However, at a cost of about €150 million and with its endless rows of wall lockers provided for the use of museum visitors, it has been dubbed ‘Berlin’s most expensive cloakroom facility’. cloakroom facility’.

Stunning exterior design

View from the Spree side

For the next few weeks visitors can wander around the James-Simon-Galerie at no cost and get a feel for its concept. The new construction incorporates a soaring central entrance hall with ticket counters, information desks and a museum shop,as well as a space for reading. In addition to the gallery itself, there is a 300-seat auditorium for lectures and concerts. The stylish ‘Cu29’ restaurant, also open outside museum hours,has tall windows which afford good views of Museum Island and the surrounding area. ‘Cu29’ is certain to be a popular venue; it offers interesting breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, not to mention coffee, cakes and cocktails.

Inside Cu29

Four of the five museums on the island in the Spree are now connected by the James-Simon-Galerie so that visitors can move between the different buildings using the new subterranean Archaeological Promenade. Colonnades similar to those of the Neues Museum give a modern classical feel and the wide flight of steps at the entrance creates a suitable sense of awe and expectation. The first temporary exhibition in the gallery opens at the end of August. Currently on display is a model of Museum Island and a few exhibits and information panels explaining how the Berlin State Museums evolved from the ‘cabinets of curiosity’ in aristocratic.

Model of Museum Island and its environs

A ‘mock’ cabinet of curiosities

In the main room are four huge screens showing short films about the life and achievements of James Simon. The soundtracks are in German, but there are large subtitles in English explaining how this wealthy Jewish textile manufacturer became such an important art collector and benefactor. Together with Museum Director Wilhelm Bode and under the patronage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, James Simon founded the Deutsche Orient Gesellschaft which financed the excavations in Egypt and led to the acquisition of the famous coloured bust of Nefertiti on display in the Neues Museum. He presented hundreds of artworks and artefacts to Berlin’s State Museums and assembled a substantial private collection in his mansion at 15a Tiergartenstrasse, most of which was later bequeathed to the State.

Screens showing James Simon’s biography

James Simon had a strong social conscience and funded children’s homes and summer camps, hospitals and public baths. He was a man who wanted to be judged by his deeds not his words. He is buried in the Jewish cemetery on Schönhauser Allee in Prenzlauer Berg and at his funeral Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a wreath from his exile in The Netherlands. Interestingly, James Simon’s descendants include his granddaughter Leni Yahil, an illustrious Israeli historian who specialised in the Holocaust and the Danish Jewry.

Henri James Simon in 1920

Henri James Simon in 1920

Berlin Blast

May 23, 2019 | Café Society, City Centre Sights, Entertainment, History and Politics, Music, Where to stay

A long weekend in Berlin – what could be more fun? We called it the ‘Berlin Blast’, and eight of us hit the city running over four days at the end of April. Nothing like a crowd of enthusiasts with a keen interest in history and culture and a love of good food and drink. And everyone fell captive to Berlin’s unique magnetism.

Berlin skyline over the Spree River.

We stayed in Hotel Monbijou by Hackescher Markt. True to its name, this boutique hotel is a jewel. It is perfectly located in the middle of Berlin-Mitte and the high-ceilinged rooms are reasonably-priced with understated décor. The buffet breakfast is unbeatable and in good weather you can eat outside in the courtyard. There are three bars; in summer the Rooftop Terrace has great views of the Berliner Dom (cathedral), the Lounge Bar has a woodfire in winter and from Tuesday until Saturday the Bijou Bar serve wicked cocktails until the early hours.

Our Berlin Blast started at ‘Oxymoron’, a restaurant just around the corner from our hotel in the stunning Hackesche Höfe. This restored Art Nouveau courtyard complex is overrun with tourists at the weekend, but just perfect for Friday lunchtime. ‘Oxymoron’ came up to its usual high and the set lunch featuring seasonal asparagus was great value. After exploring the artisan shops in the Hackesche Höfe, we doubled back to the hip and quirky backyards of Haus Schwarzenberg, exploding with street art and containing the gripping Otto Weidt Museum and the Anne Frank Zentrum.

Courtyard outside Oxymoron

Haus Schwarzenberg

The area around Hackescher Markt is part of the Scheunenviertel (‘Barn Quarter’), once a poor part of Berlin just outside the old city walls where the hay for horses was stored. Its streets are now packed with historical and architectural interest. We walked along pretty Sophienstrasse with buildings dating back to the 18th century, and called into Sophienkirche, Berlin’s surviving oldest baroque church. From Sophienkirche, we turned left along Grosse Hamburger Strasse, passing buildings which still bear the scars of machine gun fire from Soviet troops fighting their way through the city in the last weeks of World War II.

