A marathon, a mass, and a few museums: Berlin Day 5 (29 Sep 2013)

We dedicated our last full day in Berlin to its museums. You’ll be sorry to hear that we ran out of time and will not be able to report on the Currywurst Museum! Seriously, there is one – Berlin has a museum for pretty well everything – but, funnily, it wasn’t on our schedule. What was on our schedule was Museuminsel, or Museum Island, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Marathon

First though, we ran, almost literally, into the Berlin Marathon runners, because they were running through Alexanderplatz as we emerged from the U-station on our way to the island. We stopped for a moment or two to join the cheering.

Mass at the Dom

Our second detour was a planned one, to see the Dom, or Berlin’s Cathedral. As Len had hoped, a mass was in progress and we were allowed in by the attendant at the door. We heard the last twenty minutes or so, which included an organ improvisation on Bach during the giving of communion. We both enjoyed that experience … and only took photographs of the Cathedral exterior.

Museum Island

Museum Island is an island in Berlin’s Spree River, and is so named because it contains, in mercifully very close proximity, five significant museums built between 1830 and 1930 – Altes Museum, Neues Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie, Bode Museum, and the Pergamon Museum.

As we seem to have found throughout Germany, there was major construction going on throughout the site, so that, for example, the cafe at the Pergamon was closed, eingangs (entrances) were hard to find, and there were cranes, scaffolding, and brightly coloured above-ground pipes carrying water away from the building sites.

Some of the museums were severely damaged during World War II. As these museums are themselves historically interesting in addition to their content, Sue was almost as interested in the decisions made regarding their reconstruction as in their collections. The audioguides in general provided background to each museum’s history and philosophy.

We decided to buy the all-museum ticket for €18, which was good value as each museum seemed to be €10-12. We ended up visiting three, two of them primarily for their famous antiquities, though ancient history isn’t our strong point.

Pergamon Museum

The last museum, built in 1930, it is renowned for its big archaeological exhibits, particularly the Pergamon Altar and Miletus Market Gate from Ancient Greece, and the stunning Ishtar Gate from Ancient Babylon. It would be easy to be critical about the removal of these objects from their origins, and yet without such removal they may not have survived. In fact, the Pergamon Altar was in the process of destruction when German engineer Carl Humann came across it. The age-old tension in museology (and cultural collecting)!

So, the Pergamon Altar is not complete and, for the purposes of display, is not laid out exactly as it would have been, but it is impressive, as is the Miletus Market Gate. But it’s the Ishtar Gate that stood out most, partly for its colour, but also because of its simplicity. It is not busy with detail, and so you can comprehend the whole more easily. It is gorgeous, despite the warning lions!

Neues Museum

“New” Museum sounds like a bit of a misnomer, but having been built in 1859, it was new compared to the 1830 Altes Museum (which we didn’t visit, though we did see a guide to doing Five Museums in a Day).

The Neues Museum fascinated Sue because the audioguide provided details about the post-war reconstruction, and the decisions they made about reflecting the institution’s history. It has extensive ancient collections, particularly from Egypt – and we have one word for you:

NEFERTITI

She is stunning. It would be almost worth coming to Berlin just to see her. She is exhibited in a dome room of her own, and photographs weren’t allowed there as elsewhere. We wonder whether that might be to preserve the viewing experience, as it’s certainly true that one’s own picture-taking – not to mention that of all those irritating people around you who get in the way (haha!) – does affect enjoyment. It was, in fact, lovely to just stand, walk around her and contemplate. She’s exquisite and in good shape for her 3,000+ years. The museum was, mercifully, not overly busy although it was Sunday, so we only had to share her with a handful of people.

Bode Museum

We had time and mental and physical energy for just one more museum and so chose the Bode. Built in 1904, its main focus is sculpture, though it also has some other art, plus coins and medals. The sculpture collection ends pretty much at the Renaissance, and includes Coptic Christian, Byzantine, Mediaeval, Gothic and the Renaissance. It’s particularly strong in Italian art, which suited Sue’s interests, though it was also good to see some more Thuringian and other German Gothic art.

Highlights for Sue were some Italian Renaissance portraits (she wished she photographed more), the gorgeous Byzantine mosaic altar from Ravenna which reminded us both of those we’d seen in Ravenna way back in 1980 (they are unforgettable), and a beautifully fluid Italian sculpture of a dancing girl. Sue – we separated in this gallery and mostly looked at different things – enjoyed advice from a two different attendants who were clearly proud of the collection and wanted to make sure she noticed a couple of pieces.

A very enjoyable albeit pretty old-fashioned art gallery.

Dinner back at AndaluZia

After another long day on our feet, we decided to be lazy and return to the AndaluZia. This time we chose a lovely Tapas and Mezze platter for two which contained very few no-nos for Sue. We struck up a conversation with a lone woman, of our age, sitting at the table next to us. An ex-English teacher and keen reader, she was visiting Berlin from Hamburg, to catch some modern art. We hope she’ll email us to maintain the contact.

Three-words

SUE: Luminous, Overwhelming, Fascinating
LEN: Art, Museum overdose

and the stills…

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and the videos…

Berlin Marathon runners