We had a stop on our transit today at Augustusburg Schloss, which is a castle/hunting lodge on an elevation outside the town of Augustusberg in Lower Saxony. It was built between 1567 and 1572 in the Ore Mountains near the city of Chemnitz.
It was built by Prince Elector, Augustus (how unusual that a man would name a castle after himself!), as not only a prestigious palace for his hunting trips, but also to cement his sovereignty of Central Germany. There were several other castles on this hill; first in the 12thC and later in the 14thC, but the later was destroyed by fire and lightning, and it was an obvious site for Prince Elector Augustus’ new palace.
The castle has famous lime trees… famous for what, you might ask? We have no idea! lol There is scant little information in this entire place in English – it seems to be a destination for school groups (you’ll see what I mean later, on that), and it’s a site used by the local town for weddings, functions, and things like car exhibitions and motorbike rallies.
Much of it looks very modern and recently renovated (and I gotta say, some of the painting on the murals and trompe l’oeil work isn’t all that sophisticated.
Panorama of the courtyard…
Fantastical display of arms – though I couldn’t find any information on what families were represented here.
Entrance to the castle museum… first things first, let’s get you up the four flights of steps that no one mentioned and you didn’t see anything about when you searched about how noompty friendly the castle is. *rolls eyes*
As befits a hunting lodge, there are loads of antlers everywhere – not so many as your average Scottish castle, but still plenty of them present. However, on closer inspection, you can see that the antlers are real but the heads they’re mounted on are all facsimiles. Turns out most of these are very old, and the poorly stuffed heads hadn’t aged that well.
Collection of firearms – mostly percussion shotguns, muskets, and flintlock rifles from 19thC and early 20thC. :/
Again, mostly percussion shotguns, muskets, and flintlock rifles from 19thC and early 20thC.
Powder bottles, early 19thC.
More antlers mounted on what looks like plastic heads. WEIRD!
Armbrust – Crossbow, German, c.1573 used for hunting smaller animals and large bird species.
Armchair, Spanish, 17thC. Carved walnut and embossed leather.
Chair, Spain, 17thC, carved walnut and embossed leather.
Chair, Italian, 17thC. Walnut with relief carving.
Chair, German, 16thC. Carved walnuts.
Trunk, Italian, c.1560. Carved walnut.
Balester, German, c.1550. marked HSB.
Pastoral cutlery. German, 1538. Pastoral knife and sheath.
Percussion shotguns, powder horns, flintlock pistols and rifles… from 1677-1800.
Recreated costumes c.1600. Lower Saxony, Germany.
LEFT: Jug, Steinzeug, Annaberg. RIGHT: Birnkrug, Steinzeug, Annaberg, both c.1621.
Plate – Majolica, Italian, 17thC.
Credenza, Italian, 16thC. Mahogany relief carved.
Sideboard with drawers, Germany/Württemberg, 1647. Used for plate and tableware storage; the small chair is firmly attached to the sideboard and likely used by a table servant.
Modern frescos…
And then things got even stranger – as I said, it seems likely that this castle museum is used as a local excursion site for school children, as it morphed very quickly and without warning from firearms and hunting to a natural history museum space stuffed full (pun intended) of taxidermied local animals!
I love me a good stuffed animal as much as the next person – sadly, no a single overstuffed platypus in sight as all of these were local creatures and species. Scroll to the end for the *best* stuffed thing in this collection.
*where BEST usually means the most bizarre or odd stuffed creature; in this case the weird arse owl above… I think his name could be DUO!
Back in the main room, the trompe l’oeil work is a bit so so.
Small chapel space. They hold weddings and other functions here.
And of course, no decent medieval castle (for kids) would be complete without a dungeon space. Not a lot of information on most of these displays – but you can use your imagination and see how they were put to use.
Catherine’s Wheel.
Chastity belt, pear, scold’s bridles.
Scold’s bridle and a ‘schandgeige’ or ‘shameful violin’… no idea what that is; not sure I want to Google it. Ok, Googled it, not as bad as it could have been… the device was used around the neck to restrain the hands as well to stop people fighting or bickering.
A Doppelgeige – similar the the restraining device above, only it could be used to restrain two people at the same time.
Does she weigh more than a duck?
Stocks.
Yep.
The diagrams on the top right, remind me of a demonstration I saw at an SCA A&S lecture on medieval torture that Mynjon did years ago… people left because they found it offended their delicate sensibilities! lol. Good times.
Augustusburg Schloss wasn’t out of our way more than 2kms off the highway and then back to it, so I was kinda glad we hadn’t made a special trip to see it. As castles go, it ranks somewhere above Bli Bli Castle and lower than Magical Kingdom.
After this short stop, it was back on the road and we ended up driving straight into an unexpected thunderstorm doing 130kph+ on the autobahn! Everyone responded really well, I was super surprised. All lanes slowed down to 40-60kmph, people put their hazard lights on to make their vehicles more visible and were basically super sensible given visibility dropped to probably less than about 30m really quickly. Angus was driving and he handled the sudden super-shitty conditions really well.
