@@jetsetter8541 I disagree not a big fan of bland unless it’s brutalist or black glass I am big fan of those styles but I hate the big blue glass boxes and I especially hate when it’s everywhere in the city
I like the idea of the interior being this cultural centre. But at the same time I wished they could have rebuilt parts of the old interior, with modern ways. They could have used these for official government meetings and such, and to show how pretty the palace's inside once was.
@@lynxcato3327 Then again ,As the building is now, There is allways a possibility that the building could be further remodeled to restore and recreate the buildings interior as it was in its prime.
They should have reconstructed it fully with parts of the interior simlilar to the Impierial Palace and other parts set up for art exhibits and museum displays. The imperial palace portion could act as a living museum much in the same way they have actors in Versaille dressed in 18th century clothing
There are several old Prussian Palaces in and around Berlin (Charlottenburg, Sanssouci, ...) where everyone can visit the lifestyle of the past royals in real, not rebuilt buildings. The Humboldt Forum is a new building with a new purpose. And being located on the Museum Island besides, Old, New, Pergamon, Bode Museums, National Galerie and Berlin Cathedral the new purpose being a museum building couldn't have been chosen better. A few more reconstructed rooms would have been nice but all needs funding, too. It was already a huge effort for what was built.
I like the traditional facades they went with and I love the dome on top. I think this building is a good symbol for what the greater society must do every day, which is to bridge the past and present and to make the two worlds work with one another. People shouldn’t get too caught up in stuff like the symbolism of the cross on top or the royal crowns, it’s still apart of German history and can’t be changed.
A cross on a secular institution that houses African and Asian objects stolen through colonialism, waged in the name of the cross, is probably not sending the right message to the world. But then again, I don't expect my country (Germany) to be very thoughtful about issues of race and colonialism.
Enlightenment is a philosophy developed by Protestants, which were heretic Catholics, who thought the common version of Christianity wasn’t pure enough. As a third generation Atheist I take no objection in the cross as a historic symbol of our ancestors. Today we even have a pope in Rome, who could be mistaken for a humanist. Keep going that way and we are good. ✝️
@@h.b.7104 I'm a diehard socialist and have a hard time agreeing with you. This is a museum, a place that shows the past and present. Theism, colonialism and cultural theft are part of our history. To me, this is a place of remembrance, a place of thought, a place of reflection. We can't learn from of our past to make a better future if we censor our history under the guise of political correctness.
I'm a historian first making replicas of old buildings. I viewed reel to reel footage of the old palace and it was beautiful. If people who weren't around at that time saw what it looked like they would probably want a replica. At least it looks like the old building and is the same size.
@@flynncollins6930 Saying "it's all subjective" is such a cop out of modernist architects. Yes, there is always personal opinion involved, however taste is often much less individual than ugly architecture lovers like to claim. How many people think Coventry is a beautiful place? Compare that some place like Oxford. To give you an analogue: How many people like Pizza compared to how many like things like licorice or Marmite. Yes, there are people that hate the former and people that love the latter, however there is no contest as to what is more popular.
@@MTobias popularity doesn't equal beauty. and yes all fine arts are subjective, that is literally the whole point of art. Art can never be objective sauce the whole point is that it can be interpreted differently. And besides when you talk about 'popular' art it is more often than not catering to the western perception on what art is valued. No artist should have the intention to conform to popularity because it goes against the philosophy of creating art. everything is subjective because for every 100 hundred ppl who like something there is another 101 ppl who don't and that's just how the world works. to propose an objective truth in a world of 6 billion people with 6 billion perspectives is just false.
@Alejandro B i can understand that position, and I think it’s a strong position to have, but I still think that religion should be more of a niche thing, and it may be inappropriate for a museum, then again, the original palace had a cross, and then again they didn’t follow the original building in other ways so what would it matter to leave off the cross, I am an anti-theist and I live methodological naturalism, but I nonetheless love cathedrals and architecture and things of that nature, I even own and occasionally wear a couple thousand year old Roman pagan ring but it doesn’t make me a roman pagan, so I’m not immune to the cultural aspect, part of me just objects to there being religious things in secular places i guess You’ll excuse my original comment, I hope, it was said to troll, which I know I shouldn’t but that ‘reptilian brain’ as it were takes over sometimes
@@ToneyCrimson Europeans in the 19th century and early 20th century weren't living in mudhuts and Italy and France still preserved their old architecture TO THIS DAY and they still don't live in mudhuts Having a culture≠ being a hunter gatherer or living in mudhuts
@@god-bv5wo Whos talking about 19th century? I want to go back to our old "culture" or is it only you who get to decide which culture we should all like and are good?
So glad to see Germans are getting back a glimpse of the magnificent city that existed before the sad and very unappealing buildings were constructed in the 50s, replacing what was destroyed, and that polluted the view of most of this great European Capital. Conceptualism should not be applied to a place destroyed and degraded by human failure. Beauty should be instantly captured as a reflection of the soul, not a 'concept' that needs to be understood with time. In spite of the negative connotation of this video's comments, thank you for giving us the chance to see the much-needed transformation of what used to be one of the most beautiful cities in the World. Cheers
Ignorant fool, how about Germans try to pay respiration’s and return the money the stole from other European countries?!! Many far more beautiful and historic cities were destroyed and perished because of these nazi fkers, they destroyed Europe’s culture
@@gooacnt707 as you can read, politics are not part of my comment. The generation of Germans that followed WWII paid the ultimate price for supporting one of the most despicable human figures in history and his equally horrendous political party. But that was the past. We cannot and should not chastise their descendants for the crimes they did not commit. It's obtuse, unjust, and utterly wasteful. History is full of horrendous wrongdoings. We ought to look to the future making sure we do not commit mistakes already committed in the past, and not base our present and future achievements in hatred, and bitterness. Let's never forget the past, but most important, let all learn from it. Cheers.