Sophienkirche

Bullet-scarred building

The Scheunenviertel was also where a large proportion of Berlin’s Jewish population lived and it contains several moving holocaust memorials, as well as scores of brass ‘Stolpersteine’ embedded in the pavements, commemorating local Jews who were murdered in concentration camps. Grosse Hamburger Strasse was once the centre of Jewish community life, with its Jewish school, old peoples’ home and cemetery. In 1942 the Gestapo used the school and the home to round up Jews destined for deportation. The Nazis destroyed and vandalised the cemetery in 1943, making room for air raid shelters and using the gravestones for wall reinforcements. In 1945, almost 3000 Berlin war victims were buried here. 40 years later, sculptor Will Lammert created the Monument for the Jewish Victims of Fascism in front of the former cemetery.

Stolpersteine for a whole family

‘Peace Wall’ (2013) by the cemetery

Around the corner in Oranienburger Strasse is the Neue Synagoge (‘New Synagogue’), built in 1859–1866 as the main synagogue of the Berlin Jewish Community. Its stunning golden Moorish-style dome has been restored, but only part of the interior remains and it is now a museum. We strolled back to our hotel, passing street cafés facing the Monbijou park by the River Spree. These leisure gardens once formed part of the Rococco Monbijou Palace, destroyed by bombs and then razed in 1959 by the GDR authorities.

Neue Synagoge

Next on the programme was an early evening boat trip along the Spree – an ‘Historic City Tour’ cruising past the wonderful buildings on both sides of the riverbank. Many of have them risen from the ashes of war and others are new additions, especially the ensemble of modernist buildings in the new Government District by the Reichstag. We embarked at the Alte Börse (‘Old Stock Exchange’) only three minutes from our hotel and were lucky with the weather – a clear blue sky. With commentary in English, it was a perfect introduction to Berlin’s city centre.

Cruising through the Government District

Our first evening meal was at ‘Ganymed’, a restaurant on the lively Schiffbauerdamm and next to Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble theatre. Now a French-style brasserie, in GDR times it was one of only a handful of restaurants in East Berlin providing good food. We often ate there in the 1980s and imagined that the chandeliers were bugged and the waiters could be Stasi spies. This was not so far from truth; after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it transpired that many of them were informing on their customers from West Berlin. If you walk to the restaurant from Friedrichstrasse Station, along the S-Bahn platform and through the iron-girder bridge across the Spree, you can still sense the Cold War atmosphere.

Inside the Ganymed Brasserie

Saturday morning is always good for a Berlin market. For the Berlin Blast I chose the Kollwitzplatz market in Prenzlauer Berg, a pretty suburb of East Berlin constructed in the 1870s and only four tram stops from Alexanderplatz Station. Here you can linger by market stalls with irresistible hand-made goods, fabulous flowers and organic foods, alongside the ethno yummy mummies and media daddies who now populate this area. There was a swing band playing in the park in front of the bronze sculpture of the socialist artist Käthe Kollwitz. I wondered what she was thinking, surrounded by this bourgeois coterie.

Hand-made headgear

Swing music at the market

From Kollwitzplatz, we walked along Sredzkistrasse, past the ‘Kulterbrauerei’, a converted Schultheiss beer brewery and then over to Oderberger Strasse with its interesting façades and the Hotel Oderberger Berlin, a recent renovation featuring a fabulous historic indoor swimming pool and a well-reviewed restaurant.

Historic public swimming pool in Hotel Oderberger

At the end of Oderberger Strasse we turned left into Bernauer Strasse where the Berlin Wall once ran down the length of the street and divided West from East. The whole area of the so-called ‘death zone’ now forms the Berlin Wall Memorial and is an absolute must for all visitors to the city. Each time I return, I discover new facts about life in divided Berlin. Don’t miss the Nordbahnhof station at the southern end of Bernauer Strasse. When Berlin was divided, this was one of the so-called Geisterbahnhöfe (‘Ghost Stations’) where trains linking boroughs of West Berlin ran under East Berlin through empty, darkened stations without stopping. The ‘ghosts’ were the shadowy figures of East German policeman patrolling the platforms.