In February of 1945, just before the end of WWII, Dresden was carpet bombed into oblivion. Allied bombers (772 of them) dropped over 3,900 tonnes of high explosive and incendiary devices over the city destroying some 6.5sqkms of the town’s centre. It was became a contentious campaign, as the Allies claimed they were bombing railway, manufacturing and communication infrastructure, but the bulk of the explosives were dropped over the culturally significant Old Town which was primarily inhabited by civilians. At the time, the Nazis claimed it was a war crime and said that between 200,000 and 500,000 people were killed… historians have been able to establish that perhaps as many as 25,000 people, (still way too many!), were killed during the Dresden bombings.
Looking around Dresden today – there’s hardly a sign of it anywhere, bar a few singed sandstone blocks on the Frauenkirche. It’s easy to forget that you are walking around a town where people were literally picking up the pieces of their neighbours after an horrific air attack.
The long summer days are waking us up really early – we seem to be out and about quite a bit before any people are about for the day…
The Frauenkirche. Last time I was here, it wasn’t quite so well lit up… November will do that to Europe.
Angus was stunned inside – his commentary was much around the, ‘So there are people around now who know how to build things and make them look like this? So why do new buildings all look so shit?’ I responded that a lot of these craftsmen were still around and plying their trades in Europe; building and restoring old buildings of which there is a plentiful supply… but there’s no a lot of call for it back home in Australia – and large civil projects always get tendered out, and often go to the cheapest/most cost effective proposal. Sadly, this often results in functional but boring or even ugly.
It is a very beautiful, albeit small, church… even if it is largely brand new.
Just around the corner from the Frauenkirche is the Füstenzug, or the Procession of Princes. It is a large mural depicting a mouthed procession of the past rulers of Saxony. It was originally designed and painted in the 1870s to celebrate the 800th anniversary of Saxony’s ruling family, and is made from 23,000 Meissen porcelain tiles. It’s just over 100m long and was completed around 1907… it’s kinda unique and depicts dukes and kings from the 1100s to the 1900s.
The Trinity Cathedral, not open for some reason – I don’t believe we got to see inside this cathedral in 2018 either.
A covered walkway connecting the Zwinger Palace complex to the Cathedral.
Across the road is the Semperoper – the Dresden State Opera House which also houses the State Ballet. Originally built in the late 1860s, then burned down, and rebuilt again in the late 1870s. It was completely destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in WWII, and was rebuilt in the 1980s.
One of the many entrances to the Zwinger Palace. The Zwinger Palace was originally built in the Baroque styles in the 1700s to be a pleasure palace, festival centre, orangerie/gardens, and residence for the royal court at Dresden. The buildings were mostly destroyed during the carpet bombing raids in 1945, though thankfully the art collection had been evacuated previously. Reconstruction efforts on this building began almost as soon as the war was over, with some parts restored (with some support by the Soviet military administration) and opened back to the public by 1951. It was almost fully restored to it’s pre-war state by 1963.
These days it is a museum complex, housing the Gemäldergalie Alte Meister (Old Masters’ Galleries), a Porcelain Collection and a Mathematics and Scientific Instruments Gallery.
Walking through the gorgeous stone arches, I couldn’t wait to be greeted by the beautiful formal gardens the Zwinger isn know for… only to be disappointed by this complete and utter clusterfuck:
Holy snapping construction mess of messes! What an eyesore… and to add insult to serious injury, hardly any of it was accessible, so that meant makeshift stairs to move through the complex if we wanted to see anything. So fucked, but what do you do?
Obviously I limped along and made it into the galleries! Last time stymied by winter closures, I wasn’t going to miss it again. Good thing that too – it is quite an impressive collection with lots of important and well known artists repressented.
Ercole de’ Roberti – The Arrest of Christ on the Way to Golgotha, c.1482/86. Oil on poplar panel.
Marinus van Reymerswale – The Money Changer and His Wife, c.1541. Oil on panel.
Adam and Eve under the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, c.1550. Oil on panel. Artist not known.
Johannes Vermeer – Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, c.1657-1659. Oil on canvas.
Roelant Savery – Before the Deluge, c.1620. Oil on oak panel.
Marten van Valkenborch – The Tower of Babel, 1595. Oil on oak panel.
El Greco – The Healing of the Blind Man, c.1570. Mixed media on poplar panel.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo – Saint Roderic, c.1650/55. Oil on canvas.
Peter Paul Rubens – The Drunken Hercules being Led by a Satyr Couple, c.1613/14. Oil on oak wood.
Silenus, 3rdC AD, copy of a lost statue from the 3rdC BC. Carrara marble.
Victor Wolfvoet – The Head of Medusa, c.1648. Oil on canvas.