@@gooacnt707 how about these beautiful European countries with beautiful European cities return the wealth they stole from the Americas, Africa, India, Australia And China? I'd love to see that happening in my lifetime
@@gooacnt707 Germany did pay a lot of reparations and if you know anything about history, you'd know that the victors had full control of Germany and did decide what to do with it, which you should follow up on. Also after the war most of the country was completely at the bottom and the men were mostly dead or injured. Sure the Nazis destroyed and stole, but the other forces then did the same to Germany and bombed most cities to the ground too. One reason why they decided to not be as harsh this time as with the treaty of Versailles, is that this treaty mostly caused what later happened. So they wanted to avoid that happening again
This confession-like summary says it all: "It means setting off on an adventure. The Humboldt Forum has to talk about this adventure, even though we don't know where it will take us."
The forum is a wonderful building, the rumination about the colonial past ridiculous . The Louvre or the British Museum never talk about the colonial time.
As someone who has an interest in history, it would have been cool to see the palast der republik, as a living piece of communist history, but of course they wanted it torn down, they just came out of a horrible era for Germany and Berlin and wanted to either move forward, or rebuild something from the past. Also the environmental hazard the communist palace was also was a strong argument to remove it. I have seen the Humboldt museum in person when it was in the final stages of construction, and it is nice to see that area of Berlin looking pre ww2.
I am usually against tearing down anything. I love conservation and restauration. But in the case of "Palast der Republik " I agreed one hundred percent to tear it down.
Palast der Republik was not only a symbol of a rotten communist rule, it was also architecturally hideous. In my opinion, Stadtschloss should've been rebuilt in its entirety - at least with part of the interiors recreated.
People are complaining over the destruction of that abomination in favour of a much more historically significant and visually appealing architecture???
Whenever I visited Berlin during the last few years I have seen it grow, from the state where there were just sample facade displays to the little tower housing an exhibition about the reconstruction and its purpose until it being almost finished. Now I look forward to visiting it myself to experience it and see if it is worth all the money spent on it. The place is a very special one, it marks the end of a set of historic buildings along Unter den Linden and the previous GDR palace kind of stole it to complete the Alexanderplatz area as the showcase of the GDR power. The new palace both provides a closure to the historical center with its restored facade and also a modern face to the post war city center around the TV tower and Alexanderplatz. I never have been to the museum in Dahlem so I don't want to comment on the exhibitions which will be inside, but I hope it is as interesting as the other places created to remember the problematic history of Berlin.
@Nastro Adhesivo wie wär es mit differenzierter Argumentation die der Thematik und dem Beitrag gerecht wird? Und bitte auf Englisch, damit auch alle deinen Geist verstehen.
Architectual reconstructions are so common nowadays because our society is fed up with cold, white boxes. People want architecture that makes them feel something, in a world where nothing is true anymore they need something to hold on to and buildings are the only thing that lasts. But alas, there are still so many who are unwilling understand why the masses support reconstructions.
If you can not appreciate modern architecture, that is your problem. I personally like traditional architecture and modern one, and can see them work pretty well together in a shared environment. Modern and post-modern architecture is just as capable to provoke feelings as old architecture.
Such a shame that modern day Germany is ashamed of itself. I am a young German, mixed blood and it disgusts me. I am proud of Germany having been a world power in the past, but not for its atrocities. Yet I still love my country. The amount of self hatred Germany has for its former past is just disgusting.
@The Rockall Times Yeah, goodluck with that haha. Even Hitler would have had more Celtic and Slavic Ancestors than Germanic. It's about language and culture you idiot, Germany is literally in the middle of Europe, so ppl having been passing through it for Millenia.
"Your" "world power" (again subjective) was tightly linked to your atrocities. Jumped into industrialisation using the wealth made from your colonies, which itself started off with mass genocide in Africa, and then when defeated in WW1, decided to get ultra nationalist and kill tens of millions in Europe. So please, there is nothing to be proud about Germany's past.
Maybe they thought someone who managed the most important museum in UK could do the same in Berlin, seeing as they share a controversial colonial past.
@Nastro Adhesivo I am aware of the argument and I agree. However, taking something from the right owner is theft. This is theft. There is no way to anticipate if a country is going to fall into chaos in the far future, in the near term, perhaps. Meanwhile if a country is stable, there is no reason to continue to keep something that belongs to someone else.
@@GKP999 Most of the stuff in the British museum wasn't stolen but discovered by archeologists, bought or gifted from whoever had ownership at the time. the valuing of historic objects especially from dead cultures is a European invention and its a recent one to use them as more than decoration as British farmers did what farmers in Italy or Ethiopia did which is get annoyed by these huge heavy object that where destroying their plows. Others saw the stones as building material, indeed the rosetta stone was found in a wall of a fort. The reality is for many of these objects there value only comes from values applied to them first by westerners. Indeed one reason why Europe was the area where archeology emerged is the fact European civilization collapsed and so created a view of history that was very different to most cultures as until the renaissance and arguable way after it, the structures of ancient Rome where way more sophisticated than anything Europeans could produce.
