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A Thursday in and around Berlin

A Thursday in and around Berlin

Last updated on: May 28, 2015 at 5:22 pm by Dan Peterson

A Thursday in and around Berlin 2015-05-28T17:22:46-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Strictly speaking, the Friedrichstadtkirche is the earlier red-roofed structure directly to the left of the much taller Französischer Dom (or “French Cathedral”), with which it now forms a connected complex.
(Click to enlarge. Click again to enlarge further.)

We spent some of today simply riding around Berlin on a bus, having a look at the city as a whole. We passed by such places as “Checkpoint Charlie,” the former headquarters of Hermann Göring’s Luftwaffe, the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the enormous “Tiergarten,” and so forth.

We paid a visit to the Friedrichstadtkirche, the church built on the Gendarmenmarkt for the exiled French Huguenots, and were pleased to hear a performance of an organ piece by Dietrich Buxtehude while we sat inside.

The original bell tower of the Gedächtniskirche, with the modern bell tower to its right

We also paid a visit to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, an imperial structure build by Kaiser Wilhelm II in honor of his grandfather, which was largely destroyed by Allied bombing during the Second World War. Its bell tower is essentially all that’s left of it, but that is now preserved as part of a modern church, and as a warning against the evils of war.

I loved the interior of the new octagonal church — reminiscent of an ancient Christian martyrium — with its eight ceiling-to-floor walls of mostly blue glass:

The crucifix and altar in the new church

(Click to enlarge. Click again to enlarge further.)

And, once again, we were fortunate to hear the organ. I think the organist was practicing for a performance tonight. In any event, he played three very modern pieces with which I was entirely unacquainted.

Looking toward the organ loft in the new church directly adjacent to the old Gedächtniskirche tower.
(Click to enlarge. Click again to enlarge further.)

We spent the late afternoon and evening in the Neues Museum, focusing almost entirely on ancient Egyptian materials. Far and away the most famous item in the Neues Museum — funny name, that, when you think about it — is the absolutely wonderful life-size painted limestone portrait bust of Queen Nefertiti:

Queen Nefertiti
(Photo by Philip Pikart)
Please click on the image to enlarge it.
Then, please, click on it again to enlarge it still further.

Photographs really don’t do it justice. And it’s flatly stunning that the portrait is somewhat more than 3300 years old.

My wife and I both think that Audrey Hepburn could have posed for it. The Queen, remarkable consort of the remarkable Pharaoh Akhenaten, looks as if she could come immediately to life.

But it’s not the only wonderful thing in the Neues Museum. A particular favorite of mine was the so-called “Green Head of Berlin,” an Egyptian portrait bust from roughly 500 BC:

The Green Head
Please click to enlarge it.
Click again to enlarge it further.

Apart from a partially missing nose and damage to the ears, it looks as if it had been made yesterday. Astonishing stuff.

And then there are the materials given to the museum by Heinrich Schliemann from his discovery of ancient Troy — those, anyway, that the Russians didn’t steal and carry off to Moscow at the end of World War Two.

Well, it’s getting late.

Postscript: I’ve now tried Berlin Currywurst twice, and have decided that it’s okay, but not my favorite. However, I had some Berliner Jagdwurst tonight, and it restored my faith in Berlin’s sausage-making ability.

Posted from Berlin, Germany

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