From 1443, the Berlin Castle on the Spree island in the historic
center of Berlin was the main residence of the Elector of Brandenburg
from the Hohenzollern house, who have been kings of Prussia since 1701
and have been German emperors since 1871. It was damaged in the Second
World War and blown up in 1950. From 2013 to 2020 it was reconstructed
with the help of donations and is now primarily used by the Humboldt
Forum as an exhibition and event location.
The original castle
was rebuilt on behalf of Frederick I according to plans by Andreas
Schlüter and Johann Friedrich Eosander in the years 1698–1713 and was
considered a main work of the north German baroque. The castle was a
central and one of the largest buildings in Berlin. As the escape point
of several views and streets axes, it has always shaped the cityscape
with its facades, its dimensions and its 70 meter high dome in the 19th
century. After the Republic was proclaimed in 1918, the castle was used
as the seat of authorities, art and science institutions such as the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. At the end of the Second World War in
1945, it was blown up in the GDR in 1950, despite international
protests, to win an area for a marching area, which was later partially
built by the Palace of the Republic.
According to the private
commitment of the Berlin Castle and other initiators and on a decision
of the German Bundestag, from 2013 to 2020, according to Franco Stella's
plans, the reconstruction of the Berlin Castle in its original
dimensions in the form of a reconstruction of the facades, the dome and
two courtyards, took place in its original dimensions, from 2013 to
2020. His spree wing in modernist architecture. The reconstructed
elements were fully financed by private donations. The future
restoration of the interiors was deliberately made possible.
The
new castle is the seat of the Humboldt Forum. This presents collections
of the State Museums in Berlin, the Stadtmuseum Berlin and the Humboldt
University and is also intended to serve as a lively meeting place for
people and world cultures. The Humboldt Forum is also linking to the
history of the castle as a cultural and science center after the 1918
revolution. In the Weimar Republic, the castle was the most visited
museum in Berlin.
Elector Friedrich II, called "Eisenzahn", in contrast to his
predecessor Friedrich I, in which the Altmärkische Castle Tangermünde
and Brandenburg played a role as the main town, the double town of Kölln
and Berlin for its residence and the seat of the farm, there this
settlement on the Spree had developed into an economic and sometimes
political center of the Mark Brandenburg. Previously, the Brandenburg
margraves had used the Hohe Haus on Klosterstraße for their stays in
Berlin since the middle of the 13th century.
Frederick II laid
the foundation for the first castle building on July 31, 1443 ("the
first stone was laid on the Newen Sloss to Cöln"). The elector thus
prevailed against the Councilors' protests that were conjured up, the
Berlin unwillingness; As a result of its rejection of the castle
building, the double town lost political and economic freedom. How far
the restrictions for Kölln and Berlin really went is controversial,
since all information about this from a single source, which was written
about 60 years later "in the best humanist style with visible
glorification of the patrician autonomy" wallalia of the chronicler
Albertus Cran (t) Zius come. This first castle structure, built at the
site of the later Schlüterhof and Hof III, also had the function of a
defense system as a electoral residence, from which the trade routes
crossing on the spree island should be controlled. The appearance of the
castle at that time is unknown.
The castle is named in several
contemporary documents from 1431, in the Codex Diplomaticus
Brandenburgensis alone: To submit a area in Berlin through the Lehnin
monastery to the Elector in 1431 for the castle building "in our stat to
Colen] by the Mure Gein the Closter darelbst on the Sprewe [Spree] we
are now our nuwe sloß un Wonunge me […] ”and to lay the foundation stone
for the castle:“ After gaps birth a thousand vir hundred and in the
three -hundred in the Dreyunndvirczigstenn on Sand Peters abennd ad
vincula zu vespertzeyt the first stone was laid at the Newnn Sloß to
Cöln, and my greedy herre Marggrave Fridrich Kurfürste etc.
On
December 15, 1451 - on the occasion of the awarding of a Burglehen - the
elector said that he had "fastened" the castle. The construction of the
years 1443–1451 was a fortified castle and citadel against the cities of
Berlin and Kölln with probably all -time fastening systems of a castle.
During the new castle building from 1537, the citadel -like castle lock
was dragged to build an unpaved residential lock on its foundations. In
1465 the palace complex was supplemented by the significant late Gothic
Erasmuskapelle.
Elector Joachim II had the late medieval facility
largely removed in the 16th century and built a Renaissance building in
its place based on the model of the castle in Torgau. Its architect
Konrad Krebs delivered the plans that his student Caspar Theiss
realized. The new building was connected to the first Berlin cathedral
church, which from then on served as a castle church. It had emerged
from a simple church of the Berlin Dominican and stood immediately south
of the electoral residence, roughly at the current confluence of the
Breiten Strasse into the Schlossplatz.
Towards the end of the
16th century, Elector Johann Georg prompted Rochus Graf zu Lynar to
build the west wing and the court degree as well as the farm pharmacy,
which was formed north, which was found north and, which was created in
1598 by the Elector Katharina and was re -established in 1605 in 1605,
and in 1605. The great elector had the castle, which was rather
dilapidated after the Thirty Years' War. In the late time of his rule,
important interiors such as the spherical chamber or the Braunschweigian
gallery were created. The latter was installed in the gallery wing
carried out by Johann Arnold Nering on the Spree.
Under Elector Friedrich III. (from 1701: King Frederick I in Prussia)
there was a royal residence. After Arnold Nering and Martin Grünberg,
Andreas Schlüter received the position as a site manager at the Zeughaus
in 1699 and was appointed castle builder in the same year. Schlüter had
the castle converted into a significant profane building of the
Protestant Baroque. His design remained rather conservative, was
determined by the old castle and was strongly influenced by Bernini's
design for the Louvre. The four -wing plant he intended did not occur.