Section of the Wall Memorial

Lunch on Saturday was at the iconic Clarchens Ballhaus on Auguststrasse. We took the S-Bahn from Nordbahnhof to Oranienburger Strasse, marvelled again at the golden dome of the Neue Synagoge and cut through yet more historic courtyards in the Heckmanhöfe, which link Oranienburger Strasse with Auguststrasse. This street is now famed for its contemporary art galleries. Of special interest is the five-storey red brick building at 11-13 Auguststrasse, the former Berlin Jewish Girls’ School which was eventually restored in 2012 and has become a modern art and gastronomy location.

Former Jewish Girls’ High School

The wonderful ‘Clärchens Ballhaus’ further along Auguststrasse is set back from the street behind its fairy-lit gardens and hasn’t changed much since the 1920s. My blog ‘Step back in time to the Music’ describes its nostalgic aura and the faded splendour of the Spiegelsaal (Mirrored Hall) on the first floor was chosen as the venue for a reception for Prince William and Kate when they visited Berlin in July 2017. On the Berlin Blast, we enjoyed a traditional Berlin lunch in the more prosaic surroundings of the dance hall on the ground floor.

Berlin ‘Boulette’ (beef and pork burger)

Saturday night’s entertainment had been booked months ahead and we had debated between ‘Vivid’, the glitzy Las Vegas style show at the Friedrichstadtpalais or Rossini’s jolly ‘Il Barbieri di Siviglia’ at the Staatsoper (State Opera House). Opera won the day – mainly because none of us had been inside the Staatsoper since 2009 when it closed for seven years to be refurbished. And what a treat it was; apart from enjoying an excellent production, we had great seats at a reasonable price and the interior gleamed in white marble and red velvet. During the interval we stood outside on the terrace surveying the length of Unter den Linden. After the opera, it was just a five-minute walk across historic Bebelplatz to ‘Sagrantino’ a lively wine bar and restaurant in Behrensstrasse to complete our Italian evening.

Inside Sagrantino

One of the high points of the Berlin Blast, quite literally, was Sunday breakfast in the Dachgarten restaurant on the roof terrace of the Reichstag. You have book well in advance, with passport details of all guests, but it is worth the trouble and paperwork. When we arrived through security, our gourmet morning feast had been laid out on a table with views across East Berlin. Afterwards we donned headphones and climbed Sir Norman Foster’s glass dome.

Postcard souvenir of Dachgarten Reichstag

From outside the Reichstag we boarded a 100 bus to wend our way through the Berlin’s central park, the Tiergarten. This is a great way to cover some interesting sights en route to the West End of Berlin and recall how Berlin’s lovely central park, originally the hunting grounds of the Royal Palace, was devastated during the war and in the late 1940s was then used as a vast vegetable allotment to feed the starving Berliners. The 100 bus terminates at Zoologischer Garten station and across the street on Breitscheidplatz is a further stark reminder of the city’s destruction; the ruined tower of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which has been left as a war memorial. On the steps of the new church, with its hundreds of stunning dark blue stained-glass windows, is now another memorial – to the 12 victims of the terror attack at the Christmas Market on this square on 19th December 2016.

Memorial to the victims of terror attack

We visited the exhibition inside the ruined tower as well as looking round the modern church. Berliners love to give nicknames to their most iconic buildings; the old tower is known as ‘the hollow tooth’ and the new church and tower have been dubbed ‘the powder compact and the lipstick’. The Kaiser Wilhelm I Memorial Church was originally built in the last decade of the 19th century by Kaiser Wilhelm II in memory of his grandfather the first German Emperor and is located at one end of the elegant Kurfürstendamm, West Berlin’s main shopping boulevard.

Inside the new church

Our next destination was Checkpoint Charlie and bus M29 from outside KaDeWe, Berlin’s iconic department store, took us there in about 10 minutes. The former border crossing point is always teeming with tourists and another Berlin ‘must see’. There are plenty of interesting information displays in the area and several good museums and exhibitions. After coffee at ‘Einstein’, we walked along Zimmerstrasse – which I still recall in the shadow of the Berlin Wall – to the ‘Topography of Terror’, on the grounds of the former Gestapo HQ. This exhibition can be a devastating experience, discovering how the Nazi terror machine operated all over Europe – and with the help of thousands of educated bureaucrats.