@Nastro Adhesivo so what, the Greeks have a beautiful museum, superior to anything we've got, just waiting for the frieze within yards of the Acropolis. ..... it is a tired argument, especially considering the battering the Marbles got while being prized away from Parthenon. You need more than a sticking plaster to reconstruct that sort of stuff.
I don't know why till now, but I always bursts into tears and emotionally moved every time i watch a documentary about or mentioning the old divided german, with the real footage being played, somehow i feel like emotionally connected with the event, even tho I am not German, wasn't born in there and born in the late 2000. I indeed love history. Anyway, Amazing content from DW, I am also waiting for the "new palace" To be finished since i heard the news in 2016.
I appreciate you interest in our past, but don't feel bad about it. Most things you see are filtered or distorted in some way or the other. West-Berlin was one of the best places to grow up in, I would not change that experience for anything. And besides all the negative parts in the GDR, my friends from East-Berlin have also been happy to been born and grown up in this city during that time. Now Berlin has turned into a gentrified Disneyland for tourists and investors, where we Berliners are a minority in our city. It's still a great city, but a lot of what makes this city special has gone away, because people took advantage of it. I am not being cynical here, but I can tell you it feels very strange to be "exotic" in you own hometown. But that's just my perspective.
@@tydalm.9665 Hello, it's so glad people actually read my comment especially in this difficult time when loneliness is being my common. I appreciate your interest too. I actually don't feel bad about the , politics, or the DDR and GDR. What makes me emotionally moved and touched are the people. I knew I never experienced such events in my whole life, but seeing German people were being divided, oppressed, and finally reunited again are the biggest tear breakers for me. I wish you always have a great day :D
@@tydalm.9665 And about the recent conditions in Berlin, I am so sorry to hear that and I don't know how to feel about that. I wish I could visit Berlin someday, but i have no intention to live there, I feel I don't deserve to be living in a city like Berlin with all its beauty and rich history without devouting my life to learn, respect, and understand it's history. I hope Berliners get what they deserves and better
We’re all living in a world shaped by colonialism, world wars and ultimately the end of cold war confrontation. The fate of Berlin has much more to do with your life than you might think. History is an incredibly complex learning opportunity, do never feel inadequate because there’s so much you don’t know yet. It is your curiosity that will make you grow as a person.
I'm not from Berlin but I find it right that the Baroque elements representing the Imperial Era stand there without comment. For example, France has Napoleon and Napoleon III, which plunged the world into Chaos and lead to a lot of deaths and nobody is really scoffing at the Arc de Triomphe. There is no disclaimer that the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and that the Invasion of Egypt was the first imperialistic war in Africa. Yes, the German Empire was not a "good guy", the atrocities in Africa are horrific, but the Empire was also the unifier of the nation, Germany would not be as it is today without them. Both things need to have their place - we can appreciate how the building looked in the old Berlin, as well as critically examining the history of Germany and the Empire that built it. We do not need both of these things to clash violently or one dominating the other.
1) Perfect 3-D copies should be made before restoration of the Benin Bronzes etc. 2) Besides establishing rightful "original" ownership, the question of political stability should also be determined. Look at what ISIS did to the Baghdad Museum: Sumerian, Assyrian, Sassanian artifacts that'd come through 3000 years, almost unscathed, are now marble dust! Also ideological harmony; the Buddhist frescoes surviving in Berlin would probably have been defaced, during Mao's Cultural Revolution, had they remained in China. 3) This is the reason India hasn't (wisely) asked for the restoration, for instance, of the Koh-i-Noor (the world's biggest) Diamond: it's safer, set as the central jewel in the British crown than it'd be back in India. Various factions (the Sikhs owned it last, the Muslims before them, the Hindus since time immemorial) who could stake a claim to its ownership might destroy it in their in-fighting!
Good explanation, I think so too. If a country is stable enough I think you could return it if we are sure nothings gonna destroy it. In preserving history its more important to actually keep it safe than to give it to the country of origin, so much has already been destroyed....
Sure when the country has stabilized the artifacts should be returned. If not it’s just post justification of greed rather than an altruistic act as proposed.
@@nicolasdeandrade849 Dude the past is the past, during ww2 there also was so much stealing going on from both sides, but it is what it is. I agree that once a country is politically and economically stable some things should go back, but a lot of them aren't. And most museum have loads of greek and Egyptian stuff. The greeks dont cry about is and in Egypt at the time most of it was discovered, the Egyptians didn't even know about most of the stuff and destroyed it more than protected
The building was beautiful and the kiasereich was not of itself wrong. It was the last unstable kiaser William that was at fault. Apart from that rebuilding the destroyed palace is a repudiation of Soviet Communism and a beautiful replacing of a missing building in a group of buildings. The West is grateful to the Prussians for Blucher's arrival at Waterloo and defeat of the tyranny of Napoleon. The building is where the President should be situated. Germany should filter and concentrate on its artistic legacy. It should restore the beautiful and good. It should stop self mutilating and destroying itself with internal self ambiguity. Be German...the best. Don't self destruct and bring problems into Germany.
Hello, where can I find these documentaries in German? I am looking for them because I want to practice my listening. I was looking for in DW Deutsch channel but I didn't find any.
Hi @Lauti C, documentaries we have available in German can be found on our website: www.dw.com/de/media-center/alle-inhalte/s-100814?filter=&programs=293837-16687561&sort=date&results=20
This is the first DW documentary where I’ve felt there was some sort of bias, and quite a ‘tone’ in the narration. DW doco’s are usually so impartial, and simply state facts, ask important questions, talk to relevant experts/stakeholders, and leave it to the viewer to fall on a position. Quite disappointed to be honest. Hopefully a one-off.
