neue wache, unter den linden, berlin
denkmal...
it is as if all german architects today aspire to the pre-minimalist minimalism of the neue wache.
its 1993 refurbishment going back to the original neoclassicism of heinrich tessenow must be a key event in current german architecture - somehow making this piece of architectural palimpsest a viable modernist monument in the eyes of the local practitioners.
and deeply moving it is - but the example to follow in germany must be that of hugo häring, hans scharoun, behnisch und behnisch: an architecture of diversity and individualism rather than high-strung romantic gestures flirting with the void.
ultimately, the purity on display here stems from the very same german idealism whose victims the building in its latest form commemorates.
we took a number of pictures there, the blur of this one shows the quality of light coming from tessenow's single, central, unglazed skylight best.
architect karl friedrich schinkel, 1816-1818. royal guard house.
architect heinrich tessenow, 1931. memorial to the fallen in the great war.
architect unknown (to me), 1933. nazi refurbishment.
architect heinz mehlan, 1960. reconstruction as memorial to the victims of fascism.
artist lothar kwasnitza, 1969. new modernist interior.
artist...helmut kohl (?)...1993. memorial to the victims of war and tyranny.
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