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn – Saskia with a Red Flower, 1641. Oil on oak panel.
Johannes Vermeer – The Procuress, 1636. Oil on canvass.
Jan van Eyck – Triptych with Madonna and Child, Saint Catherine, and Archangel Micheal with Donor. 1437. Oil on oak panel… this was the last thing I expected to see here today (hadn’t looked up the museum prior to arriving), and it is a sublime piece. Barely A3 in size, it is exquisitely executed.
The small tromp l’oeil backs of the wings of the tiny altarpiece…
The only other display in the room with the tiny Van Eyck altarpiece were five enormous tapestries that came from the workshops of Peter van Edingen van Aalst and Bernard van Orley – Brussels (1490-1542). Tapestries were made from wool, silk and metal thread, and while the photos don’t do them any justice, these tapestries still have much shine to them, unlike many other works from this age where the metal threads have largely tarnished and look very grey. Stunning!
LEFT: Attic, c.460-450 BC, Villa Guilia Painter. CENTRE: Attic, c.440-430 BC, Painter of the Louvre Centauromachy. RIGHT: Lucanian, c.380-370 BC, Creusa Painter.
Detail:
Dionysian Scene, Apulian, c.380-370 BC, Near the Ilioupersis Painter.
No description unfortunately on this artifact – It looks to be a candle holder or oil lamp.
RIGHT: Amphora, Theseus and the Minataur, Attic, c.500 BC, Bompas Group.
Titian – Portrait of Lavinia, c.1565. Oil on canvas.
Piero di Cosimo – The Holy Family, c.1500. Oil on poplar panel.
And around the corner an unexpected…. Sandro Botticelli, Episodes from the Life of Saint Zenobia’s, c.1500. Tempura on poplar panel.
Andrea Mantegna – The Holy Family, c.1495/1500. Tempura on canvas.
Fra Angelico – The Annunciation, c.1435. Tempura on poplar panel.
Pintoricchio – Portrait of a Boy, c. 1480/82. Tempura on poplar panel. Unlike everyone else in here, he’s looking at us…
Raffael – The Sistine Madonna, c.1512/13. Oil on canvas…. This is one of the most famous works of the Renaissance!
Giovanni Batistta Moroni – Lady in a Red Dress, c.1560. Oil on canvas.
Titan – Sleeping Venus, c.1508/10. Oil on canvas… another very famous Renaissance artwork. This one as one of the first large scale fully nude representation of a woman in Italy. In ancient mythology, Venus was a goddess of love and beauty – her calm while sleeping and the harmony of her body are reflected in the idyllic countryside. The painting may have been started by Giorgione who died of plague in 1510, it was most certainly completed by Titan who likely added his characteristic drapery and landscape.
Pietro Antonio Graf Rotari – Replaceable Faces, c. 1707. Oil on Canvas…. I initially thought these might be studio studies that were later framed, but an info plaque pointed out that they were designed to be a collection of small portraits that could be rearranged to suit the owners preferences. There were 24 identically sized panels in all.
Bernardo Bellotto Canaletto – The Old Market in Dresden from Schlossgasse, c.1750/51. Oil on canvas.
Bernardo Bellotto Canaletto – The Zwinger Courtyard in Dresden, c.1751/51. Oil on canvas. Yeah right!? Have you looked out there at the construction clusterfuck?
Bernardo Bellotto Canaletto – The Ruins of the former Kreuzkirche (Church of the Holy Cross) in Dresden, c.1765. Oil on canvas.
Jean Étienne Liotard – The Chocolate Girl, c.1744. Pastel on Parchment… This painting is significantly different from others in the pastel collection – it is of a simple serving girl, a low status individual, who is yet depicted in a full figure profile.
Albrecht Dürer – Bernhard von Ressen, c.1821. Oil on oak panel.
Lucas Cranach the Younger – Adam (left), Eve (right), c.1537. Oil on lime wood panel.
Lucas Cranach the Younger – The Crucifixion of Christ, c.1546. Oil on lime wood panel.
Lucas Cranach the Elder – The Presentation of Christ to the People, c.1515/20. Oil on lime wood panel.
Lucas Cranach the Elder – Portraits of Henry XI of Saxony and Duchess Catherine of Mecklenburg!
Lucas Cranach the Younger – Samson and Delilah, c.1537. Oil on lime wood panel.
Lucas Cranach the Younger – Solomon’s Idolatry, c.1537. Oil on lime wood panel.
There is a substantial number of galleries devoted to the art form or still life painting – but personally I just don’t get it. Yes, I understand why artists devoted themselves to perfecting still lifes during this period, but they don’t really move me at all.
Cornelius de Heem – A Lobster, Fruit and Flowers, c.1660-70. Oil on canvas… included because I liked his lobster.
Frans Floris – Portrait of Two Children, c.1563. Oil on canvas… rude to leave the happy pupper off the title.