*What I got from this documentary:* Germany is afraid of being culturally proud and also being German or perceived as such, and instead they want to promote themselves as a "global" country from all over the world.
It's like if Paris decided to rebuild the Tuileries Palace except the east pavillon of the Palace proper looks like a Soviet apartment block and the interior is more akin to a Garage.
As a Samoan, I already see Samoan artefacts and ocean-going vessels in there from Germany’s colonial period in Samoa. Meanwhile in Samoa, the former government had recently torn down the crumbling old German colonial administration building amid mild protest but mostly indifference. It too was going to be a museum. Similar arguments to Berlin’s debate but cost won out in the end - too expensive to renovate and rebuild.
Of course just for Berlin! I don’t get how people got the idea this forum is about decolonialzation and restitution? It’s for us to know about the world and rule with knowledge. Like every other educational facility. Enlightenment is about cold hard facts not your hurt feelings!
What that extremely-left documentary obviously ignores is that German troops helped the king of Bamun to regain the head of his father who was killed and whose head was stolen by another tribe. As a gesture of gratitude, the Bamun people gifted the Kaiser the throne and swore allegiance to Germany. But that obviously doesn’t get mentioned… Don’t the comments show you that nobody agrees with your ideology and framing?
What a beautiful building with a rich history in a beautiful nation being built with a hardworking and dedicated group of people, welcoming people from all over the world to share in his rich history
So they wanted to make a post colonialist museum? In a colonial capital in Europe... That's the top 5 contradictions all at once... But didn't even got input from the cultural leaders of the cultures to be displayed? OMG
600M for a museum for contemporary art? When all contemporary artists are priced out of the city, like most artists. All that money could have gone towards housing....
Isn't a big chunk of this going to the artists in first place? In other word: by showing contemporary artwork you are effectively supporting artists. But anyway as per your question, 600M won't do that much for housing, as explained below: We can spend the 600M as 800Euro per month , For 30 thousand people (artists) For two years (24 months): Total cost: (800 x 24 x 30,000) ~600M Berlin population is 3.6M, so in it total we just helped 0.8% (3K/3.6M) for just two years.
Anita K thankfully most of the museum is not for contemporary "art". Real artists like those who reconstructed the facades were supported by the palace. And who cares about modern artists having to move somewhere else? Perhaps if they had any talent they could support themselves in a world class city. Until they get that back though, maybe they'll just have to tape bananas to walls in cheaper places.
@Ernest Khalimov Often so where the materials to make it or the gold to pay for them. The Benin Bronzes for example where paid for by selling the people of rival kingdoms to the Portuguese.
Sounds to me that the plan to reconstruct a beautiful historic palace that was tragically lost was hijacked by a bunch of uptight jerks who hated the idea of its very existence. Maybe instead of all those self-righteous clowns making people feel bad about Germany's past and how those items ended up in Germany, they should just send all that foreign stuff home and dedicate the vacant space to German arts, history, and recreate the best of the original palaces' interior. They can use anything left for civic uses. Germany doesn't need a peoples of the world come together space, they get enough of that and they the citizens of the world cult are free to use their passports. I hear Afghanistan is nice this time of year.
Precisely, seeing what they have done to the interior is just sad, it should have been rebuilt exactly as it was, or at least in keeping with the baroque style if there were artworks and the likes that would have to be changed
I want to like this documentary, it contains a lot of good information and imigary. However it is just way too opinionated to actually be considered a documentary. Calling the carefully reconstructed facades "fake baroque" and even completely giving up on the pretense of neutrality at 23:30 or39:48 and straight up telling the viewer what the makers of the documentary want you to think is just way below the standards I expect from dw. The reconstruction of the palace is about closing a gaping wound blasted into the historic city structure by WW2 and the socialist east German government. Any modern building or preserving the Palast der Republik just would have cemented that wound forever, punishing every person passing by for sins committed by other people in the past. All the idiologicalisation and politicisation was just done by lovers of former East Germany, neo-socialists and most of all salty modernist architects that simply can't justify the existence of their inhumane style without defaming actually beautiful architecture. In a way, it's the proof that the reconstruction of the facades was the best possible option, since arguing that the palace is ugly just won't get you anywhere, it's opponents have to atttach negatively connotated ideologies to it to attack the project.
Still......there has been destroyed a ‘palace’ to make way for this ‘palace’. Exactly the same way as the historical palace has been eradicated in the first place. Germany forcibly removing parts of its history becoming routine. There should be a museum just for that.
Been there today, was very disapointed. The palace reconstitution looks fake and the new part looks ugly. The building just isn't very engaging, it doesn't feel like a place of creation and exchange, more like a simple old school museum...
I believe this is a generally positive project that best compliments Germany and Berlin in that area. Of course the devil is in the details, but I assume thoughtful adults will sort it all out, case by case. At least the main building is there. We must consider this site as an evolving space. When the palace was the original, it was under Bismarck as well, and he never wanted overseas colonies.