Poster for exhibition on the Reich Ministry of Labour

Still on foot, we made our way to the Brandenburg Gate, taking in so many sites of historic interest: beautiful old restored buildings such as the Martin Gropius Building and the Berlin House of Representatives, as well as the modern versions of Leipziger Platz and Potsdamer Platz risen from the ashes of wartime devastation and Cold War abandonment. We skirted the edge of the Tiergarten to look at the Memorial to Homosexuals murdered by the Nazis and then walked through the unsettling steles of the Holocaust Memorial. The Germans certainly want no one to forget the horrors of their past. Standing on Pariser Platz, on the eastern side of the Brandenburg Gate, we contemplated the Nazi parades marching with torchlights through its arches. The famous German impressionist artist, Max Liebermann, who watched from his window in January1933, recorded that, “it made him want to vomit more food that he could possibly eat”.

Nazi Rally at the Brandenburg Gate, 1933

After the mandatory group photograph in the front of the Brandenburg Gate, we continued into central East Berlin along Unter den Linden. Once the works on the new underground line and the construction of the Humboldt Forum on the site of the former Stadtschloss (City Palace) are completed, this famous avenue will regain its form splendour. One thing that the GDR government successfully achieved after the desolation caused by World War II was to keep the symmetry of Unter den Linden intact, even if the quality of reconstruction left much to be desired.

The Humboldt Forum nearing completion

We took a detour down Friedrichtsrasse to enjoy Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin’s loveliest square, then stopped for a break at ‘Erdinger’, a new restaurant serving German food and beer. On the walk back to our hotel, we called into the ‘Neue Wache’, which since 1993 has been the ‘Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Dictatorship’. In the centre of the bare, simple, top-lit room is an enlarged replica of the statue Mother with her Dead Son by Käthe Kollwitz. From 1960, the GDR used the restored building as a ‘Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism’, with an eternal flame burning in the middle of the room. In 1969, the remains of an unknown soldier and a nameless concentration camp victim were interred, surrounded by soil from Second World War battlefields and concentration camps, and still remain under the new memorial plaque today. Until 1990, there was a changing of the guard ceremony at the memorial, with GDR soldiers marching in goose step.

The Neue Wache on Unter den Linden

Our evening venue took us into Kreuzberg, a borough of former West Berlin once famed for its May Day riots and its high percentage of immigrants and students. We arrived by U-Bahn at Moritzplatz and despite some gentrification, you can still sense Kreuzberg’s edginess. One of the windows of the Hotel Oranien restaurant, where we had booked dinner, had been smashed and the staff there later explained that the cracked glass hadn’t been repaired because “it fitted in with the local ambience”. Nonetheless, the Oranien is certainly a good recommendation for a gourmet meal in a shabby-chic neighbourhood. There was even a jazz duo to add to the experience.

The Oranien Restaurant – seen through its smashed window

Monday dawned, our final day, and the weather forecast was good enough for us to venture out to Wannsee by S-Bahn. Two of the Blasters were flying out after lunch, so they spent the morning at the Berlinische Galerie, one of the few galleries and museums open on Mondays and have sent back a positive report of the current exhibitions, as well as the Otto Dix café there. They struck luck with the taxi driver as he misunderstood where they wanted to go and took them to the outdoor ‘Berlin Eastside Gallery’. As they drove past its series murals painted directly on a 1316 m long remnant of the Berlin Wall, my friends realised what had happened and managed to redirect the driver to the Berlinische Galerie on the other side of the Spree!

Inside the Berlinische Galerie

Another gallery open on Mondays is the Villa Liebermann on lake Wannsee, the summer mansion of artist Max Liebermann. It only took us about 45 minutes to get there – by S-Bahn, then bus 114 from outside Wannsee Station. The story of Max Liebermann and his family is one of the many important threads in the tapestry of Berlin’s past. After learning about the interesting history of this lakeside mansion and touring the permanent collection of paintings, we wandered around the beautiful gardens and had coffee on the terrace.

Inside Villa Liebermann, discovering its history

Even more significant is the mansion a little further along the lake, the ‘Villa am Wannsee’. It was in this building that a Nazi conference took place in January 1942 and decided on the ‘final solution to the Jewish Question’. The ‘Villa am Wannsee’ now contains a detailed exhibition about the Nazi plan for the genocide of Jews during World War II and its consequences.

The room where the Wannsee Conference was held

After four days of intensive Berlin experiences, it was important to end the Berlin Blast on a light-hearted note and catch the upbeat feel of today’s capital. Bootshaus Bolle, a friendly beach café only a short walk from the two grand villas we had just visited, fitted the bill. We had delved into the city’s tortured past and understood Berlin’s message: never forget the value of freedom and inclusiveness. This is what Kennedy meant when he famously announced to the world, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. As we sat round a wooden table looking out over the lake, enjoying a simple fish lunch washed down with the local beer, we had become Berliners too.

