Berlin to build ersatz Stadtschloß

I think there’s something to be said for this approach. Cost aside, to simply rebuild the structure as contemporaries knew it would have a way of eliding the cataclysmic events the site suffered in the 20th century. Even if it were one of the truly canonical works of Western architecture, I’m not sure perfect fidelity to the original design would be justified, but I suspect we disagree about first principles (I don’t think all modern architecture is monstrous).

Come, come, Mr Cusack.
The sentiments with which the achingly politically correct German establishment clothes this initiative are certainly ridiculous, but the rebuilding of the palace (not to mention the destruction of the Communist monstrosity) is little short of a miracle.
Once completed, it will transform the historic centre of Berlin in a beautiful and even reactionary way.
Since there is no chance of a monarchical restoration (would one really want the upstart Hohenzollerns back anyway?) the interiors are unimportant: what matters is the change to the skyline.
The modern facade on the Spee is, amusingly, rather reminiscent of Speer, don’t you think?

Something is better than nothing I suppose. I think it should be restored completely including the restoration of a Hohenzollen Kaiser in residence. It really is a sin of history that all the German monarchs were tossed aside. Thanks for nothing President Wilson.

Ja, wenn dass Schloss fertig ist, wollen wir auch unser Kaiser wieder haben!

Heil Dir im Siegeskranz, Georg Friedrich!

It really is a sin of human decency that Germany practiced unrestricted submarine warfare. Scarcely more creditable was the idea of promoting Mexican irredentism and give President Wilson no choice but to abandon isolationism. Thanks for nothing Arthur Zimmerman.

“No choice”? Bah, Wilson was but waiting for the opportune moment. He gloried in the opportunities it presented him for the destruction of the old order.

Unrestricted submarine warfare is certainly unjustifiable, and was practiced by both sides in the second war. (Adm. Doenitz was charged with it at Nuremberg but the charges were dropped when US Adm. Nimitz sent a signed affidavit stating that he and other Allied forces had done the very same).

Way to spot a straw man, Mr. Cusack.

A question: opposite the portal under the dome stood the Nationaldenkmal (National Memorial to Wilhelm I). Anyone know if it’s to be rebuilt or if anything is to take its place?

Current media articles in Germany say that the Nationaldenkmal für Wilhelm I. will not be reconstructed. Instead, amemorial to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Communist regime and the coming down of teh Berlin wall has been commissioned for the site.With the resurgence of the post-communists in many parts of Germany this may sound a bit hollow but the events of 1989 are surely worth remembering. It is a pity in my own view that Wilhelm I. will not return – he was a decent, conscientious and respected head of state, more Old Prussian than upstart German. I think there was a border dispute in the 1870s between Britain and the U.S. where Wilhelm was consulted and his judgement was immediately accepted both by HMG and Washington.

Rather off topic, but. . .does anyone know what fate awaits the Quigley Seminary buildings in Chicago, now the seminary has closed?

http://www.quigley.org/Closing/Fr%20Peter%20Letter.htm

http://www.quigley.org/

If the Berlin government wishes to resurrect The Stadtschloss, why not? Reproducing lost monuments is not the great sin some believe, but may be essential to retain a connection with history. And besides, The Altes Museum needs the palace as its intended design companion. Reproductions are not always inferior copies, but if done well and with conviction, are more like worthy second attempts — for example: The Frauenkirche in Dresden, or The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

To that end, it would be better to rebuild The Stadtschloss more accurately than is currently planned, without the intrusive (and unpleasantly generic) Modernist partitions and rear facade. Mixing incongruous styles within a single building is rarely successful, and usually produces mongrels.

The decision to rebuild the Stadtschloss must have as an unstated aim the need to preserve artisan skills that are still required to keep the German national architectural patrimony alive.

It seems a pity that the architectural competition required three facades of the original building to be recreated.
I don’t see anything more there than an over scaled apartment building with one distinctive baroque feature – the West Entrance Pavilion and Dome. The rest of the building looks like fairly conventional baroque ornament on a large hulking structure.

The competition could have encouraged a more creative and imaginative approach to historicism rather like the works of McKim, Mead and White or Richard Morris Hunt. They were both architectural firms at the turn of the century that did not shy away from historical precedents but adapted them to modern usage. And they were very inventive with the vocabulary of historical design. The modern movement has been a very jealous and even puritanical tyrant of design possibilities. Kitsch and pastiche are really just slogans spouted by people who probably know very little about architectural history themselves and certainly have no real feel for it. They are the sorts of comments uttered by people who want to sound “informed” and probably had nothing more than an introduction to art history course in college.

That exclusivity and almost theological disdain for past work in modern settings I think is due to the fact the old techniques were based on highly skilled artisan trades that died in this century for the most part.

The Master-Journeyman-Apprentice relationship is too difficult to maintain in the modern political and economic realities of the developed world. Most construction workers today cannot be expected to do anything requiring their own design skills and manual talents. They have all been reduced to assemblers of premanufactured parts or the simplest of building techniques however complex those components might be. The old stonemasons were frequently artists in their own right.

Modernism has made idiots out of what used to be highly skilled and highly trained professionals. They could provide for architects what the musicians of Mozart’s time could provide for his compositions. Mozart expected improvisation from those who performed his works. Versailles still has not found craftsmen who can fill in the blanks of Gabriel’s staircase the curators had installed in the late 1980’s. The places for inventive and decorative sculpture that would have softened the forms of the new stair hall are blanks waiting for a master hand. Gabriel evidently never left drawings or sketches because he expected the masons themselves to design and carve them.

But the new building looks like a good attempt at least feeding another generation of living craftsmen.

However, this will mean that the nicer looking buildings still will be mostly in the former eastern sector.