Peter Paul Rubens – Satyr and a Girl with a Basket of Fruit, c.1620. Oil on panel.
Martin Schongauer – A Censer, c.1500. Engraving. This object is considered one of the first still lifes made in printmaking. It is not known if it depicted an existing censer or was a design for a goldsmiths work.
The Altes Meisters gallery was certainly full of important and famous pieces. It is well worth the price of admission. After this we went looking for the Zwinger Nymphanbad sculpture garden and fountain… traversing the deconstructed courtyard again.
The Nymphanbad:
Around the corner from that pretty little courtyard is the Museum of Mathematical and Scientific Instruments.
Paulus Schuster – Table Clock, Nuremberg, c.1582. Has large dials with hour indicators and an astrolabe on one side and an annual calendar on the other. The small dial shows the day of the week, quarter hour and minute. It also has an alarm mechanism. The silver figures of Neptune alternatively move their heads every minute for 15 seconds, and the rooster on top crows on the house while two men strike bells!
Caspar III Buschmann – Monstrance Clock, Augsburg, c.1625. Ebony from India.
Unknown artist – Table clock, Augsburg, c.1590. Gild casing contains the timekeeping mechanism which shows hours and has a striking mechanism which chimes on the hour and quarter hours. It also has an alarm function.
LEFT: Unknown Artist: Horizontal Table Clock, French, c. 1590. Timekeeping and striking mechanisms are one atop the other, typical of French clocks of this period. German clocks tended to be side by side. RIGHT: Unknown Artist: Horizontal Table Clock, French, c.1600. The vertical mechanisms are easily visible through the crystal cylinder.
LEFT: Giovanni Buttista Mascarone – Cruciform Watch, Milan, c.1600 RIGHT: Martin Zoller – Pendant Watch, Augsburg, c.1630
Automaton Eagle with Crown, Augsburg, c.1635.
Hans Schlottheim – Crayfish Automaton, Augsburg, c.1589. This crayfish can move its pincers, feelers, legs and tail. Originally there were a pair of crayfish which would creep forwards and the other backwards. Operated by two clockwork gear wheels.
Isaac Huberecht – Skull Form Pendant Watch, Strasbourg, c.1660.
Johann Willebrand – Horizontal Sundail, Augsburg, c.1720.
Leonhard Miller – Diptych Sundail, Nuremberg, c.1630, Ivory/
Johann Wicteul Hayer – Nocturnal, Frankfurt, c. 1707. The nocturnal was used for telling the time at night. After setting the date, the user looked thorough the hole in the centre towards the pole start. The pointer was then rotated until it was inline with the last tow starts in the Big Dipper constellation. The time could then be determined from the pins on the device.
Zeus Enthroned Pendulum Wall Clock, Paris, 18thC.
Peter Johannes Klein – Geographical Table Clock, c.1738. One side has a clock face indicating hours and minutes, the other has a 24 hr face that also functions as the equator of the globe.
Ludwig Teubner, Dresden, c. 1896. Model of the “5-Minute Clock”… since 1841 there has been a clock above the stage in the Semperoper house which has rectangular fields with the hours marked. Minutes are shown in Arabic numbers on the right. The clock moves every five minutes.
Abraham Louis Breguet – “Montre Á Tact” Pocket watch with Chatelaine, Paris, c.1810. This watch allows the time to be known in the dark, by feeling the hour mark on the edge of the case.
Unfortunately the next cabinets were not market at all other than a vague heading: OPTICS
World Time Clock – Andreas Gärtner, Dresden, c. 1690. The large gilt face of this world time clock has a small face for each of the 360° longitude. Each of these faces bears the name of a place, city, island etc. Over the small faces the hour hand is pointing downwards and rotates when the main clock does.
Geocentric Armillary Spheres – Charles Francois Delamarche, Paris, c.1800.
Heraldic Celestial Globe – Earhart Weigel, Jena, c.1690. Weigel replaced the constellations with the heraldry of the coats of arms of various European Princes and important cities and estates. Chased copper, embossed reliefs then painted.
Gregorian Reflecting Telescope – Johann Gottlob Rudolph, Miltitz,, c.1748.
”Topsy Turvy World” Automaton – Hans Schlottheim, Augsburg, c.1590.
Odometer – Christoph Trechsler the Elder, Dresden, c.1584. Brass gilt odometer was used in a carriage and worked in a similar way to a modern car odometer.
Theodolite – Victor Starzt, Brussels, c.1633.
Mining Compass, German, c.1561
Back outside it was a beautiful day. We had had enough Musuem’ing (and enough of the stairs in and around the courtyard) so decided to go hunt for lunch instead of doing the Porcelain Galleries (this decision may or may not have been influences by the very small exposure to the Baroque porcelain obsession yesterday at Charlottenburg Palace!).
Great day all up – walked far too many steps and stairs (I’m so going to pay for this with my stupid knee tomorrow), but well worth the time in the galleries.