Berlin Zoo

Nov 20, 2018 | Café Society, City Centre Sights, History and Politics

Berlin Zoo is the oldest zoo in Germany, with a unique history. It is also the most species-rich in the world and the most-visited zoo in Europe. The 86-acre site next to the Tiergarten park has an abundance of trees and greenery; the animal houses are architectural gems and the enclosures are generous and well-kept. Famous inmates like Knut, the polar bear and Bao Bao the giant panda have contributed to the zoo’s international profile. In the 1980s, my children loved going to the Berlin Zoo and even had the opportunity to meet two baby tigers.

Cuddly baby tigers

The Antelope House

The Berlin Zoologischer Garten, to give it its full name, owes its existence to King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia who was a passionate animal-lover. Together with his first wife, Louise, he established an impressive menagerie on the romantic Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) on the Havel river and opened it to the public. After he died in 1840, his son, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, was happy to gift this private zoo to the people of Berlin and in 1844, after three years of construction, the Berlin Zoo opened on its current site. Two great Berliners, the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and landscape gardener Peter Joseph Lenné were key players in the realisation of this project.

Zoo entrance in 1960

In 1869, Dr Heinrich Bodinus, director of the Cologne Zoological Garden, took on the management of the Berlin Zoo and until his death in 1884, he added many more species and built new exotic animal houses. Ludwig Heck, also from the Cologne Zoo, took over from 1881 when he was only 28 years old and was Director of the Berlin Zoo until 1931. These were golden years which saw the construction of the beautiful Elephant Gate entrance on Budapester Strasse and many more animal houses, including the stunning aquarium in 1913. In 1932 Heck passed the baton to his son, Dr Lutz Heck, and the zoo park was modernised again, with outdoor enclosures using natural stone. However, Heck Junior was a Nazi sympathiser who used forced labour as workers.

A memorial bust to Dr Lutz Heck and explanation of his political leanings

The fabulous Aquarium

By 1939, the Berlin Zoo boasted over 4,000 animals, belonging to 1,400 species. Only 91 animals survived the war, including the popular hippo, Knautschke, the elephant bull Siam and the chimpanzee, Suse. The bombing in 1943 and 1944 more or less destroyed the entire zoo and there are many apocryphal stories about what happened to the thousands of animals during the bombing. Elephants and Tigers were said be roaming the streets, with snakes and crocodiles hiding in dark corners. In fact, most of the animals died, but it is true that some of their meat was used to feed the starving Berliners. If you follow this link, you can read more about the zoo’s wartime story.

Elephant gate after bombing

Elephant Gate today

As the first female zoo director in Germany, Dr Katharina Heinroth took on the task of the rebuilding the destroyed zoo from the rubble and was able to build something better out of its tragedy. There was much reconstruction, but innovation was also born out of devastation. The zoo that emerged from the chaos was more progressive and mirrored the real habitats of the animals.

Water enclosure

Zebra park

Berlin Zoo’s full name is the Berlin Zoologischer Garten – the same as the station opposite its ‘Lion’ entrance gates (Löwentor). During the city’s division from 1949 until 1989, the Zoo was stranded in West Berlin and its eponymous station served as the main transportation hub of West Berlin. At this point several U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines of city public transport intersected. The station also served as a starting point of long distance trains, and the city’s biggest bus terminal is still there. Its pop-culture prominence started in the 1970s when the area around the station became a sordid gathering place for teenage drug addicts and prostitutes. These days it is well-known for its Currywurst stand.

Curry 36 at Bahnhof Zoo

In 1955, the GDR opened its ‘own zoo’, the ‘Tierpark’ (Animal Park), in Friedrichsfelde, East Berlin, which at 400 acres is the largest landscaped zoo in Europe. This means that since the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is a choice of two excellent zoos in the German capital. But there is something extra special about the Zoologischer Garten in the city centre. My recent visit was in glorious autumn weather. The zoo park couldn’t have looked better. There were no pacing animals in small spaces and Giant Pandas, Jiao Qing and Meng Meng looked very content exploring the undergrowth. The environment is as natural as possible with plenty of vegetation, rock, stone and water in evidence. We mainly stayed outside in the sunshine and a favourite enclosure was an aviary for sea birds where visitors can sit in a typical North German beach chair by the lapping water. The café facilities were excellent too, although they were not being tested to full capacity early on a Sunday morning.