I love the old reconstruction - full of beauty and grandeur. The "modern" part full of precast concrete is ugly and dehumanizing. The narrator apparently wishes the modern part would "subvert" the grandeur of the older part and I couldn't disagree more. It's based on a collective guilt we're all supposed to have over a past we cannot alter. To think we can is a kind of hubris that reeks of imagined moral supremacy. Riding high on our great Western civilization while decrying those who fought to build it is just hypocrisy. Colonialism did cost a lot - on both sides. Colonialists thought they were bringing something good to cultures that were stuck in the stone age. Courts and rule of law, systems of governance, railroads and (in the case of India) unification that may never have occurred on its own are some of the pluses. Most of todays modern African cities wouldn't exist without colonialism because the west built and financed them. As for the "stolen" artifacts, a lot wouldn't exist if they hadn't been placed in Western Museums, because their cultures of origin didn't respect or value them. All cultures are not equal, nor are all their values worthy of respect. What a false, stupid concept. Why doesn't the narrator go live in the socialist paradise of North Korea and spare us any more of her empty headed leftist nonsense.
🇩🇪🏰In Postdam ( german Versailles ) They rebuilt a new castle replica,destroyed during ww2, with original part of this old castle. They rebuilt cathedrale in Dresden too🏰.
Thank you for your comment. This title is not a DW production but has been licensed. The producer has requested we take the title down as a reedit is required.
Berlin is beautiful made after the wall came down. Comunists made it gray, dark & horrible something hard to call "city". Miracle happened when wall came down, it became a blend of old history & modern art & is beautiful.
Stop twisting yourself into knots over museum collections!🙄 Ridiculous. Without them being in a museum, these things wouldn’t still exist! Look around at Africa & Middle East!🤬🙄
A place that was first built... and then everyone looked for what to do with it. Never a good plan. The history of the politics.... and the finanical planning .. is equally as bad.
juts make a copy of the artefacts, send the originals to the country of origins, say sorry and that's it you found money and time for that behemoth of a building, you will find them for that
How is it “fake baroque”? the architecture isn’t plaster and foam, how insulting to modern architecture that doesn’t need to be “modernist” it’s a return to classical styles
Who would have guessed that the Germans would worry something in to anemia? LOL... Personally I like the OLD palace. It has something none of these Art Fascist understand; living in a charming place.
second half is a bit boring. so much focus on cultural appropriation and colonization, yet germany within the context of europe was a very minor player in colonization. there weren't large amounts of land and there wasn't such brutalization as the other european colonizers. if you are going to give it back then just give it back, let them keep it. still i love this project beyond the negativity presented, because this took decades to develop and hopefully it shows berlin / prussian history in its royal days.....simple and all that is needed for this location. you might have screwed it up trying to be culturally sensitive / fashionable fad (no idea why this was so necessary), we will see when i visit. interesting that you brought polynesian ships in there.
Complex and difficult subject of works of art belonging to countries colonized by Europeans. My respectful opinion: 1. It is true that they were acquired in a rather obscure way, not to say "looted and robbed." 2. I think that despite the above, (1) These invaluable works of art are safer and more accessible to the world public, in European museums than in the countries of the Southern Hemisphere, (so as not to offend or exclude anyone). Greetings from Medellín. Colombia.🇨🇴
Moving all cultural heritage back to the countries of origin would be quite an effort. But if Germany got back all the works of art and culture looted by the US and the Soviet Union...
Is not fake to rebuilt an old style building because moderne archicteture is UGLY ! The Berlin Scholoss is the end of hypocrisie. The city NEEDS buildings in old style just because is beutyful and the beuty is the only thing that unify human kind. Is not the uglyness and meaningfulless conceptual art and the modern. I am a Brazilian by the way. We had no WW II bombs over our cities, but we got modern architecture which changed the cities into a big favela anywhere, ugly and horrible. Do not be hypocrite.
Es ist wirklich schade, dass sie die Innenräume des Palastes nicht wie zu Zeiten des Kaiserreichs wieder aufgebaut haben, obwohl es Möglichkeiten dazu gibt
I'm only watching here and already got a headache from all the issues of the artifacts' unsightly history and the developer's unending problems (some political). They're using a large amount of donations and it's much better to invest it wisely on their established buildings or the needs of their citizens. I doubt Germans will missed out with this particular museum too, will it also be better to return the artifacts that were originally from their native homelands??
This museum is exactly what Germans need (plus one for our own history). This thirst for knowledge not wealth is what separates us from the British and makes us who we are. I’m only sorry we can’t spend more on our museums! We got to start collecting these items again.
Why the heck you are talking about "fake baroque"? This is a reconstruction and not fake. An ornament is an ornament is an ornament.... There is no fake until the ornament is painted or somehow a trick. Those baroque elements are heavy reality.
That's not how architectural history works. We call things neo-Gothic for a reason. Buildings are dated as belonging to a particular cultural and historical period. "Reconstructions" of the historical past are not the same thing, even if they look exactly the same. Nobody goes to Dresden and sees the reconstructed Frauenkirche and thinks it's the original.
@@Booka60 one was a palace for the people with many amenities, and what we have now is a symbol of prussian imperialism and the german colonial era. So i'd take the former rather than the present, even if it looks like a seedy pod mall.
Beauty is entirely subjektiv, I for one find the palace of the republic to be ugly and the royal palace to be beautiful but other people might have the opposite opinion or even like or dislike both of them. The main problem with the GDR building was however the fact that the entire thing was literally filled with poison.
