On June 24 and 25, 2017, around 35,000 guests attended the Open Construction Site Days at the Berlin Palace to see the progress of the construction work. Exhibitions, performances, live acts and concerts were offered as part of the event. Individual sections of the façade were even freed from scaffolding for the event. Visitors were able to gain insights into the […]

On June 24 and 25, 2017, around 35,000 guests attended the Open Construction Site Days at the Berlin Palace to see the progress of the construction work. Exhibitions, performances, live acts and concerts were offered as part of the event. Individual sections of the façade were even freed from scaffolding for the event.

Visitors were able to gain insights into the construction progress and impressions of the diversity of the Humboldt Forum’s future program. Eye-catchers were the partially completed north façade facing the Lustgarten, the Schlüterhof and the Eosander Portal with its large arches and the light-flooded Agora.
The 30-metre-high space combines historical and contemporary façade design. Baroque meets contemporary architecture here. Various topics were publicly discussed here, such as “The dynamics of contradiction, form and content of the Humboldt Forum”, “Architecture, art and spirituality: palace”, “Nature and culture: eagle”, and “Society and politics: helmet”.

The concrete shell will be decorated with 2,900 decorative elements made of 9,000 cubic meters of sandstone, including 90 rams’ heads, 45 eagles and clad with 3.5 million bricks. According to the association, 65-70% of the natural stone work has already been completed. In total, over 90% of the contracts for the entire construction project have been awarded, and 100% of the natural stone work.
The sculptors are using various types of sandstone, mainly from Saxony and Silesia. In keeping with the historical model, a mixture and interplay of textures and nuances is definitely intended. As the natural stones are of the utmost importance for the façade reconstruction, characteristic value groups and color values were specified.
Harder stones are used for the plinth, balustrade and eaves cornice areas; softer stones are used for the sculptural areas and recesses. Rackwitz, Posta and Reinhartsdorf sandstone are predominantly used. In contrast, the so-called Cotta sandstone is to be largely avoided here due to its vulnerability.
The original fragments of the six larger-than-life sculptures of the Schlüter portal are to be presented in the lapidarium of the east wing. All eight figures were reconstructed on the newly created portal in the east courtyard.

Visitors were able to see for themselves that not only the Eosander portal on the west side (portal no. 3) and the triumphal arch portal in the large foyer are finished. The Lustgarten side was also already visible. The scaffolding here has been dismantled over a width of 30 meters especially for the Open Portals Days so that visitors have an unobstructed view. The light yellow plaster façade with the slightly darker natural stone sandstone cladding of the window reveals and architraves now offers a first impression. The result is a bright, cheerful, baroque new building, which of course never looked like this, as all the sandstone components were originally set.

Around 50 salvaged fragments have been integrated into the new building after restoration. As these pieces were badly damaged due to deterioration, storage and weathering and therefore contrast with the newly created parts, the impression is somewhat disconcerting. Whether the building will be regarded as an example of how to deal with loss is debatable. In any case, the building gives the historical center of the capital back its point of reference.

Background information on the history of the palace and the new building

The original palace construction began in 1443 under Elector Eisenzahn. The Hohenzollern Palace was later fundamentally rebuilt and modernized by the master builders Schlüter and Eosander, and partially altered by the Baumeister Böhme, Gonthard, Langhans, Erdmannsdorff and Schinkel. This Renaissance, Baroque, Classicist and Historicist structure remained one of Berlin’s most important landmarks until its destruction in spring 1945 and demolition in 1950.

The new palace, built from 2013, is intended to be far more than just a museum in a clad concrete building. It will be a cross-thematic dialog of world cultures. The ethnological collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, the collections of Humboldt University and a local museum will find a new home here. With the prospect of mutual influence, the classical art treasures on the world-renowned Museum Island will be linked to the ethnological and ethnological collections and the use of the museum, which partially moved into the building after the abdication of the Hohenzollerns in 1918.

Cost breakdown for the cultural project

Italian architect Franco Stella submitted the winning design for the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace in 2008. The ground-breaking ceremony took place in 2013. The federal government has set the upper cost limit at 590 million euros for the 35-metre-high building (70 meters with the dome), which is 184 meters long and 117 meters wide. The donation target of a total of 105 million euros is to be achieved through the tireless efforts of the sponsoring association.

Of this sum, the lion’s share of 80 million euros will go towards the reconstruction of the historic façade. The remaining 25 million euros are earmarked for the reconstruction of other components such as the dome and the inner portals I, II and III. Currently, around 63 million euros have been collected in cash donations. In addition to donations in kind and pledges, which Wilhelm von Boddien, head of the Berlin Palace Sponsors’ Association, estimates to be worth around eleven million euros, 31 million euros are still missing.
Apparently, nothing stands in the way of an opening at the end of 2019, as the major project is on schedule, which is probably a special feature in Berlin. It is astonishing that such complicated construction projects as the Frauenkirche in Dresden and the palace in Berlin can be completed on time and within budget.

In 2012, the LWL-Denkmalpflege, Landschafts- und Baukultur in Westfalen began a multi-year project which, until 2016/17, focused on art and restoration research into the most important examples of Romanesque wall painting between 1160 and 1270 in Westphalia. A publication has now been released. The need for interdisciplinary cooperation in the research of cultural monuments and their decoration has been recognized for decades […].