Panda at play

Sitting at the seaside

‘Forest Hut’ café

Berlin Zoo’s website has all the details of opening times, ticket prices. feeding times and special events. There are opportunities to see into the zoo from outside as well. The path from Zoo Station into the Tiergarten runs alongside the camel and bison enclosure and the Bikini Berlin shopping centre has a terrace with great views of the monkey enclosures. To get a panoramic view of the whole site, take the lift to the Monkey Bar on the tenth floor of the Bikini Berlin Hotel or book a penthouse room in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel with its ‘Zoofenster’ (zoo window) tower.

Elephants and Zoofenster tower

The PalaisPopulaire

Oct 30, 2018 | City Centre Sights, Cool Collections

Deutsche Bank has opened a new exhibition and event space on Unter den Linden in a seriously prime location next to the Staatsoper and opposite the Neue Wache. According to its creators, it is a ‘new and innovative concept intended to give as many people as possible access to art, culture and sport’. I went along to the PalaisPopulaire last week to find out the exact meaning of this bold statement.

First, some background history is needed. The PalaisPopulaire’s home is the former Prinzessinnenpalais, a rococo palace built at the beginning of the 18th Century and owned by the Hohenzollern dynasty until 1918. Designed by Prussia’s most renowned architect, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, it was the residence of the daughters of Prussian King Frederick William III, three princesses, one of whom married Russian Czar, Nicholas I. After the fall of the German monarchy after World War I, it enjoyed a brief spell in the 1930s as the Schinkel Museum until it was badly damaged by the bombing in World War II.

Photo taken in 1881

After the bombing

The historic exterior of the palace was restored by the Bauhaus-trained GDR architect Richard Paulick in the 1960s, but he insisted on a modernist interior and after reunification in 1990 there were further historic renovations to the inside of the palace. Now, Deutsche Bank architects Kühn & Malvezzi have stripped its interior to the precast concrete of its 1960s design in contrast with the historical pastiche reconstruction of the Stadtschloss (City Palace), due to open at the end of 2019 as the Humboldt Forum.

Minimalist interior

During GDR days, the palace was known as the Opernpalais Unter den Linden. It housed a disco and a restaurant, both popular meeting places for East Berliners. After the Berlin Wall came down, the Operncafé became famous throughout Berlin for its huge selection of cakes and gateaux; the Queen of Sweden, Sophia Loren, Alain Delon and Placido Domigno were among star guests. On sunny summer days the outside terrace would be packed full, and in the evenings, the restaurant was frequented by audiences from the neighbouring Staatsoper. I had great affection for the place.

Photo from 2009

At the end 2011, the Operncafé had to close its doors because the rent had become too expensive. There was a great deal of consternation about what would become of the building. Berliners hoped it would be accessible to the public and continue to be part of the Unter den Linden café scene and it looks as if their wish has been granted. Deutsche Bank has renovated the historic exterior, completely transformed its interior to accommodate 750 square metres of exhibition and event space, and also included a good-sized café. The name PalaisPopulaire suggests that is a palace for the people – the fact that its name is in French entirely befits this area of Mitte and its historic French connections. Francophile Frederick the Great would be well pleased.

The neighbouring Staatsoper

After spending the afternoon at the PalaisPopulaire last week, I feel very positive about its impact on Berlin. The whole building has a light, bright feel with three generous floors of gallery space and a stunning spiral staircase. I am also confident that the café on the ground floor – and especially outside on the terrace in summer – will become quite a magnet for Berliners and for tourists alike. There may not be such a huge array of cakes as in the old days of the Operncafé, but the same confectioner is providing them and the dozen or so creations on offer were very tempting, including the specially-commissioned Prinzessin Luise Torte. The lunch and dinner menus and drinks list are equally imaginative, and the service was excellent, with efficient, cheerful staff. When the galleries close in the evening, the restaurant will remain open until 11pm.

