BERLIN – In a domed, dimly-lit room that visitors could easily miss if arrows didn’t point the way, Nefertiti’s beauty is as shocking as it is ageless.
BERLIN – In a domed, dimlylit room that visitors could easily miss if arrows didn’t point the way, Nefertiti’s beauty is as shocking as it is ageless.
Enclosed in a glass case with a guard standing nearby, the 3,300-year-old bust of the Egyptian queen is back on display at the city’s Neues Museum after a 70-year absence.
One of the most famous pieces of Egyptian art, the statue, which was discovered in 1912, has long been considered the cultural symbol of Berlin. The bust is like the city itself – aching, surprising, rejuvenating.
Berlin. Just the name conjures up images of Germany’s extensive and often conflicted history. As capital of the Prussian kingdom, the Weimar
Republic and the Third Reich, Berlin is the embodiment of the new Germany.
A city once divided by a famous wall that carried its name between a democratic West and communist East, Berlin has merged both those worlds, while putting on a decidedly new face.
For those short on time, Berlin can be experienced in a day; there are plenty of tour buses that will take visitors on a ride to the city’s most prominent sites, which include the Brandenburg Gates, sections of the Berlin Wall and even Checkpoint Charlie, which despite its one-time importance looks almost comical located in the middle of a busy street. But that would be a waste.
To get a feel of Berlin and how it is carving out its post-Communist identity, the city merits several days at the least.
Although Berlin had loomed large in my studies from university days, I had never been to the city and didn’t know what to expect. It is perhaps the lack of expectation that left me pleasantly surprised and wanting to return.
Berlin is imminently livable; it is green with an envious number of bike paths that meander through its parks.
Public transportation is good; one can easily reach the city’s two airports, or central train station, which is the largest in Europe.
The 3,300-year-old bust of Egyptian queen Nefertiti stands proudly in Berlin Neues Museum.
And it is safe: One night near midnight I found myself walking along the Tiergarten, Berlin’s largest park, near my hotel (the Pestana Berlin Tiergarten) and ended up near the Victory Column.
Berlin is a museum lovers’ haven.
Inaugurated in 1873 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, it was moved to its current location on Grosser Stern by Hitler and his principle architect, Alfred Speer.
The path to the column was brightly lit and a police car stood nearby.
The heart of Berlin is the Reichstag, Germany’s parliamentary building.
Steeped in history – Hitler despised the building – it stands at the foot of a long park, where Berliners regularly sunbathe and picnic.
The Reichstag’s glass dome offers one of the most stunning views of Berlin and is a good place to get a sense of how the city has changed architecturally since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Berlin’s newest buildings stand in the area that was East Berlin and was a no-man’s land. The Berlin Wall ran along the back of the Reichstag; a white brick line today outlines where it once stood.
The sheer proximity to the Reichstag is humbling, as is a quick bus ride under a bridge that once divided the city into east and west.
To visit the dome, be sure to reserve a place and time in advance – terrorist threats recently curtailed unfettered access to the Reichstag. It takes a security checkpoint, a glassed lift and long walkway to reach the top.
Visitors can also sign up for tours of the building when parliament is not in session. Inside, graffiti left by Soviet soldiers who captured the building in 1945 during the Battle of Berlin is still evident.
To their credit, the Germans preserved the scribbles, some hailing Stalin’s greatness, during the building’s reconstruction after the country was reunified. Reservations can be made at www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/visits/kupp.html.
The Reichstag is a stone’s throw from the white contemporary structure where German Chancellor Angela Merkel works; Berliners lovingly refer to the building as “the washing machine.”
The heart of Berlin is the Reichstag, Germany’s parliamentary building.
Steeped in history – Hitler despised the building – it stands at the foot of a long park, where Berliners regularly sunbathe and picnic.
The chancellor herself can be seen driven around in a non-descript vehicle along the park’s narrow streets and waiting in traffic, just like everyone else.
Also nearby are the Brandenburg Gates, which size-wise felt smaller to me compared to the monumental symbolic meaning they have carried for Americans.
U.S presidents have liked to use the gates as backdrops when talking about democracy; today the gates are the setting for smiling guys outfitted in the U.S. and Red Army uniforms posing for pictures.
One tidbit: the American Embassy, a spiffy new structure, is situated next to the gates on Pariser Platz where the original embassy stood in 1939.
Berlin is a museum lovers’ haven. Home to over 150 museums and galleries, a number of outstanding museums are dedicated to the Nazi period and the Holocaust and should not be missed.
Museum Island, a complex of several buildings, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A royal decree around 1841 dedicated the island to art and antiquities and since then it has housed some of the world’s great artifacts.
A lover of antiquities, I spent the better part of two days in several of the museums.
To be sure, disputes between Germany and foreign governments about several important artifacts remain: Egypt, for instance, feels Nefertiti’s bust was exported using questionably methods.
In postings throughout, Germany attacks Russia for not returning art looted in the Second World War, including important findings from Troy, despite a treaty.
Still, one may never find another impressive collection of antiquities in one place.
The Pergamon Museum houses the breathtaking Pergamon Altar, a monumental construction from Turkey dating from the first half of the 2nd century BC, and Babylon’s Ishtar Gate, constructed around 575 BC.
The Altes Museum has the finest collection of antique Etruscan, Roman and Greek Art I have ever seen.
Even though the Neues Museum houses an absolutely stunning papyrus collection – patience when viewing them is a virtue – if you’re lucky, you can find that single moment when you are standing alone, face-to-face, with the eternal Nefertiti.
Staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be contacted at [email protected].