Under Schlüter, only the wings to the pleasure garden and the city as
well as around the Schlüterhof later named after it could be completed.
The model of the design of the building to the Schlossplatz was the
facade of the Palazzo Madama in Rome, which supplemented Schlüter around
the monumental colossal portal I. He adorned the representative and
private rooms of the castle sculptorally and through ceiling paintings,
including from Augustin Terwesten. Because of his facades and interiors
mainly created by Andreas Schlüter, the castle was considered a main
work of the Baroque.
At the request of the king, the coin tower
on the northwest corner of the castle, with a bell acquired for 12,000
guilders in the Netherlands, was to be increased up to an altitude of 94
meters. However, the foundations of the medieval building proved to be
inadequate, although Schlüter tried to strengthen them with new iron
arms at that time. Finally, the unfinished tower had to be removed
extensively for static reasons, and Schlüter was replaced as a court
builder in 1706, but remained in office as a court sculptor. Schlüter's
post took over his competitor Johann Friedrich Eosander, who presented a
new expansion plan for the castle. The plan could only be carried out
partially, mainly around the later Eosanderhof and the Eosander portal
(west portal).
Because of his connection with Johann Sebastian
Bach, the castle was also considered a Bachort. In 1719 the composer met
Margrave Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg and dedicated the famous
Brandenburg concerts to him, which was probably listed in the castle in
1721.
After the death of Frederick I, his successor Friedrich
Wilhelm I brought the artistic life at the Berlin Hof in a programmatic
act. He had the castle completed by the less significant student of
Schlüter, Martin Heinrich Böhme, in a simplified form, but the
representation rooms, as far as it had started, were splendidly
equipped. A small coupling tower for the ringing of the palace chapel
was added to the Southeast corner. At the beginning of the 18th century,
the amber room created on behalf of Friedrich I was part of the castle.
Friedrich Wilhelm I gave it to the Russian Tsar Peter the Great in 1716,
who had it installed in the Katharinenpalast in Zarskoje Selo near Saint
Petersburg.
After his ascent of the throne in 1840, Friedrich
Wilhelm IV moved into an escape of the room on the first floor along the
Spree and the pleasure garden (east and north side). He had already had
his study as a crown prince in 1826 in the choir and former municipal
room of the late Gothic Erasmuskapelle. The book and drawing cabinets of
the room were designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The medieval rib
vault, which Frederick II had been built over, was uncovered again under
Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Franz Krüger's portrait gives an impression of
this ambient. The study was the room in the Berlin city palace, in which
Friedrich Wilhelm IV not only spent most of the time and received
guests, but also managed its government business and planned for
construction projects.
In addition to the study in Berlin, three
rooms played an important role in the Berlin Castle: the star room as a
ballroom, the subsequent dining room and the 100 square meter tea salon
as a social room. The teases as a former concert room of Frederick II
was redesigned in the style of classicism according to plans of Schinkel
and designs. The room was equipped with two dozen armchairs and chairs,
two classes based on ancient models and a room that was based on ancient
semi -broken bench. Friedrich Wilhelm and his wife particularly invited
scholars and artists for the informal intellectual exchange in this
room. The naturalist Alexander von Humboldt is said to have read the
first volume of his work Kosmos to the crown prince couple.
With
the exception of the central, 70 meter high dome above the Eosander
portal, only minor changes took place on the facade in the 19th and 20th
centuries. The architect Friedrich August Stüler and his site manager
Albert Dietrich Schadow built the dome with an octagonal, pilaster
-decorated drum in 1845-1853. The construction took place after a draft
by Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The dome building, which was exposed by 24,
which was straightened by 24, which had just been closed by 24, which
was closed by 24, was consecrated in January 1854. The Tambouroktogon
was completed by a balustrade, with eight statues accentuating the
cornerstones of the octagon. Another, retracted round drums began behind
the balustrade. A Prussian -blue lettering with the text ran below the
wreath cornice around this collected drum: “There is no other salvation,
there is no other name for people either, because the name of Jesus, in
honor of the Father, that the father should bow to Jesus All of those
knees that are in heaven and on earth and under the earth. ”The dome
construction with a metal roof structure was divided through two rows of
Okuli through beads in 24 fields and horizontally. At her highest point,
she was crowned by a lantern: eight angels with spread wings on a round
Baluster gallery wore an open dome construction made of eight palm
branches, above which a cross rose centrally.
When Wilhelm II climbed the throne, he chose the castle as his place
of residence. For this purpose, he had it technically modernized and
living rooms for his family and had the white hall redesigned and
increased Ernst von Ihne according to plans by the courtyard. At the
expense of the Eosanderhof, a gallery should allow its visitors to
circulate throughout the second floor. The construction came to a
standstill due to the outbreak of war in 1914. The small coupling tower
of the soldier king received a counterpart as a clock tower. It was used
to cover the view on the increased roof ridge of the white hall. Well
-known art forge creeped up for the previously freely accessible castle
portals. Eduard Puls provided the goals for Portals I, II and III
(Eosander portal), Schulz and Holdefleiß for the portal IV and the
brothers' brothers for the portal V.
In 1902 the Eosandeportal
was supplemented by four monumental bronze boards, which were made by
Otto Lessing.
Although the Berlin Schloss environment remained
unfinished in the sense of Schlüter and Eosander's planning, where it
was part of a larger urban planning system to be built, the surrounding
buildings in the middle of Berlin were a representative urban ensemble.
Especially since the buildings in the immediate vicinity of the castle
related to size, proportion and orientation towards the castle as a
scale building.