Feature staircase

Luise’s Torte

Gift shop

The opening exhibition “The World on Paper” until 7th January is well worth a visit. It comprises 300 highlights and new discoveries from the Deutsche Bank Collection and shows the fascination that the medium of paper has exerted on artists since post-war Modernism, including famous names like Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter. There are various audio guides for adults and children with text, audio and video information on specific artworks and a . Below are a few photographs of exhibits that had personal appeal. This link will take you to a full description of the exhibition. https://www.museumsportal-berlin.de/en/exhibitions/the-world-on-paper/

It’s important to stress that the PalaisPopulaire intends not only to mount art exhibitions, but also to showcase the Deutsche Bank’s activities in other cultural areas and in sport. There will be parkour workshops in and around the building and during exhibitions there will be music and DJ sets, with promenade concerts moving through the building. Athletes will discuss issues with actors and artists and the aim is to decidedly break away from disciplines and categories. On one floor of the current exhibition there is an installation that works with ‘Tiltbrush software’ which translates physical movements into digital brushstrokes. I tried it out for myself and experienced how athletes can create artwork that represents their own sport. It was nothing short of amazing.

The Tiltbrush technology

For further details of the PalaisPopulaire, including future events and exhibitions and how to download their App, just follow this link to their website. The PalaisPopulaire is open daily except Tuesdays and admission is free on Mondays. https://www.db-palaispopulaire.com/index_en.html

Romantic Art and Wanderlust

Jul 18, 2018 | City Centre Sights, Cool Collections

Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie is an exquitiste three-storey showcase of 19th Century European art. It is also one of the German capital’s iconic buildings and part of the ensemble of the five fabulous museums on the island in the River Spree. The great Prussian architect, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who designed the first of these museums, the Altes Museum (1823-30), had a vision of Berlin as ‘Athens on the Spree’ and the Alte Nationalgalerie certainly fits this bill. A neo-classical temple raised on a plinth, decorated with antique motifs and surrounded by colonnades, it sits majestically above the River Spree providing an elegant counterpoint to the bulk of the Berliner Dom on the other side of the bridge.

The Alte Nationalgalerie, July 2018

The building was originally designed by the August Stüler, one of Schinkel’s pupils, following sketches made by King Friedrich Willhelm IV (1795-1861). The Prussian King was known to be rather a romanticist and he dreamt of creating a ‘sanctuary for art and science’ on this site opposite the palace. His equestrian statue now commands the top of the grand stone staircases above the entrance to the Alte Nationalgalerie.

The grand entrance

Walking through a colonnade

August Stüler died in 1865 and his plans were realised by another of Schinkel’s pupils, Heinrich Strack. The Nationalgalerie, as it was then called, was ceremoniously opened to the public on 21st March 1876 for the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm I, becoming the third museum on the island in the Spree. It originally housed a substantial art collection bequeathed to the Prussian state by a banker and consul named Johann Wagener in 1861 and a display of cartoons by Peter von Cornelius.

Photo from 1912

The primary objective of the gallery had been to collect contemporary Prussian art; above the columns is the inscription: ‘Der Deutschen Kunst’ (‘dedicated to German Art’). But after 1896, a new director called Hugo von Tschudi, acquired major works by French Impressionists. This ended the collection’s focus on Germany and caused considerable conflict with the Kaiser. In 1909 Ludwig Justi took over as director and many Expressionist works were added as well. When the National Socialists came to power, Justi was dismissed and in 1937, the collection suffered badly from the Nazi purging of ‘Entartete Kunst’ (Degenerate Art) when hundreds of 20th Century works of art were either sold abroad or destroyed.

Goebbels views ‘Entartete Kunst’

At the outbreak of war in 1939, the Berlin museums closed to the public and their contents were removed for safekeeping. Despite allegedly being fireproof because of its sandstone and iron construction, the Nationalgalerie suffered severe damage during the bombing, especially after a direct hit in 1944. Only some of the interiors on the ground floor survived. The building partially re-opened in 1949 and restoration continued until 1969.

Destruction and partial reopening in 1949

By now all the museums on Museumsinsel found themselves in communist East Berlin and although many of the works from the Nationalgalerie’s pre-war collection had been returned, there were scores of others that had landed up in West Berlin. The contents of all Berlin’s museums and galleries ended up being arbitrarily divided between East and West Berlin depending solely on the place to which they had been evacuated during the war and in 1968 a second Nationalgalerie opened in West Berlin.

Neue Nationalgalerie in West Berlin

When I visited the original Nationalgalerie for the first time in 1985, the Neues Museum alongside it was still a pile of rubble and it was a rather gloomy and forbidding place. The inside was as grand and ornate as its exterior, with marble floors and pillars and beautifully decorated ceilings, but the lighting was poor and the whole atmosphere was sombre and dull, despite its impressive collection which in those days included works by great German artists such as Schinkel, Friedrich, Menzel, Blechen and Schadow, French Impressionist paintings by Manet, Monet, Renoir and Rodin and 20th Century works by socialist artists and sculptors such as Dix, Nagel, Kolbe and Kollwitz. I noted at the time that Goya’s ‘Maypole’ was hidden away in a corner and that one small room contained three enormous canvasses which needed ten times the space to be appreciated.

