The Palace is Coming!

After 12 years of contentious debate, parliamentarians decide on which version of history to erect in the center of Berlin

Writing in 032c about a year ago, Niklas Maak had a few harsh words for the movers and shakers sweeping into Germany's new capital who viewed Berlin not as a city but as "an oversized apartment to be decorated according personal taste... So the old brown moldy sofa on the Platz der Republik has got to go and the ornamental Hohenzollern farmer's chest is in: Because the new leaders of the new city like it that way."

As it turned out, the final decision on what to do with the Platz fell to the German parliament after 12 long years of debate. On Thursday, the Bundestag voted 384 to 133 to rebuild the Royal Palace. Sort of. The structure of the building may vary from the original, but the main attraction will be the reconstructed baroque facade as it was seen before it was shattered by the bombs and fires of World War II.

The debate has been so long, hot and heavy for essentially two reasons, one of which is not the historical significance of the Palace itself. Relative to other major architectural projects in Berlin, such as Norman Foster's revamped Reichtstag or the as-yet unrealized Holocaust Memorial, the Palace had never been much of a symbol for any one chapter of Germany's tempestuous history. The debate hasn't been so much about the building as the location.

In 1950, despite international protest, the newly founded German Democratic Republic blasted away the war-ruined remains of the Palace and in its place built the gaudy Palace of the Republic. In 1990, it was discovered that the classic example of how seriously modernist architecture could be botched in the 70s was also packed to the gills with asbestos. It was closed and condemned.

So here was a spot in the very center of the city, and the question became, What version of history should be erected on it? Should East Germany's old plenary hall at least be saved? Does all of central Berlin have to hark back to one of the Prussian Fredericks?

Many, like Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit and countless committees comprised of architects, city planners and art historians, argued for a clean sweep. Stage a competition for an entirely new construction, they insisted, and may the best architect win. The experts lost out, though, to public sympathy for maintaining a vaguely baroque theme from the Brandenburg Gate at one end of Unter den Linden, Berlin's historical avenue, to the Cathedral and the Palace at the other.

The second point of contention has been money. Now that the pro-baroque faction has won, its leader, Wilhelm Boddien, has taken out full-page ads in German papers announcing, "The Palace is Coming!" The ads ask for private contributions. In addition to federal and state money, which won't be nearly enough, shares of the reconstruction project are to be sold to the public and a Web site is to be set up. The idea is that you or anyone will be able to click on one of several digitally reconstructed sections of the historical facade and pay for its real-life reconstruction. By credit card.

As one spokesperson for the Party for Democratic Socialism put it: "Whoever wants a Palace will have to pay for it."

Elsewhere

"Architecture is a direct response to the permanent questions posed to human beings by the evolution of space in society -- a space which seems to be autonomous, yet seeks a profound and ethical discourse." That's Daniel Libeskind, accepting the German Architecture Prize for his astounding Jewish Museum in Berlin.