The castle was also the end point of the
boulevard Unter den Linden as a significant baroque building and the
largest building of the Berlin city center. Several roads were geared
towards the city palace, which also took into account the urban planning
court plan of 1862. At first, not all facades were designed for long
-distance effect, the west facade remained covered by the freedom of
castle until 1894. From 1894, the house line was demolished for the
construction of the Kaiser Wilhelm National Monument, which gave rise to
the free view of the west facade and the castle portal of the castle.
The two -time new building of the cathedral on the Lustgarten, in 1747
by Boumann the elderly and in 1905 by Julius Carl Raschdorff, Schinkel's
castle bridge and the Royal Museum from 1824 and 1830 evaluated the
urban development situation of the castle. Other newly created
buildings, which directly referred to the Berlin Castle, were the
Kaiser-Wilhelm Nationaldenkmal and the Neptune fountain, both by
Reinhold Begas in 1891 and 1898, as well as the new stalls completed in
1901 in 1901.
Monarchy: Hohenzollerndesidenz
The castle was the scene and
sometimes symbol of significant events in German history. From 1701 it
served as a royal Prussian and from 1871 as an imperial-German winter
residence. Frederick the Great was born in the building, whose politics
caused German dualism. The Prussian State Council met from 1817 to 1848
in the State Council Hall of the Berlin Castle. From 1910, the premises
designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel served the President of the Kaiser
Wilhelm Society to promote science. The trigger of the March Revolution
in Prussia was a peaceful demonstration on the Schlossplatz on March 18,
1848. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV had tried to calm the masses through a
speech from the balcony via Portal I (Elisabethportal) through
concessions, but then ordered the place to clear. A spontaneous
barricade uprising developed that went into the revolution.
During the time of the German Empire, the opening of the Reichstag
always took place in the White Hall of the Berlin Castle. The Reichstag
opening on June 25, 1888 was also the first public appearance of Wilhelm
II as a German emperor. Anton von Werner handed over the event in a
monumental painting.
At the beginning of the First World War,
Kaiser Wilhelm II held the first of his two balcony speeches to tens of
thousands in the pleasure garden on July 31, 1914 from the balcony of
the portal V. The speech should tune in people with the upcoming war. On
August 1, she was followed by a second from the floor -to -ceiling
window of the column hall above the portal IV, in which Wilhelm
Germany's admission to war announced and the castle peace policy
initiated. This speech, which found great distribution on August 6, 1914
by publishing the German Reichsanzeiger and a record recording made in
January 1918, made the portal IV a historical place.
Weimar
Republic: Cultural and Science Center
At the beginning of the Weimar
Republic there was an event of the November Revolution in the Berlin
Castle. After Philipp Scheidemann announced the abdication of Wilhelm II
in the early afternoon of November 9, 1918 at the Reichstag building and
left the Republic, pushed out of a crowd accumulating around the castle,
from 2:30 p.m. the troops set up around the castle. Only a few farm
officials and the castellane remained in the building, which the off
-road troops handed over an hour later to the revolutionary, and on
which a red flag was now blew. At around 4:30 p.m., Spartakus leader
Karl Liebknecht appeared at the castle and proclaimed the "Free
Socialist Republic of Germany". He then let himself be taken to the
castle to once again proclaim the "Free Socialist Republic of Germany"
from the large window of the portal IV, the location of the second
speech of the emperor. Shortly afterwards, numerous people entered the
unguarded castle and started looting. Liebknecht's proclamation of the
Räter Republic remained without consequences, but went down in the
tradition of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) as a symbolic act,
whose founders should belong a few weeks later.
From mid
-November, the VolksmarineDivision was stationed in the castle. After
the sailors had been accused of looting, she urged city commander Otto
Wels in particular to clear the castle. The Christmas fights sparked the
clearing of the castle. These largely led to breaking the socialist
unitary government of MSPD and USPD.
In the following years of
the Weimar Republic, the castle developed into an important cultural
center in the city. In addition to the art museum known as the castle
museum, the representation rooms and the castle library also opened for
visitors. In addition, during the Berlin art weeks, which were first
organized in 1926 at the suggestion of Mayor Gustav Böß, public concerts
by the Berlin Philharmonic in the White Hall and in the Schlüterhof.
A list of 1924 has a good two dozen private tenants as well as
numerous public institutions, authorities and clubs in the castle,
including: the KRONGUTS administration, the welfare office for civil
servants from the border area, the union of German administrative
officers, the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft to promote sciences , the
emergency community of German science, the Austrian friendship, the
psychological institute of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, the
castle building offices I and II, the Central for Children's Feeding,
the Center for Placement of Home to Medium-sized Art science and the
phonogram archive. In the following years the museum of physical
exercises, the German Academic Exchange Service, the German Academy, the
Atlas of German Folklore, the German Art Association, the cafeteria of
the Studentenwerk, the Helene Lange-Dagenheim for students, the Japan
Institute Mexico library, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes for foreign
public law and international law as well as for foreign and
international private law.
National Socialism: Continuity and
Dealing
The cultural and scientific use of the castle was largely
preserved in the period of National Socialism. With the Museum of the
Prussian State Theater and a new rehearsal hall for the state ballet,
new users were added, while others like the museum for physical
exercises, the DAAD and the DFG left the castle. The Serenaden concerts
of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Staatskapelle Berlin and other
orchestras in the Schlüterhof started in 1932 were continued until the
war.
