Not everything is as it seems; don’t believe the hype; expect the unexpected; and perhaps most aptly — thanks to the grisly course of local history — always question authority. Just a few of the viable candidates for the title of Berlin city slogan.
The divisive Klaus Wowereit, the city’s first mayor of the new millennium, notably coined the phrase “Poor but sexy” when describing the German capital’s struggle to balance its books. As well as the millions of city inhabitants struggling to balance their own.
Sexy? Well, let’s just say beauty is in the eye of the beholder – another Berlin relevant maxim.
Since Wowereit’s tenure as mayor, the city has spent billions on construction (and reconstruction) projects – helping the effete phoenix rise from the ashes of 20th century destruction and division. Each addition controversial in its own way, this drive to push the city into the next century has seen the construction of a new international airport, a new central train station, and perhaps most bizarrely – the reconstruction of a former royal palace, right in the heart of the historic city centre.
This glorified vanity project could be an all-encompassing representation of each and all of the viable candidates for Berlin’s city motto at once – a temple to the absurd, in-fact, cast in the demi-mould of a palace. At one time the largest royal residence in Europe, until it was severely damaged in a bombing raid in 1945 and demolished by the East German authorities five years later, the Berlin Palace was reconstructed and reopened in 2020 – just in time for the arrival of the Corona pandemic. An empty palace for an empty city.
To fully appreciate the significance of the reconstructed palace, it’s essential to understand the history of its predecessor. The original Berlin City Palace was not merely a royal residence; it was the political and cultural heart of Prussia and, later, the German Empire. Built in the early 15th century and expanded over the centuries, the palace was a magnificent example of Baroque architecture, symbolising the power and prestige of the Hohenzollern dynasty.
Despite being one of the most vaunted heritage projects in Germany, the reconstruction has also been heavily criticised, not least for its cost and political symbolism – coupled with the fact that some of the materials used in the building, such as marble and granite, have been imported from abroad.
Removing things in Berlin has always been easy, but cutting the wheat from the chaff has always had an ideological spin. Whether it be removed in the name of unstoppable progress, obliterated by the ravages of war, or extirpated during the years of post-war realignment.
Rebuilding something as an exact verbatim copy of its extirpated original is always going to be highly controversial. Were that the case here. Italian architect Franco Stella’s design, unanimously chosen by jury (there was no second place, but four third places), for the reconstructed city palace was confirmed back in 2009. As a representative of classic modern rationalism, Stella is a self-confessed advocate for the continuation of classical styles, addressed in a modern setting. Rather than completely resurrecting the former palace, Stella promoted a subtle – yet important – amendment to the original design.
Stella’s approach was to recreate the palace’s three original Baroque facades on the exterior, while the interior and the fourth facade facing the Spree River are distinctly modern. This hybrid design is intended to symbolise the dialogue between the past and the present, a physical manifestation of Berlin’s complex history. However, some critics argue that the juxtaposition of old and new creates a jarring effect, detracting from the building’s historical integrity.
It is by no mere coincidence that this blessing of the compass has been made: the historical concept of good things coming from the West and bad from the East – a theme that runs through German history – literally led to the destruction of the original palace. Beyond that, the burden of Prussian, Imperial, and Nazi expansionist policy to the east still weighs heavy on the collective consciousness here. With this preference for West over East, the supporters of this largely privately financed project are indulging in the process of inching back Germany and Berlin to moral respectability.
While in the East German times, when this area of the city fell under control first of the Soviet authorities and then the socialist East German state, the accusation was that there had been a clear line straight from the imperial, militaristic, and expansionist Prussia – and later Germany – that had the royal palace at its heart. Supporters of this readdressing of history – embodied by the reconstruction of the palace – see that Prussia and Imperial Germany was the period before history was blemished with the tyranny of Nazi rule. Resurrecting the ghost of this old palace is directly encouraging the impression of a cleaner, purer, and more perfect time. Every fairytale, however, falls apart on close inspection. Whether set deep in the forest, high on a mountain, or inside a palatial residence. Especially in a city where the past is like an exterior wall in a prison yard, chances are we won’t get over it. Pre-Nazi Germany and the Prussian period is not without its controversies. Not least the First World War, the bloody expansion of Prussia, and the horror of German colonialism.
Inside the palace now you will find not the seat of the Hohenzollern dynasty – since the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918 those days are long gone – but a selection of exhibitions from the ethnological collections of the Berlin museums as well as the scientific archives of the Humboldt University and holdings of the Central and State Library.
Now known as the Humboldt Forum, after the renowned German scholars Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, is more a symbol of nostalgia for a bygone era. It is a place where the arts, sciences, and humanities come together to offer new perspectives on global cultures and histories.
The Forum has dedicated spaces within the palace to exhibitions that critically examine Germany’s colonial past and the impact of colonialism on the world. As visitors walk through the halls of the Humboldt Forum, they are not just stepping into a recreated past but into a space that encourages reflection on the present and the future. The palace, with all its controversies and ambiguities, invites us to question the narratives of history.
A microcosm of the city itself—complex, contradictory, and constantly evolving, the reconstructed Berlin Palace embodies the tensions between tradition and modernity, between nostalgia and progress, and between the desire to remember and the need to move forward.
