Berlin
Today, I lived for Dad. He talked for hours to me about the German National Museums, it is a complex of five museums, in East Berlin and how he wished that he could go to see them. During the cold war, given his military background, he could not cross the boarder. During his later years the war was with his physical ability and ultimately he was never able to make the trip. So today, I saw what Dad dreamed.
The German sense of timing is incredible. The first museum of the day was the Bode. The gate did not open at 9:55am or 10:05am, but exactly and precisely at the stroke of 10:00am. Precision to the nth degree executed perfectly.
The Bode is the sculpture museum of the National Museum complex. You will find everything from woodcarving, marble sculptures, castings, to ancient coins. Not only are the exhibits interesting but the museum itself is a work of art.
(I especially like this sculpture because it captured the "Fully Man" contemplative anguish.)
An interesting, out of place exhibit was a map cabinet of coptic fabric. In Egypt there were only minor weathered scraps of cloth with barely visible design. Here were beautifully preserved fabrics from late first and second century Egyptian/Coptic Christians.
Next on the cultural quintet of museums was the Pergamon that is named after the Greek temple reconstructed inside. The ancient world has been raided by the Western world and preserved. That continues to be the great quandary, should the ancient relics have been left to rot and weather in their native land or was “the end” of Western acquisition and preservation an ultimate “justification”. Regardless, the temple is very impressive especially considering that most of it was totally destroyed to rubble and archeologists reconstructed one of the largest three-dimensional puzzles ever. Much of the temple was retrieved from destroyed Greek city walls, as the materials were reused once the temple was originally destroyed in antiquity.
(Model of the entire complex that is too big to capture singly by camera.)
Next on the “impressive” scale was the reconstruction of the city walls of Babylon. These were the market gates during the time of King Nebakanezar. Each brick was uncovered out of the sands of Iraq individually and the matched to other individual pieces to reconstruct the gate.
Then there is the throne room wall. Can you imagine that Daniel, of Daniel and the Lion’s Den fame, actually stood before these walls and proclaim, “King Nebakanezar, live forever, and then held his faith and sealed his sentence.”
The Alte National Gallery was exhibiting a French collection of sculpture and paintings. There were many that I enjoyed, but then creativity started to get the better of me.
(The museums are under major retro-fitting.)
I’ve now seen Rodin’s “Thinker” in Paris, San Francisco, and Berlin but at least in this exhibit you get an idea of what or whom he may be thinking of.
(Come on, doesn’t this painting look like it could be Leonardo Di’Caprio’s long lost relative.)
On the way from the Alte National Gallery to the Altes Museum I saw and heard a familiar theme. It was Saint-Saens’, “The Swan” played by a violin and guitar. It honestly gave me goose-bumps.
The only known bust of Nefertiti is the prize of the Egyptian exhibit and there is some talk as to when it should be returned to the Egyptian people.
The preservation of other artifacts is very impressive. For instance, this coffin painting is almost two thousand years old and looks practically new.
Or this almost perfectly preserved Greek metal work.
This bust of George Bush playing the air flute looks like it came from his first term in office. (Totally kidding, but it does look like him… even just a little bit.)
After the Altes Museum, I went inside the Berlin Dome or State Church.
The original dome was bombed out in WWII but the rest of the structure remained relatively in tact. So it was decided to rebuild the dome and refurbish the interior to its former status.
The inside is impressive, but what is even more impressive is the view of Berlin from the exterior gallery at dome level. The city is vibrant with bifurcating river and many parks.
Finally, the last picture of the day, Alexander Platz is the perfect blend of old and new, with old church and new spire. Combine these two with major forms of Berlin transport, car and bike, and there is a reasonable facsimile of Berlin in a single shot.