Herta Heuwer is attributed with the invention of Currywurst when she obtained some ketchup, Worcestshire and curry powder from British soldiers just after WWII… it’s a staple on menus all over Berlin, so I found a recipe in German cookbook and translated it. Yale and I might have to try this out when I get home:
A spicy Currywurst Sauce that can be used for all types of dishes
2 large red or yellow onions chopped very finely 2 × 400 gm can of tomatoes with juice 250 ml ketchup 1 tablespoon mustard 2 tablespoons sugar 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon paprika powder 2 tablespoons curry powder 1/2 teaspoon chili powder salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon oil
Warm oil over medium heat Add the onions to pan and cook over medium heat until soft, 8 to 10 minutes Add curry powder, paprika powder, chili powder and continue to cook while stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes Add tomatoes and juice to pan, crush thoroughly and stir through Stirring add ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper to taste Bring to boil and lower to simmer, stirring occasionally until thickened. 20-25 minutes. Puree mixture in blender and strain through a sieve. The recipe makes at least 500 ml of sauce. Grill some sausages, slice and cover with warm sauce. Add to the sauce covered sausage you can add some additional Paprika powder, Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder, Curry Powder, Mustard, or finely chopped onion, to taste.
Serve with Fritten, or on a bun*
Guten Appetit!
* Quite a lot of places seem to serve their Currywurst with Asian fried shallots on top – Icelandic hotdog style!
Berlin! Some pics grabbed while out and about in Berlin – we stayed right near Alexanderplatz (at the Park Inn by Raddison), so were in and out of the square quite a bit.
Doesn’t matter what time of day it is, there is no way you can get photos around here without people in them. I tried.
The famous world clock – I really like this thing. Angus didn’t care for it much at all.
East Side Gallery – some of the artworks haven’t changed which is kinda cool. Especially nice to see the political images not being grafitti’d. When I was here last, I remember writing my name near He-Man’s loincloth, but that image seems to be gone now.
This image I remember quite well. It seems to have gotten larger and been touched up, but the style of it is memorable.
The Siegessäule Monument… or Victory Column is one of the most important national monuments in Germany and considered a ‘must see’ in Berlin (apparently… didn’t see it last time I was here as we came to the Palace via subway!). It was built in 1864 on the Konisplaz to commemoration the wars of Unification. It was moved to its current location in 1938 to be near monuments dedicated to Bismarck, Moltke and Roon – because it sounds like glorifying those sorts of people was what Nazis were into! The Victory at the top of the Column is also known as ‘The Golden Else’… not sure if Else is supposed to be a name or the English meaning of ‘else’. It’s a mystery.
On our way out of Berlin, we had an hour or so to visit Charlottenburg Palace… I have been here before, and wrote quite a bit about that visit and the history of the place. So I’m not going into that all over again, but there was an entire section of the palace that was closed last time that we managed to go into, so here’s a massive photo dump:
Started out as a nice day. Didn’t stay that way.
Mecklenberg Apartment rooms:
The Old Gallery:
Sophie’s Mirror Chamber:
I can’t believe I took this exact same picture (on the right) of the Pegasus in the ceiling without even meaning to…
Audience chambers:
The one original ceiling that survived WWII:
I also took this exact same photo on the left last time too!
And of course a bunch of pics of the Porcelain Cabinet which is still as much of an assault on the senses as it was last visit.
The Royal Chapel:
Last visit in 2018, we only managed to see the portion of the Palace as above. Today, we were able to go upstairs and see many more galleries and rooms.
Three portraits of imaginary and actual ancestress of the Hohenzollernss:
Funeral Helm (Death Helmet) of the Great Elector, Later called the “Helm of the Empire”. Unknown armourer, Berlin 1688. Copper, hammered, fire gilt.
Medallions showing portraits of Duke Albert of Prussia and his consort, Anna Maria of Brunswick. Jakob Binck, c.1555, silver, partially gilt.
Anna of Prussia, Electress of Brandenburg. Daniel Rose, c.1610. Oil on canvas.
Elector John Sigismund in Electorial Vestements. Unknown artist, c.1612, oil on canvas.
Elector Albrect Achilles, art of the Altar of the Order of the Swan, c.1484. Unknown artist. Oil on canvas.
LEFT: Crown of the Queen, unknown goldsmith, Berlin, c.1700. Gold, hammered, chased and enamel. CENTRE: Imperial Seal, Samuel Stall, c.1700. Iron, silver and gilt. RIGHT: Imperial Orb, Unknown goldsmith, Berlin, c.1700. Gold, enameled, diamonds, rubies, garnets.
Crown wooden storage box, c.1700. Timber and painted.
Brandenburg Electoral Sword. Simone do Giovanni Ghini, c.1469, reworked in 1539. Silver, engraved, gilt, enamel; partly steel, partially gilted.