The Reich Chamber of Fine Arts was temporarily housed in the
castle, which previously took over the rooms used by the German
Artgulass. Art community, but also Daad, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft and
the other organizations, were released, Jewish employees were released,
including the head of the academic department in the DAAD, Ingrid
Dybwad, the Kustodin in the castle administration, Elisabeth
Henschel-Simon, and the senior Speaker in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
for Foreign Public Law and International Law, Marguerite Wolff.
The castle was badly damaged in an Allied air raid on February 3,
1945 and burned out mostly. However, parts of the castle remained
intact, so that from 1946 to 1948 four exhibitions could still be shown,
especially in the White Hall. The first exhibition showed Berlin city
building visions under the title "Berlin Plant", followed by a show of
modern French painting, from Christmas 1946 there was a "reunion with
museum goods" (which was outsourced for war) and in 1948 a large
exhibition on the anniversary the Democratic March Revolution of March
18, 1848.
The city councilor in the Berlin magistrate, Hans
Scharoun, campaigned for a securing of the substance because he thought
the castle was the "most excellent building of the North German
Baroque", and received corresponding funds from the magistrate (security
work from October 1, 1945). Later, left out of office, he campaigned in
letters to Otto Grotewohl for the rescue of the castle (August -
September 1950).
After the German reunification and the move of the government to
Berlin, the Humboldt Forum at the place of the old castle was built
until the end of 2020 as a new building, with the facade and in the
dimension of the Berlin Castle. The museum is intended to fit into the
overall concept of the Museum Island. For this purpose, the collections
of non -European art of the Prussian cultural property foundation were
moved from the Dahlem Museum Center to the castle, so that in
combination with the stocks of European art on the museum island, they
form a place of world culture. An event center mentioned AGORA is to
combine cultures in the world, which is based on the scientific and
cultural past of the place. In addition, a Berlin exhibition on behalf
of the State of Berlin will be created as a co-production between
Kulturprojekt Berlin and the Berlin City Museum. It is intended to link
the cultures of the world on the upper floors with the city of Berlin,
with a focus on the international history of Berlin. In April 2015,
Minister of Culture Monika Grütters called the British Neil MacGregor to
the head of the founding intendant, which until 2017 worked out the
focus on the Humboldt Forum.
As a residence of the Hohenzollern,
the Berlin Castle basically had a different function than the Humboldt
Forum. At that time it formed a programmatic building ensemble with the
old museum (culture), Berlin Cathedral (Evangelical Church), Zeughaus
(military).
overview
The Berlin Castle, including the basement, the adjoining
rooms and the attic recently, included a total of around 1200 interiors,
including around 100 representation rooms of the Brandenburg Elector,
Prussian kings and German emperors. The artistic equipment was largely
directed by Andreas Schlüter and Johann Friedrich Eosander von Göthes.
Other artists involved were: Hermann Rückwardt, Johann Friedrich Wentzel
d. Ä., Johann Heinrich Strack, Augustin Terwesten, Bernhard Rock,
Jacques Vaillant, Eduard Gaertner. [45]
Ground floor
Polish
chambers
The Polish chambers were in the pleasure garden wing east of
the portal V and were named after August the strong, the King of Poland.
They were probably built around 1700 by Andreas Schlüter. One of the
most important rooms included the corridor and the bedroom.
Mecklenburg chambers
The Mecklenburg chambers were in the west wing
north of the portal III (Eosander portal) and were named after
Alexandrine von Mecklenburg, a sister of Wilhelm I among the most
important rooms, the bedroom, the salon, the writing room and the salon
of the petits apartments.
State Councilor
The state councils
were in the Schlossplatz wing west of the portal II and served as the
headquarters. The study of the President of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society
and the meeting room of the Prussian State Council had to be emphasized
here.
First floor
Royal chamber
The royal chambers of
Friedrich Wilhelm II were among the masterpieces of German classicism.
Built in 1787–1789 by Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff and Carl von
Gontard, they lay in the lust garden wing west of Portal V. The garden
sequence consisted of the Garde-Du-Corps hall via Portal V, the
Rotdamasten Chamber, the Verdamastenen Chamber, the throne room , the
large column hall via Portal IV, the dining room, the green French
chamber and the blue French chamber. The courtyard sequence consisted of
the colorful gang, the parolesaal (with the princess group of Johann
Gottfried Schadow), the white room and the concert room.
Apartment Friederikes
The apartment of Queen Friederikes was another
masterpiece of German classicism. It was built in the years 1789–1791
according to plans by Carl Gotthard Langhans and was in the
Schlossplatzflügel west of Portal II. The most important rooms were the
pillar on Portal II, the red marble chamber, the company room and the
marble hall.
Apartment Friedrich Wilhelms IV.
Friedrich
Wilhelm IV's apartment was also one of the masterpieces of German
classicism. Built in the years 1824–1828 according to plans by Karl
Friedrich Schinkel, it ranged from the middle of the east wing to portal
I (Elisabeth portal) of the Palace Plato. One of the most important
rooms included the Erasmuskapelle (former palace chapel, originally
created in 1465, revised by Caspar Theiss), the writing room (former
writing room Friedrichs des Große), the living room, the teas, the
dining room and the star hall Portal I.
Imperial apartment
The
imperial apartment was located in the Schlossplatzflügel west of Portal
I and served as the apartment of Kaiser Wilhelm II. It consisted of the
reception room (former audience room Frederick of the Great), the study
(former study of Friedrich des Große), the lecture room, the small
dressing room, the anteroom the Empress, the marble staircase, the
dining room, the library of the imperial couple, the large dressing
room, the Princely stairs and the Joachimsaal, which was the only room
of the apartment on the second floor on portal II.
Hohenzollern
apartment
The Hohenzollern apartment was located in the south of the
west wing and served as the apartment of Charles Anton von Hohenzollern,
the Prussian Prime Minister during the new era. The most important rooms
included the salon, the cabinet and the living room.
