Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [48]
* * *
Berlin as it really is leaps off the pages of Wladimir Kaminer’s highly readable and humorous short stories in Russendisko (Russian Disco; 2002).
* * *
Frank Gehry (b 1929) has left exciting imprints on German cities over the past two decades, first through the 1989 Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, and later with his wacky 1999 Neue Zollhof (New Customs House; ) in Düsseldorf, the Gehry-Tower (2001) in Hanover, and the 1999 DZ Bank on Berlin’s Pariser Platz.
Berlin, of course, is the locus of many of the most contemporary building projects in Germany today. On Potsdamer Platz, Italian architect Renzo Piano (b 1937) designed DaimlerCity (1998; Click here) and Nuremberg-born Helmut Jahn (b 1940) turned a playful hand to the glass-and-steel Sony Center (2000; Click here). Another Jahn creation that raises eyebrows and interest in Berlin is the minimalist and edgy Neues Kranzler Eck (2000).
Two spectacular successes in Germany designed by American star architect Daniel Libeskind (b 1946) are Osnabrück’s Felix-Nussbaum-Haus (1998; Click here) and his more famous zinc-clad zigzag Jüdisches Museum (2001; Click here) in Berlin. His transparent wedged extension to the Militärhistorisches Museum in Dresden is expected to be completed in 2010. Back in Berlin, New York contemporary Peter Eisenman achieved the remarkable by assembling 2711 concrete pillars to create the haunting Holocaust Memorial (2005; Click here).
In 2006 Berlin christened a new star attraction – the vast Hauptbahnhof, a transparent-roofed, multiple-level Turmbahnhof (tower station; the lines cross at different levels) that takes glass-and-steel station architecture to new limits.
* * *
For an informative and illustrated dip into Berlin architecture – past, present and future – visit the Senate Department of Urban Development at www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de.
* * *
The contrast (or collision, depending on your view) of old and new in the extension of Cologne’s Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (2001; Click here), a design by Oswald Mathias Ungers (1926–2007), is a worthy addition to a city with one of the world’s most beautiful cathedrals. In 2003 Dresden-born Axel Schultes (b 1943) and Kiel’s Charlotte Frank (b 1959) won the German Architecture Prize for their design of the Bundeskanzleramt (New Chancellery; 2001; Click here) dubbed ‘the washing machine’ by Berliners. Munich architect Stephan Braunfels (b 1950) masterminded Munich’s modernist Pinakothek der Moderne (2002; Click here). More recently, Munich’s Museum Brandhorst (2009; Click here), with its 36,000 ceramic square tubes, is a colourful addition to the city’s museum district. At the other end of the country, the monumental HafenCity Hamburg project Click here to redevelop the harbour area is set to extend Hamburg’s inner city by about 40% by about 2025.
For an interaction of light and architecture, look out for the Luminale festival in the Rhine-Main region (www.luminale.de), an event held in April each year in which light artists use sound and light to transform buildings, museums and parks into illuminated works of art or ‘light laboratories’. Another interesting play on light and architecture is Celle’s Kunstmuseum
* * *
The Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (German Design Prize) is Germany’s most prestigious award for design. It is given annually in two categories – products and people (www.designpreis.de).
* * *
Return to beginning of chapter
Visual Arts
FRESCOS TO EXPRESSIONISTS
Whether it be medieval fresco work, oil-on-canvas masterpieces, eclectic Bauhaus or exciting industrial design and fashion, Germany has visual arts for all tastes and interests.
Germany’s earliest fresco work dates from Carolingian times (c 800) and is in Trier’s St Maximin crypt, now on display at Trier’s Bischöfliches Dom- und Diözesanmuseum Click here, and the Stiftskirche St Georg on Reichenau Island, whereas stained-glass enthusiasts