Then, there was examples of the nearly 8 tonnes of silverware that Frederick I accumulated in the 1730s. So much of it and so little description of any of it. Mostly elaborate food service objects and table centrepieces – while wandering through all these cabinets of silverware, all I could think about is the poor schmucks whose jobs it would have been to, 1) keep track of it all to make sure none of it went wandering, 2) manage the team of underlings who were no doubt responsible for polishing it so it didn’t tarnish and 3) deciding which pieces were going to be used on the table each time the family sat for a meal! It’s bad enough deciding what to cook for dinner let alone laying an elaborate table every bloody meal.
So much shiny silverware! And yet, this represents only a fraction of what there was at one point – Frederick the Great and his predecessors used their fantastical table settings as a disturbingly opulent display of wealth and of course power. But they also kinda treated it like portable wealth – and twice melted down most of the royal silver to fund wars: The Second Silesian War (1744-1745) and the the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Each time the wars went and peace returned, he would commission replacement gold and silver table services!
I think these tall columns decked with angels connected with wreaths were probably centrepieces – and front he look of them, likely used at Christmas time with fresh cut greenery. No information on a lot of these pieces though.
Snuff Boxes collected by Frederick The Great: In the 18thC Frederick II collected richly ornamented snuffboxes with trims of precious gemstones, and made of solid stone, or precious metals. The accounts of the King how he commissioned over 200 snuff boxes, and always kept them close on hand on tables, in boxes or in cabinets at royal palaces. Made variously from red jasper, agate, gold, silver, diamonds, enamel, glass, gauche, watercolour, ivory, and other semi-precious stones and materials.
Centrepiece in the shape of an ornamental beaker, is part of the vast store of silverware presented to Prince Wilhelm and Augusta Victoria (1858-1921) by Prussian towns and provinces on their wedding in 1881. This beaker is far more Renaissance in style than Baroque.
The beautiful view from the upstairs salon down across the gardens.
We did manage to take a short walk around the gardens before the weather rolled in.
And, I promised to take Angus for lunch at Samowar – the Russian restaurant that is right near Charlottenburg Palace which is listed as one of Berlin’s best dining establishments. Though I mostly remember it for its kooky ambiance and their layered Russian honey cake.
My memory of the Russian tea-room ambiance didn’t disappoint!
And neither did the meal. I wasn’t particularly hungry so opted for a creamy mushroom soup for lunch, while Angus had the wild boar sausages served with sauerkraut and pierogi, and of course we had to have an obligatory slice of Russian honey cake – which Angus is now very disappointed about, as it is much better than what we can get at home in Brisbane! *glass shatters forever*
Berlin Bear No 1: Hotel Bear near Alexanderplatz! We are staying in the Park Inn by Radisson for a few nights in Berlin. Some work around the Eurocup infrastructure and hopefully Angus will get to see some cool stuff while we are here.
Managed to get some work done and find time to head over to Museum Island for a while. We started at the Nues Museum (which ironically holds a lot of the oldest stuff) because the Altes Museum and the Bodes Museum were closed on Monday *and* Tuesday! Le sigh… you guys are killing us!
Egyptian artefacts aren’t really my usual cup of tea, but we are here to see what we can see.
The Deceased in front of Osiris – unfortunately the plaque didn’t give me any provenance/age for this piece.
Necklace of semi-precious stones and pearls – lapis lazuli, silver, faience, cornaline. Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty.
Fragment of a Cult vessel with inlays. Old Kingom, 5th Dynasty, c.2490 BC, sycamore, faience, gold leaf.
Twelve antique scarabs, set as a necklace and earrings. Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, c. 794BC, Egypt, steatite (glazed), glass.
Praying statue of King Amenemhet III, Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, c.1800BC
LEFT: Painting from a Tomb: Representation of the deified queen Ahmose-Nefertari. RIGHT: Painting from a Tomb: Representation of the deified Pharaoh Amenhotep I. New Kingdom, 20th Dynasty, 1186-1070BC. Nile mud, stucco, painted.
Fragment of a pillar: King Seti I in front of the god Osiris. New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, c.1290 BC
Head of a statue of Amenhotep III with nemes-scarf and double crown. New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c.13399-1351 BC.
Book of the Dead of the Mistress Keku hieroglyphic. Ptolemaic period, c.332-330 BC.
Stela of Hor praising the god Re-Harakhte. 3rd Intermediate Period, 22nd/23rd Dynasty, c. 946-722 BC.
Funeral mask. Late period. 25th-26th Dynasty, c.750BC, Thebes West. Wood and painted.
Anthropomorphc coffin of Hatbor-Ibet, with winged goddess. Late Period – Early Ptolemaic Period, 400-200 BC, Abusir el-Meleg; wood, primed, painted
Lid and case of the coffin of the woman Hat, Ptolemaic, c.332-30 BC Akhmim; wood, stuccoed and painted.