@@dinofelis9343 I find the beauty in the palace of the republik because it was a centre for the community, something that germany lacks today, and would have been very nice if something like that would have rebuilt today. Unfortunately they built an imperial relic that is frankly irrelevant to Berlin’s post-imperial culture and just another tourist magnet to add to the museum island, further pushing locals away from the city centre…
He was against it (mostly for economic reasons - also he saw it as a great way to have more conflicts with other european powers. But he was the chancellor so it was his task to aquire colonies and protect them if wished so from the Reichstag
@@AM-md6sv Bismarck said that before the 1878 Congress. When the scramble for Africa began, he realized that no country can be respected any more as a great power without colonies. General mood among public was for the colonies, as was the case in the armed forces. But it was for Bismarck as the indisputed leader of the Reich to make the final decision
You cannot build that museum with any sense of continuity if you have too many groups that you feel the need to apologize to or appease. It’s really a symptom of a larger problem plaguing western civilization, decay. The moral order is in shambles.. The basic guidelines in which masterpieces can be assembled aren’t acknowledged.
Great to see the Palace rebuilt mostly in the way it is supposed to be, and no it shouldn't have been built without the cross and New Testament passage, that is what was there before and what deserves to be there today. Also, this anti-colonialism stuff is not good, and Germany's history should be respected especially here!
This is a crazy timeline to be living in , as in all the others, Germany has ben wiped out because of all the global atrocities they have committed, and there are just nations of the peace. Under one rule and govern of Humanity. I am amazed at how flawed and evil this timeline is, yet it still beholds it's ever flowing wander.
I agree. What is the point of rebuilding a historical building but change it that significantly? They might as well have bult something completely new.
Why do they have to fight over the reconstruction of a building? Don't they have more interesting things to talk about? The building they demolished was ugly and the new one looks good so there shouldn't be opposition beyond that of the exorbitant cost. In Japan most buildings last less than 50 years and are rebuilt, no one complains about hidden meanings or other strange things.
love the reconstruction- old Berlin was much nicer than the modern glass and steel buildings which are so indistinct
. PERFECT Is Berlin New
@@jetsetter8541 I disagree not a big fan of bland unless it’s brutalist or black glass I am big fan of those styles but I hate the big blue glass boxes and I especially hate when it’s everywhere in the city
I like the idea of the interior being this cultural centre. But at the same time I wished they could have rebuilt parts of the old interior, with modern ways. They could have used these for official government meetings and such, and to show how pretty the palace's inside once was.
Totally agree .
Agree!!
The interiors were extremely ornate, it would have been very expensive to rebuild them.
@@lynxcato3327 ….as it was for the baroque detailing on the outside!
@@lynxcato3327 Then again ,As the building is now, There is allways a possibility that the building could be further remodeled to restore and recreate the buildings interior as it was in its prime.
They should have reconstructed it fully with parts of the interior simlilar to the Impierial Palace and other parts set up for art exhibits and museum displays. The imperial palace portion could act as a living museum much in the same way they have actors in Versaille dressed in 18th century clothing
They made the outside original so they have to still show that they hate their German royal past somehow
@@OrthodogeNonsense! Who's "they" anyway?
There are several old Prussian Palaces in and around Berlin (Charlottenburg, Sanssouci, ...) where everyone can visit the lifestyle of the past royals in real, not rebuilt buildings. The Humboldt Forum is a new building with a new purpose. And being located on the Museum Island besides, Old, New, Pergamon, Bode Museums, National Galerie and Berlin Cathedral the new purpose being a museum building couldn't have been chosen better. A few more reconstructed rooms would have been nice but all needs funding, too. It was already a huge effort for what was built.
I like the traditional facades they went with and I love the dome on top. I think this building is a good symbol for what the greater society must do every day, which is to bridge the past and present and to make the two worlds work with one another. People shouldn’t get too caught up in stuff like the symbolism of the cross on top or the royal crowns, it’s still apart of German history and can’t be changed.
A cross on a secular institution that houses African and Asian objects stolen through colonialism, waged in the name of the cross, is probably not sending the right message to the world. But then again, I don't expect my country (Germany) to be very thoughtful about issues of race and colonialism.
Enlightenment is a philosophy developed by Protestants, which were heretic Catholics, who thought the common version of Christianity wasn’t pure enough. As a third generation Atheist I take no objection in the cross as a historic symbol of our ancestors. Today we even have a pope in Rome, who could be mistaken for a humanist. Keep going that way and we are good. ✝️
@@h.b.7104 I'm a diehard socialist and have a hard time agreeing with you. This is a museum, a place that shows the past and present. Theism, colonialism and cultural theft are part of our history.
To me, this is a place of remembrance, a place of thought, a place of reflection. We can't learn from of our past to make a better future if we censor our history under the guise of political correctness.
@@h.b.7104 Theres more Christians in Africa and Asia than in Europe
Germans should relax a little bit. You’re often overdoing it regarding political correctness.
I'm a historian first making replicas of old buildings. I viewed reel to reel footage of the old palace and it was beautiful. If people who weren't around at that time saw what it looked like they would probably want a replica. At least it looks like the old building and is the same size.
I'm grateful that Italy preserved their historic buildings.
Literally the Museum of Europe.
being old doesn't make you beautiful
@@flynncollins6930 Haven't seen many examples of old architecture that isn't beautiful.
@@MTobias that's literally so subjective, key word you*
@@flynncollins6930
Saying "it's all subjective" is such a cop out of modernist architects. Yes, there is always personal opinion involved, however taste is often much less individual than ugly architecture lovers like to claim.
How many people think Coventry is a beautiful place? Compare that some place like Oxford.
To give you an analogue: How many people like Pizza compared to how many like things like licorice or Marmite. Yes, there are people that hate the former and people that love the latter, however there
is no contest as to what is more popular.