Wilhelmsche
apartment
The Wilhelm's apartment was in the northern part of the
west wing and served as the apartment of Prince Wilhelm. The most
important rooms included the Prinz-Wilhelm room, the first bedroom, the
salon, the second bedroom, the bathroom and the guest sleeping room
(former library Friedrich Wilhelms II).
House library
The
house library was in the spree wing of the castle. It was distributed to
several library rooms in the tower of Kurfürst Friedrich II, in the
gallery of the great elector, in the Duchinhaus and in the green hat.
Second story
Parade chambers
Friedrich I's parade chambers
were among the masterpieces of the European Baroque. Built in 1698–1713
according to plans by Andreas Schlüter and Johann Friedrich Eosander,
they reached from the middle of the east wing across the entire lust
garden to the middle of the west wing. The large staircase (also called
spiral staircase) served as an eastern access behind the Schlüter portal
when western access the White Saal staircase next to the Eosander
portal. The Swiss Hall, the first parade pre -chamber and the second
parade pre -chamber in the east wing started. The royal room, the
Drap-d'Or chamber, the Rote Adler Chamber, the Ritter Hall, the
Schwarze-Adler Chamber, the Red Office Chamber, the chapter hall, the
picture gallery, the Green Salon and that were followed in the pleasure
garden wing. Royal room. The white hall and the palace chapel in the
west wing were completed.
The highlight of the parade chambers
was the particularly magnificent knights over portal V. It was 17 meters
long, 13 meters wide, 9.75 meters high and was in the visual axis under
the linden trees. The door wall in the south adorned the trumpet choir,
the window wall in the north a coat of arms with the royal monogram
"Fr". The silver buffet (currently exhibited in Köpenick Castle) was on
the east wall, a royal throne on the west wall. The ceiling painting by
Johann Friedrich Wentzel was the glorification of the government of
Friedrich I, the sopraportes showed the four parts of America, Asia,
Africa and Europe.
The most important part of the parade chambers
was the white hall, which was always used for representation. After his
first redesign by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1845, at the instigation
of the emperor, he was completely redesigned by Ernst von Ihne in the
course of 1902. The reliefs and statues made of stucco and the walls
made of stone cardboard were now completely renewed by various
sculptors, including Ernst Westphal, under the direction of Otto Lessing
in fine materials such as marble and bronze. As of December 28, 1902, a
guided tour took place for around 50 invited guests in the
Königsschloss, where the changes were presented. [47]
Elisabeth
chambers
The Elisabeth chambers were named after the Queen Elisabeth
Christine and ranged from the middle of the east wing to portal I of the
castle. They were probably started by Andreas Schlüter around 1700 and
included the ancestors accessible from the Swiss Hall of the Parade
Associations, the red room, the velvet room, the corner room, the
bluebearzimmer and the Elisabeth Hall via Portal I (hence also Elisabeth
portal).
Princess Marie chambers
The Princess Marie chambers
were named after a grand nantry Friedrich Wilhelm IV. They followed the
Elisabeth Hall and consisted of the cabinet (former birth room of
Frederick the Great), the eastern room, the center room and the western
room (also called Princess Marie Hall) via Portal II.
Elector's
room
The electoral rooms were in the northern part of the Spree Wing
and were named after the great elector, under whose rule their
construction began. The most important rooms included the small gallery,
the spherical chamber, the Betkammer, the bridal chamber, the crown
cabinet and the Chinese cabinet. They have been used for the wedding
ceremony of the Prussian kings since Friedrich Wilhelm I.
Braunschweigian chambers
The Braunschweigian chambers were in the
southern part of the Spreflug and were named after the dukes of
Braunschweig, which they used as guest rooms. The most important rooms
included the Braunschweigian gallery and the former chapel of the
Elector, which was the first baroque room of northern Germany.
Third floor
On the third floor there were primarily ancillary rooms,
but also cross -storey interiors. This included the Elisabeth Hall above
the Portal I, the Joachimsaal above Portal II, the palace chapel above
the Eosander portal, the white hall, the picture gallery, the chapter
hall, the knight's hall above the Portal V and the Swiss Hall of Parade
Associations.
Equipment and furniture
Many equipment and
pieces of furniture from the historic Berlin castle have been preserved
to this day and are currently distributed to various locations and
museums. The comprehensive traditional silver silver collection and the
Schaubuffet of the royal family in Köpenick Castle can be visited, other
parts in the Berlin Kunstgewarbemuseum of the Kulturforum and in the
silver chamber of Oranienburg Castle. There are also other furniture,
tapestries and paintings in Oranienburg. Individual furniture can also
be viewed in the Potsdam orangery and in Charlottenburg Castle. At the
Paretz Castle in the Berlin area, the restored royal carriage fleet can
be visited, which comes from the new stall. In the Dutch house of Doorn
there are also many other objects that have so far not been issued
publicly - Wilhelm II had spent his exile there after the abdication and
died in Doorn in 1941.
North side
On the north side of the Lustgarten, the castle terrace
was built in 1844-1846. It equalized the height difference of the site
and shielded the castle off road traffic. The terrace consisted of a
shorter eastern part that ranged from Portal V to Portal IV, and a
longer western part that extended from Portal IV to the corner of
Calculary freedom. In the middle of the terrace, a six -meter wide
paving path ran, which two six -meter -wide lawns each lined with plants
and flowers. In 1846, the Rosseselander was set up on the balustrade in
front of Portal IV and the eagle column on the corner. The Rosstandem
were masterpieces of the sculptor Peter Clodt of Jürgensburg, who worked
in Saint Petersburg. The famous French sculptor Christophe Fratin
participated in the eagle column. In 1907 the Oranian princes were added
on the balustrade.