God Anubis in the shape of a lying jackal. Middle coffin of Mentuhotep, outer surface decorated with pairs of eyes. Inner coffin of Mentuhotep, inner and outer surface decorated. Burial goods: model of rowing boat with crew; female offering bearer; bowl and three jars for beer. All Middle Kingdom, 12th Dybasty, c.1800BC, painted timber objects and pottery.
Family Burial: mummy mask of Aline and Mummies of three daughters of Aline. Roman Imperialist period, 100-200AD, Tempera painting on canvas.
Four canopic jars (jars for entrails) with lids in the style of the four sons of Horus (protective deities), 3rd Intermediate Period, 21st-24th Dynaasty, c.10th-8thC BC, limestone.
Shanti without inscription and shabti of Nefer-in-Ra-Neith from his tomb. 3rd Intermediate Period, 22nd/23rd Dynasty c.945-715 BC, & Late period 26th Dynasty, c.570-526 BC.
Crocodile with snap-action mechanism. New Kingdom, c.1540-1075 BC. Thebes, wood.
Base for a barque of the royal couple, Natakamani and Amanitore, Meroitic Period, c.1-25AD, Wad Ban Naga Isis Temple, sandstone.
Stela, King Nastasen and his mother in front of the god Amon, c.330BC, granite.
Statue of a squatting hawk, upper part modern supplemented, donated by pharaoh Amenhotep III, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c.1388-1351 BC.
Bracelets, earrings or hair-rings. Gold, gold plated silver, mid-3rd millenium BC. Treasure trove L.
Armrings mentioned above:
Bronze Age exhibits had zero English descriptions, so we didn’t loiter here long…
Very cool and old but more detail please!
“Berlin Golden Hat”, Gold, c.1000 BC, location unknown, probably Southern Germany, and detail:
Bust of Nefertiti, one of the most famous art treasures of ancient Egypt. Considered a masterpiece of sculpture of the Amana period. Made during the reign of Pharoah Akhenaten, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c.1353-1336 BC. No photos allowed, so stolen one from the internet!
The museum was large, but due to the lack of English signage, and not having a huge interest in Egyptian artefacts, we weren’t there long. Outside and off to the Berliner Dom. The cathedral is nowhere near as awesome an imposing as the Aachen and Cologne cathedrals – possible because it’s just not as large, and also because well, it’s so new… all things being relative.
The Berlin Cathedral is located at the Lustgarten end of Museum Island. IT’s a Protestant church built between 1894 and 1905, in a Neo-Renaissance/Neo-Baroque style. It is the largest Protestant church in Germany and has lots of important dead people in it.
In WWII the cathedral was severely damaged. Allied air raids on the nearby area of Burstrasse, saw all the altar windows destroyed and large cracks in the dome, and corner towers. Later in 1944, during some of the worst air raids in Berlin, the dome and its lantern were heavily damaged. A canister with liquid fuel set fire to the wooden cladding that lines the copper roof as insulation. Firefighters apparently couldn’t reach it and the entire dome fell into the cathedral, going through the floor and into the crypt below. Urban legend says that a cathedral organist Fritz Heitmann kept playing even with the dome totally destroyed and open. After the war, the cathedral was assessed to by about 25% destroyed, and then looters caused even more damage – stealing pipes form the organ etc.
There are 270 steps to the top of Berliner Dom – needless to say, these are Angus’ photos.
Reconstruction on the cathedral didn’t commence until 1975 when funds and expertise became available at a cost of some 150M Deutschmarks. At the moment, the facade of the cathedral is undergoing renovations at a cost of some €1.6M. :/
You have to admire the workmanship and dedication that has gone into rebuilding Europe to be the way it was before WWII. They could have bulldozed the lot and replaced these glorious buildings with steel and glass monstrosities – but thankfully there is an appreciation for art and history that overrules that mentality.
Check Point Charlie was our next port of call, but not before we stopped for some lunch. I had intended to introduce Angus to the Berlin Currywurst Museum – but it’s permanently closed now. C’est la vie! We found a near little tapas bar, which was the nearest place out of the rain… longing for Rabelot in Barcelona!
Check Point Charlie (for all its importance in the Cold War and to the US etc) really is the most underwhelming of Berlin sights. Complete with McDonalds and about twenty souvenirs shops, there is nothing else here but a long line of smiling and oblivious tourists waiting to have their photo taken. I’m obviously too young to remember the tense situation that existed on this site post-WWII, but I remember reading about the failed attempt of one East Berliner attempting to flee to the West. He got badly wounded – he got caught up in razor wire fencing and struggled to free himself and ended up being left to bleed to death, all the while being watched by the world’s media with neither side approaching to save him, because it might trigger an enormous international incident. Horrific things like this happened here – but let’s line up for our smiling happy snap photos with our fingers in a V for peace sign.