@@MTobias popularity doesn't equal beauty. and yes all fine arts are subjective, that is literally the whole point of art. Art can never be objective sauce the whole point is that it can be interpreted differently. And besides when you talk about 'popular' art it is more often than not catering to the western perception on what art is valued. No artist should have the intention to conform to popularity because it goes against the philosophy of creating art. everything is subjective because for every 100 hundred ppl who like something there is another 101 ppl who don't and that's just how the world works. to propose an objective truth in a world of 6 billion people with 6 billion perspectives is just false.
Love the cross above it all.
There is no god
A reminder of the atrocities the church have done over years.. Yeah.. Love it too
@Alejandro Brunner There were like 5% Jews in Berlin before Hitler?
ew
@Alejandro B i can understand that position, and I think it’s a strong position to have, but I still think that religion should be more of a niche thing, and it may be inappropriate for a museum, then again, the original palace had a cross, and then again they didn’t follow the original building in other ways so what would it matter to leave off the cross,
I am an anti-theist and I live methodological naturalism, but I nonetheless love cathedrals and architecture and things of that nature, I even own and occasionally wear a couple thousand year old Roman pagan ring but it doesn’t make me a roman pagan, so I’m not immune to the cultural aspect, part of me just objects to there being religious things in secular places i guess
You’ll excuse my original comment, I hope, it was said to troll, which I know I shouldn’t but that ‘reptilian brain’ as it were takes over sometimes
If no one ,including the narrator, is truly pleased with the entire thing , then the builders hit the right balance.
They replaced a classical European Prussian palace with a piece of soulless concrete in the heart of Berlin.
Yeah, that's Germany for ya!!!
I miss the days when we had beutiful mud huts and open forests.. all these ugly buildings need to go!
@@ToneyCrimson Someone is dumb.
@@MrDude826 Yes you.
@@ToneyCrimson Europeans in the 19th century and early 20th century weren't living in mudhuts and Italy and France still preserved their old architecture TO THIS DAY and they still don't live in mudhuts
Having a culture≠ being a hunter gatherer or living in mudhuts
@@god-bv5wo Whos talking about 19th century? I want to go back to our old "culture" or is it only you who get to decide which culture we should all like and are good?
So glad to see Germans are getting back a glimpse of the magnificent city that existed before the sad and very unappealing buildings were constructed in the 50s, replacing what was destroyed, and that polluted the view of most of this great European Capital. Conceptualism should not be applied to a place destroyed and degraded by human failure. Beauty should be instantly captured as a reflection of the soul, not a 'concept' that needs to be understood with time. In spite of the negative connotation of this video's comments, thank you for giving us the chance to see the much-needed transformation of what used to be one of the most beautiful cities in the World. Cheers
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
Ignorant fool, how about Germans try to pay respiration’s and return the money the stole from other European countries?!! Many far more beautiful and historic cities were destroyed and perished because of these nazi fkers, they destroyed Europe’s culture
@@gooacnt707 as you can read, politics are not part of my comment. The generation of Germans that followed WWII paid the ultimate price for supporting one of the most despicable human figures in history and his equally horrendous political party. But that was the past. We cannot and should not chastise their descendants for the crimes they did not commit. It's obtuse, unjust, and utterly wasteful. History is full of horrendous wrongdoings. We ought to look to the future making sure we do not commit mistakes already committed in the past, and not base our present and future achievements in hatred, and bitterness. Let's never forget the past, but most important, let all learn from it. Cheers.
@@gooacnt707 how about these beautiful European countries with beautiful European cities return the wealth they stole from the Americas, Africa, India, Australia And China? I'd love to see that happening in my lifetime
@@gooacnt707 Germany did pay a lot of reparations and if you know anything about history, you'd know that the victors had full control of Germany and did decide what to do with it, which you should follow up on.
Also after the war most of the country was completely at the bottom and the men were mostly dead or injured.
Sure the Nazis destroyed and stole, but the other forces then did the same to Germany and bombed most cities to the ground too.
One reason why they decided to not be as harsh this time as with the treaty of Versailles, is that this treaty mostly caused what later happened. So they wanted to avoid that happening again
This confession-like summary says it all:
"It means setting off on an adventure. The Humboldt Forum has to talk about this adventure, even though we don't know where it will take us."
It's the blind leading the blind!
The forum is a wonderful building, the rumination about the colonial past ridiculous . The Louvre or the British Museum never talk about the colonial time.
As someone who has an interest in history, it would have been cool to see the palast der republik, as a living piece of communist history, but of course they wanted it torn down, they just came out of a horrible era for Germany and Berlin and wanted to either move forward, or rebuild something from the past. Also the environmental hazard the communist palace was also was a strong argument to remove it. I have seen the Humboldt museum in person when it was in the final stages of construction, and it is nice to see that area of Berlin looking pre ww2.
I am usually against tearing down anything. I love conservation and restauration. But in the case of "Palast der Republik " I agreed one hundred percent to tear it down.
Palast der Republik was not only a symbol of a rotten communist rule, it was also architecturally hideous. In my opinion, Stadtschloss should've been rebuilt in its entirety - at least with part of the interiors recreated.
Indeed. Who wants to be reminded of and revisit the horrors perpetuated by the WW II.
People are complaining over the destruction of that abomination in favour of a much more historically significant and visually appealing architecture???
I swear, the day I see a DW video that isn't 42 minutes long is a day I will be able to die peacefully.