West side
On the west side of the lock
freedom, the Kaiser Wilhelm National memoral created by the sculptor
Reinhold Begas was unveiled. A whole line had to give way to build the
monumental system. The adjacent green areas received a similarly
representative design in 1898 as the Schlossplatz.
South side
On the south side of the Schlossplatz, the castle fountain, created by
the sculptor Reinhold, was unveiled in 1891. He was a gift from Berlin
to the emperor and was in front of Portal II in the axis of the wide
street. The idea of building a fountain at this point already came from
Karl Friedrich Schinkel. In 1901 the castle square was redesigned into a
contemporary jewelry with carpet beds, mosaic plasters and iron
scandala. In close connection with the castle, the equestrian statue of
the great electoral image of the great elector in 1703 and was
considered to be the masterpiece of baroque art on the Kurfürstenbrücke.
During the Second World War, the castle burned to the Berlin city
center in the heavy Allied air raid on February 3, 1945 to the northwest
wing. The fire had destroyed almost all of the state rooms in the north
and south wing. Further damage to the Schlossplatz facade caused by
artillery shot at the end of April during the Battle of Berlin.
The outer walls and the plastic jewelry, the load -bearing walls and
mostly the main staircases remained. The slightly damaged wing with the
white hall continued to serve the Berlin Museum of Art as a magazine and
administrative seat after the war. In other parts of the castle, which
were only slightly damaged, departments of the State Monument Office and
the former Prussian administration of the state palaces and gardens were
located. In the undestroated ground floor of the Palace Square with
Schinkel's State Council Hall, a construction company was based, which
performed security and salvage work in the castle and its surroundings.
City building councilor Hans Scharoun immediately applied for
measures to maintain the castle. However, the magistrate Werner, who was
employed by the Soviet military government in May 1945 and was dominated
by the KPD, was reluctant and partially closed. Therefore, further
damage caused by weather influences. From December 1946, Karl Bonatz
Scharoun's successor was in the democratically elected magistrate
Ostrowski. In his Bonatz plan for the reconstruction of Berlin, he also
provided for the preservation of the castle. Between August 1946 and
March 1948, four well-attended exhibitions took place in the White Hall,
including the reconstruction show Berlin, led by Scharoun, is
planning-first report.
Since the division of Berlin in the summer
and autumn 1948, the SED-led East Berlin magistrate has gradually
prevented further use as well as security and heating. In October 1948,
the People's Police announced the evacuation housed in the castle. After
their protests had not done anything, they moved their office seats to
West Berlin. In March 1949, the building supervisory authority blocked
the castle, although an expert commission had declared it not in danger
of collapse.
In October 1949, Soviet soldiers destroyed several
sculptures and still preserved equipment as well as hundreds of glass
windows of the castle during filming the Soviet film.
After the Berlin public discussed the signs of the apparently
impending demolition of the castle in the winter of 1948/49, the
SED-controlled press initially scattered disinformation in February
1950. While the SED management circle unanimously rejected the
reconstruction of the castle, he initially did not question the official
reconstruction plan and tolerated internal discussions of the cultural
association about the redesign of the middle of Berlin.
With the
foundation of the GDR, the responsibility for the reconstruction of the
Berlin city center had passed to a department of the Ministry for
Building. On the III. SED party congress on July 23, 1950 Walter
Ulbricht, the new General Secretary of the ZK (Central Committee) of the
SED, announced the upcoming demolition of the castle. At the point of
the castle itself, as well as the pleasure garden, the free -term lock
and the castle square, a ricks should arise "on which the will to fight
and the will to build up of our people." Ulbricht announced this without
having previously taken place in the Politburo, in the Council of
Ministers or with the Mayor.
In the following weeks, Ulbricht
received ideas of the law. The corresponding ministerial council
decision was published at the end of August 1950. He provided to leave
the old museum and the Berlin Cathedral at the ranging place in the
north and to build a grandstand on the Spreese side in the east, which
should be connected to a "representative high -rise" on the other side
of the Spree via a bridge. In the south, a new opera house should rise
next to the new Marstall and take a fiapp monument in the west of the
Kaiser Wilhelm National Monument to be removed. In addition to the
annihilation of the castle, the plan also provided for the surface
clearance of the partially destroyed center of Old Berlin and the
northern old man in favor of a central traffic axis from Stalinallee via
Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburg Gate and a widened marching paths for
demonstrators.
Leading representatives of the Berlin cultural
life rejected the plan on August 30, 1950, and tried to get a public
discussion in view of the coordination of the People's Chamber provided
for September 6th. Richard Hamann called the castle "in all art stories
of the world and depicted [...] A representative of a specific north
German baroque who provides himself with Michelangelos St. Peter in
Rome, to whom Louvre in Paris," Walter Hentschel "one of the most
important monuments Germany, yes to the whole world ”. Walter Friedrich
wrote that it is "one of the most important creations of German
architecture", for Ragnar Josephson it was "in a large -shaped, powerful
wholeness [...] a monument to sovereign baroque art in Europe", for
Ernst Gall "one of the most shaped structural works of art that ours
World […] may call your own ”. For Johannes Stroux, the castle was
considered "one of the most important monuments of national art and the
late baroque" and for Horst-Wolf Schubert (1903–1977), art historian and
state conservator of Saxony-Anhalt, "one of the most important creations
in German architecture; It has world fault ”. Hans Scharoun said
especially to the Schlüterhof: "From a unique meaning [... gained] world
fame". The responsible SED politicians did not respond to the numerous,
art-historical or historical-political protests, or attributed cost
arguments. The answer was exemplary that Ulbricht gave a protesting SED
comrade. His "statement" was "already known from West Berlin newspapers"
that he recommends that he "to organize a protest movement against those
who have destroyed the castle by their bomb terror" and announced that
"architecturally important games inside the castle, as far as they
survived the American bomb terror ”, to be transferred to a museum.