After wandering around there for a bit we went looking for the Jewish Musuem. This building is a research academy which holds archives, a library and is dedicated to tracking displaced persons and Jewish history.
The Jewish Musuem and directly to the right, the Holocaust Tower.
Designed by Daniel Liebeskind, the tower is deliberately filled with voids and uncomfortable angles designed to focus visitors on the impersonal genocide of over six millions Jewish people across Europe in WWII. The building is very effective as an art space – it is cold and impersonal, full of sharp angles and a jagged layout. It deliberately doesn’t ‘flow’, and is designed to feel confronting.
A wishing tree… many of the exhibits here are artistic in nature and designed to be interactive. This tree is bedecked with leave bearing the wishes for peace and prosperity of visitors from all over the world. The museum opened in 2017 and despite the pandemic has already seen 11 million visitors.
This room memorialises the important of the Sabbath – but I didn’t really get it. It was a room filled with coloure chain curtains hanging from the ceillingwith information plaques stating how important it is to not work on the Sabbath.
Listening spaces are scattered throughout this curved hallway of chained curtains. There are people offering thoughts and prayers in different languages for the murdered Jews of Europe.
A couple of formal galleries of paintings of eminent Jewish persons were also included in the permanent exhibition.
Grave markers and stones, c.1930s. Of the 100,000 Jewish soldiers who fought for Germany in WWI, 12,000 of them lost their lives. That’s right, Jewish people fought for Germany, only for Germany to turn on them a few years later. During the Napoleonic Wars and WWI, rabbis served in the military as chaplains, and wider Jewish community took this as a symbolic gesture of the wider social acceptance of their religious practices.
The Hall of Fame: this space is designed to celebrate famous Jewish people who have contributed to history, arts, sciences etc.
From when Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor in 1933, Jews were deprived of their civil rights. Daily harassment, anti-Jewish measures and increasing violence pushed them to the margins of society. State authorities robbed Jews of their assets and drove them to emigrate. Many Jews hoped that things would change and waited ot see what would happen. However, the violence excesses of Kristallnact (the Night of Broken Glass), in November 1938, convinced many it was time to flee. With the start of the war, emigration then brace me almost impossible, and Nazi rule culiminated in the mass murder of European Jews. This installation documents the slow and inexorable removal of civil rights for Jewish people… day by day, orders were created that slowly eroded their citizenship and personhood status.
This was one of the most depressing spaces in the museum, the wall hanging lined both sides of an enormous hallway listing every single edict enacted to suppress and oppress the Jewish people. It stated from 1933 and went thought until early 1945, listing day after day the restrictions being placed on Jewish people across the Third Reich in varying countries as they became occupied territories. The frog in a boiling pot is all I can think about in this room… that and how American conservatives are currently enacting legislation across their country that is restricting the rights and freedoms of their citizenry, even as I walk though this oppressive place.
Silverware and family heirlooms taken by Nazis from Jewish families.
Jewish stars… printed en masse. :’(
Map showing the deportation of Jews out of Germany.
A wall of displaced persons after liberation.
This art installation is about the recompense that the German government was ordered to give the survivors of the Holocaust. Many Jewish people who wanted to get on with their lives, but had had all their assets stolen and had lost all connections with family, ended up stuck in a grindingly slow burn ratio nightmare waiting for compensation. Many wished for nothing more than to get out of Germany and emigrate to Israel, but with the means, they were many of them forced to stay amongst neighbours who had turned a blind eye, or were still openly hostile; sometimes for as many as two decades before their compensation claims were verified (in no small part due to the Nazi regime attempting to destroy as much paper evidence of their crimes as possible as the end became apparent).
The most famous art installation here is the ‘Shalekhet’ – the Fallen Leaves, by Israeli artist, Menashe Kadishman . It is made from 10,000 faces punched out of steel plate and scattered around the ground of an area called the Memory Void. It is the only empty voided space in the Libeskind Building that you can enter. The work is dedicated to Jews killed during the Shoah, but also to all victims of war and violence. Visitors are invited to walk on the faces and listen to the sounds create by the metal faces as they clang and clank together which echoes through the void. It’s a very evocative installation.
After this we went to the the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I have been here before and found it very moving. Built on the former premises of the Gestapo, these stellae are grave like in their dimensions. It covers 19,000sqm and the stellae range from 1m to 4.5m in height as the ground below them undulates up and down. It’s a solemn and quiet space, though you can hear the sounds of the city in the distance.
Around the corner is the Brandenburger Tor. With the EuroCup road closures all over the place (useful to see how they have deployed the security and infrastructure etc), we were unable to get close to the Gate.
Enough walking around in the rain, we sought shelter in a local bakery only to find that it was closing, so then resorted to as Starbucks (Urgh!) only to back out when we realised we didn’t want to spend money at a Starbucks! So instead decided to call it a day and return to the hotel to get some more work done.
So instead decided to call it a day and return to the hotel to get some more work done.