‘Maypole’ by Francisco Goya

Fast forward 33 years and the Berlin art scene is unrecognisable from the dark days of the city’s division. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the German capital, there had to be a major reorganisation of the city’s museums and galleries and there are now six national art collections in Berlin, each dedicated to its own artistic remit and located in three separate boroughs of Berlin. They are the Alte Nationalgalerie (home of the original Nationalgalerie on Museumsinsel), the Neue Nationalgalerie near Potsdamer Platz (the former West Berlin Nationalgalerie), the Hamburger Bahnhof (Museum for Contemporary Art Berlin), the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche, Museum Berggruen and the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg. If you follow this link to the website of Berlin State Museums you can explore the history and contents of each collection.

Schadow’s ‘Two Princesses’ greet visitors to the Alte Nationalgalerie

Between 1998 and 2001, the historic building of the Alte Nationalgalerie on the Museumsinsel underwent extensive renovation and restoration and reopened in 2001 to become arguably one of the most beautiful art galleries in the world.

Beautifully-restored interior

The contents have stayed true to their original roots, featuring 19th Century art ranging from the ‘Age of Goethe’ to the Realist movement. The collection includes numerous Romantic and Impressionist masterpieces as well as having a stunning collection of paintings by the German Realist master, Adolph von Menzel. This artist was very much admired in his day and at his funeral in 1905, the Kaiser walked behind his coffin.

‘At the Beer Garden’ by Adolph von Menzel

This summer, the Alte Nationalgalerie is running a special exhibition called ‘Wanderlust’ – one of those compound German nouns, like Zeitgeist and Schadenfreude, which needs no translation. At the end of the 18th Century, Rousseau’s call to “get back to nature” and Goethe’s Sturm und Drang poetry, were part of a reaction against the rapid social changes that began with the French Revolution. ‘Wandern’ – taking long walks in the countryside – became a central motif in painting, both as part of Romanticism’s love of nature and as a symbolic exploration of new paths and of life’s journey itself. Artists began to discover nature for themselves, exploring it on foot and looking at it from new angles. The ‘Wanderlust’ exhibition has great current appeal as travelling on foot has become part of the ‘slow’ movement that advocates decelerating our pace of life.

Poster for the exhibition

Starting from Caspar David Friedrich’s masterpiece ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’, a loan from the Hamburger Kunsthalle, ‘Wanderlust’ brings together around 120 works since 1800 that depict walking. Some are from the Nationalgalerie’s own collection and others from significant museum collections in Europe and the USA. They include works by Friedrich, Blechen, Schinkel, Dahl, Courbet, Hodler, Renoir, Nolde, Gauguin, Kirchner, Dix and Barlach. The exhibition shows how powerful the motif of the wanderer was in 19th Century art. Certainly it was a prominent feature of German Romanticism – an era when poets like Heinrich Heine roamed remote corners of the country and Franz Schubert composed his ‘Winterreise’ based on nature poems by Wilhelm Müller.

‘Alpinist’ by Karl Heinrich Gernler

The artworks in ‘Wanderlust’ are grouped in themed rooms on the first floor of the Alte Nationalgalerie. There is a good explanation of the various headings, which include: The Discovery of Nature; Life’s Journey; Artists’s Wanderings; Caspar David Friedrich and Wandering; Landscapes of the Wandering North of the Alps; Works on Paper; The Promenaders; Italy: Land of Longing; Departure. Below are a few of the photographs I took in the ‘Wanderlust’ exhibition but you can follow this link for a photo gallery of the exhibition. If you don’t make it to Berlin before 16th September when the exhibition finishes, many of the works in ‘Wanderlust’ are from the permanent collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie. Among its treasures are moody landscapes by Romantic heart-throb Caspar David Friedrich, epic canvasses by Franz Krüger and Adolph von Menzel glorifying Prussia, Gothic fantasies by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and an interesting selection of French and German Impressionists.

‘Landscape with a River Valley’ Richard Wilson

‘Gothic Church Ruin’ by Carl Blechen

‘Walk among Flowers’ August Macke

‘Winter’ Emil Nolde

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