On September 7, 1950, the day after the People's Chamber decision,
the briefing of the castle began. This annihilation of unique cultural
assets was criticized worldwide. Accompanied by unsuccessful protests,
they ended on December 30, 1950 with the resignation of the Eosander
portal. Shooting blasting of capitals, other larger plastic parts and
cellar systems ended in March 1951.
Without adequate planning, a
scientific activity had been able to recover around 2000 artistically
valuable plastic work and architectural parts and could only document
the construction in a hurry before being destroyed. As the future
proved, this was done to calm the public. The scientific processing of
the documentation did not come about and the preserved parts were
neglected in a storage space where their trace lost after 1965. The
rubble masses of the blown-off castle reached rubble railways and
Spreekahn to Rümmerbergen on the edge of the Friedrichsfelde zoo and in
the Volkspark Friedrichshain, in former gravel pits on the grounds of
the city forest Köpenick near Lake Seddinsee and a private property in
Berlin-Schöckwitz.
Although the SED organ New Germany has
announced the demolition in August 1950 under the motto "Nothing should
remind us of inglorious reminding us", the GDR was performed by an
official discussion of the historical and cultural importance of the
castle. A corresponding publication with arguments for the demolition
was withdrawn in 1952. In the following decades of SED rule in the GDR,
the topic of Berlin Castle was considered taboo. The files required for
scientific research were kept under closure.
Kurt Liebknecht
(nephew of Karl Liebknecht, from 1949 to 1951 director of the Institute
for Urban Development and Building Construction in the GDR Ministry of
Building) reports in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung in 1990 that
the decision to demolish the Berlin Castle mainly reports from Walter
Ulbricht was. Liebknecht was moved by the party leadership to agree to
the demolition. He thought this was a big mistake.
Marching area
Until the celebration on May 1, 1951, the space was
cleared, leveled and covered with red brick covers. A stand on his east
side with his back to the Spree. The place, which was spread around the
previous castle and the pleasure garden, received the name
Marx-Engels-Platz in honor of the theorists of communism Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels. The plans for redesigning Marx-Engels-Platz remained
unpainted in the following years or were rejected, as with the central
government high-rise. Apart from occasional use by demonstrations,
military parades and mass events, the space remained unused until the
1970s.
The state council building, which was built on its
southern edge in 1963, received the secure portal IV as the "important
memorial of the labor movement" as the entrance. It was only after
Walter Ulbricht depicted his successor Erich Honecker in 1971 as a
programmatic gesture to build a multi-purpose building on
Marx-Engels-Platz. The decisive plans are presented in a book.
Palace of the Republic
As a result of these plans, 1973 to 1976 was
created on the eastern castle area of the Palace of the Republic. Among
other things, the building served as the seat of the People's Chamber
and contained numerous public institutions. After the political turn,
archaeological excavations were carried out in the undeveloped area of
the castle area, with some of the castle foundations and cellar areas
being uncovered. A metal fence surrounded the foundations and
explanatory boards, for example, illustrated the heating system in the
basement area. In 1991, the northern part of Marx-Engels-Platz received
its original name Lustgarten, while in 1994 the rest of the Marx Engels
Platz was renamed Schlossplatz. After his asbestos renovation from 1997
to 2002, the Palace of the Republic was demolished between 2006 and
2008. To compensate for the removed building, the foundation was given a
concrete tub into which, according to the crazy materials of wet gravel,
as a balancing weight was introduced. This measure prevented the
remaining foundations from swimming. Between 2009 and 2012, the castle
area was designed as a public freedom according to a concept of relay
landscape architects. The excavation fields were opened up by wooden
bridges and the palace tub was staged as an open green space.
After the founding of the Berlin Castle support association in 1992
under the direction of Wilhelm von Boddien, an International Expert
Commission of Historical Mitte Berlin was initially deployed in November
2000. In 2002 the German Bundestag was the decision of the Berlin
Castle. A visitor center at the Lustgarten informed about the project
and the history of the building.
The Italian architect Franco
Stella emerged from the international realization competition in 2008 as
the winner for the new buildings, interiors and modern facades in the
middle section, Schlossforum and on the east side. The reconstruction
planning for three of the four facades, with Eckrondell on the Southeast
corner, three of four sides of the Schlüterhof, the inside of the
Eosander portal, the garden portal and the two city portals was created
by Stuhlemmer architect. In order to be able to revive the plan material
missing for the reconstruction, Stuhlemmer Architects, in cooperation
with the TU Berlin, were equally equalized and brought into a level
based on a cadastral plan from 1880, so that individual dimensions could
be expected. The reconstruction planning for the dome with a cross was
carried out by Hilmer Sattler Architects. The interior design was
carried out by the Franco Stella Planungsgesellschaft - bright and
purely functional. This also affected the east facade to the Spree,
which has parallels to the style of rationalism. The two flanking side
domes over the west facade and the historic castle complex on the Spree
were not reconstructed. The interiors will not be restored for the time
being. In the long term, however, the reconstruction of the baroque
giant stairs at the Schlüterhof is planned. In addition, the pleasure
garden wing inside is built in such a way that restoration of individual
castle rooms is possible.
On June 12, 2013, Federal President
Joachim Gauck laid the foundation stone. Exactly two years later, on
June 12, 2015, the topping -out ceremony was celebrated for the
completed shell of the castle including the roof structure. The opening
of the Humboldt Forum planned for September 2020 was initially
symbolically virtual on December 17, 2020, the actual opening had to be
postponed to 2021 due to the Covid 19 pandemic. On May 29, 2020, the
lanterns of the castle dome, which was reconstructed by Andreas
Hoferick, was set up according to historical photos and designs by
Andreas Hoferick.
For the reconstruction of the baroque facades,
around 45,000 citizens from Berlin, the rest of Germany and the whole
world donated a total of 105 million euros. In November 2020, Federal
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Minister of Culture Monika
Grütters thanked the donors for the commitment. A further 13 million
euros of donations are required for the reconstruction of the balustrade
figures and the portal crossing, of which twelve million euros were
already entered by the support association by January 2023. The total
costs for the construction project amount to 677 million euros. The
start of construction took place in 2012, the completion in November
2020. The gross floor area is around 93,600 square meters, the usable
area is around 44,300 square meters. Including the farms, the castle has
a floor area of around 20,500 square meters.
On the importance of the castle
“From actually classic buildings
that have something really peculiar and excellent in their whole idea,
Berlin has only two: the royal castle and the armory. We owe both the
arts to both of them; At the same time, they stand there as monuments of
art and are becoming more and more important, the less time the time
will be able to engage in such large and perfect new works, and at the
same time the obligation is all the more urgent, the inherited treasures
in all its whole To preserve glory, even in the most unfavorable times,
the funds to be used are never to be regarded as a superfluous waste,
because it only uses indirectly, which grows from it, is too general and
large. "
- Karl Friedrich Schinkel
"And then the Schlüterhof!
All over the world I know nothing comparable in idiosyncratic
originality: not very large in the dimensions, but fully great design in
the powerful structure and density of its daring contrasts and precisely
precisely shaped by the structure that is once again shaped by the
portals With their massive column positions and richly pierced risalites
as well as the crowning jewelry of their figures of rhythmic order, give
full of unforgettable celebration. ”
- Ernst Gall
“Berlin is
poor in monuments of the past, but it has a work that is worthy of the
greatest of the past and is called and depicted in all art stories in
the world: the Berlin Castle. His creator is the largest sculptor and
architect in northern Germany, Andreas Schlüter. It stands, of a
fascinating force and monumentalness, a representative of the
specifically North German baroque, which michelangelos St. Peter in
Rome, which Louvre is worthy in Paris. The center of Berlin has
dominated the place it helps, the street that leads to it, the old
Berlin, which for the one who wants to see the past in Berlin, makes up
the term Berlin. "
- Richard Hamann
“Powerful seriousness
speaks from the city side, while dissolved ceremony and cosmopolitan
grace over the garden side. According to Eosander's extension, the
castle now turned its front to the west instead of the south; With the
former armory and the opera Unter den Linden, the castle formed a
monumental center, as only a few capitals have. ”
- Johannes Stroux
To destroy the castle
“If you destroy the Berlin Castle, you
destroy one of the most shaped structural works of art that can still
call our world its own after so many losses. From this time around the
turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, there is little in Europe, which
could surpass this building in strength and in the urgent plastic
clarity of its facade structure. ”
- Ernst Gall
“The rulers of
Eastern Berlin hear the fame of the castle as misleading a long past
prince cult. These have irritated their sensitive eardrums and are now
to be silent. They prefer to listen to their own sounds on the
Aufmarschplatz, which they put on the property of the demolished castle.
This barren space will also be a monument one day, a monument to
pouruallessness, narrow -mindedness and intellectual poverty. "
-
Ragnar Josephson
“The Berlin Castle is in close relationship with
the cityscape, and the extended castle took over to link the two city
organisms, the old Berlin-Cölln and the new foundations in the west.
Together with the monumental buildings of the Linden, the castle formed
the most important facility in Berlin. So the castle has become the
crystallization point of a force field that could not be removed from
the structure of the city without shimmering the order of the whole.
There is only one thing: to restore the construction of Schlüter and
Eosander in his place and with it the great moral force that came from
the art of Andreas Schlüter. "
- Margarete Kühn
The amber room of Johann Friedrich Eosander was originally in the
castle. It was commissioned by Friedrich I in 1701 and was installed in
1712 in the northwestern corner room of the second floor before
Friedrich Wilhelm I gave away it in 1716.
Johann Sebastian Bach met
Margrave Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg in 1719 in the castle. He
dedicated the Brandenburg concerts to him, which was probably listed in
1721, which is why the castle is considered a bachort.
Frederick the
Great was born in the castle in 1712. His birth room was on the second
floor of the south wing, behind the third window west of the inner
portal I to the Schlüterhof, and was unchanged until the Second World
War.
The princess group of Johann Gottfried Schadow originally stood
in the parolesaal of the castle. It was on the first floor of the north
wing, behind the three windows of the IV portal to the Eosanderhof,
which today forms the northern narrow side of the passage.
Christian
Daniel Rauch's wreath -lifting Viktoria originally stood in the white
hall of the castle. It was on the second floor of the west wing, north
of the Eosander portal. The artist himself lived in the castle from 1815
to 1819.
Karl Fürst von Hardenberg worked as a Prussian reformer in
the State Council Hall of the Castle. The room designed by Schinkel was
on the ground floor of the south wing, behind the third to sixth window
west of the outer portal II.
Alexander von Humboldt regularly read
Kosmos from his work in the teas of the castle. The room, which was also
designed by Schinkel, was on the first floor of the south wing, behind
the third and fourth window east of the outside portal I.