Whenever I visited Berlin during the last few years I have seen it grow, from the state where there were just sample facade displays to the little tower housing an exhibition about the reconstruction and its purpose until it being almost finished. Now I look forward to visiting it myself to experience it and see if it is worth all the money spent on it. The place is a very special one, it marks the end of a set of historic buildings along Unter den Linden and the previous GDR palace kind of stole it to complete the Alexanderplatz area as the showcase of the GDR power. The new palace both provides a closure to the historical center with its restored facade and also a modern face to the post war city center around the TV tower and Alexanderplatz. I never have been to the museum in Dahlem so I don't want to comment on the exhibitions which will be inside, but I hope it is as interesting as the other places created to remember the problematic history of Berlin.
@Nastro Adhesivo Because this video is for an English speaking audience which wants to understand comments as well?
@Nastro Adhesivo Plonk
@Nastro Adhesivo wie wär es mit differenzierter Argumentation die der Thematik und dem Beitrag gerecht wird? Und bitte auf Englisch, damit auch alle deinen Geist verstehen.
Berlin is an ugly and sad city. I saw it. It's a dead reconstruction.
I loved the one gentleman's suggestion: "Just send a very valuable German cultural item to be displayed in a Nigerian museum and be done with it."
@Alejandro B the key point is cultural significance, I guess dirty old shoes is a key icon in German culture.
@@mattjonas5682 It is, when Joschka Fischer wore them in parliament.
@@jansix4287 who knew Germany is a country of dirty old shoes.
@@mattjonas5682 That’s what re-education and hour-zero politics made of us.
@@jansix4287 yeah Germany really got castrated after WW2, can’t even build a pipeline without getting permission from America.
Lots and lots of beautiful videos. Many thanks to DW for such a report.
Architectual reconstructions are so common nowadays because our society is fed up with cold, white boxes. People want architecture that makes them feel something, in a world where nothing is true anymore they need something to hold on to and buildings are the only thing that lasts. But alas, there are still so many who are unwilling understand why the masses support reconstructions.
If you can not appreciate modern architecture, that is your problem. I personally like traditional architecture and modern one, and can see them work pretty well together in a shared environment. Modern and post-modern architecture is just as capable to provoke feelings as old architecture.
Said in true hypocritical modernist fashion; «I like modern buildings so if everyone disagrees with me, they can piss off”
Great to see historical architecture making a comeback instead of ugly boring modern architecture. Beautiful palace!
Such a shame that modern day Germany is ashamed of itself. I am a young German, mixed blood and it disgusts me. I am proud of Germany having been a world power in the past, but not for its atrocities. Yet I still love my country. The amount of self hatred Germany has for its former past is just disgusting.
@The Rockall Times Bullshit you are german if you are born and raised here. Ideally you then identify as one.
@The Rockall Times Yeah, goodluck with that haha. Even Hitler would have had more Celtic and Slavic Ancestors than Germanic. It's about language and culture you idiot, Germany is literally in the middle of Europe, so ppl having been passing through it for Millenia.
"Deutschland" existiert nicht mehr. Das heutige land ist ein multi-kulturelles einwanderungsland.
"Your" "world power" (again subjective) was tightly linked to your atrocities. Jumped into industrialisation using the wealth made from your colonies, which itself started off with mass genocide in Africa, and then when defeated in WW1, decided to get ultra nationalist and kill tens of millions in Europe. So please, there is nothing to be proud about Germany's past.
You learn from the past and move on, don’t sit in doubt and self hate always degrading yourself. I blame modernism
Let's hire someone from the Birtish Museum which has many stolen items from many counties to advise! LOL!
Maybe they thought someone who managed the most important museum in UK could do the same in Berlin, seeing as they share a controversial colonial past.
@Nastro Adhesivo I am aware of the argument and I agree. However, taking something from the right owner is theft. This is theft. There is no way to anticipate if a country is going to fall into chaos in the far future, in the near term, perhaps. Meanwhile if a country is stable, there is no reason to continue to keep something that belongs to someone else.
@@GKP999 Most of the stuff in the British museum wasn't stolen but discovered by archeologists, bought or gifted from whoever had ownership at the time. the valuing of historic objects especially from dead cultures is a European invention and its a recent one to use them as more than decoration as British farmers did what farmers in Italy or Ethiopia did which is get annoyed by these huge heavy object that where destroying their plows. Others saw the stones as building material, indeed the rosetta stone was found in a wall of a fort. The reality is for many of these objects there value only comes from values applied to them first by westerners. Indeed one reason why Europe was the area where archeology emerged is the fact European civilization collapsed and so created a view of history that was very different to most cultures as until the renaissance and arguable way after it, the structures of ancient Rome where way more sophisticated than anything Europeans could produce.
@@descoiatorul but the British Museum has arrogantly refused to deal with the booty, its walls in some ways the last redoubt of the British Empire.
@Nastro Adhesivo so what, the Greeks have a beautiful museum, superior to anything we've got, just waiting for the frieze within yards of the Acropolis. ..... it is a tired argument, especially considering the battering the Marbles got while being prized away from Parthenon. You need more than a sticking plaster to reconstruct that sort of stuff.
I don't know why till now, but I always bursts into tears and emotionally moved every time i watch a documentary about or mentioning the old divided german, with the real footage being played, somehow i feel like emotionally connected with the event, even tho I am not German, wasn't born in there and born in the late 2000. I indeed love history.
Anyway, Amazing content from DW, I am also waiting for the "new palace" To be finished since i heard the news in 2016.
I appreciate you interest in our past, but don't feel bad about it. Most things you see are filtered or distorted in some way or the other. West-Berlin was one of the best places to grow up in, I would not change that experience for anything. And besides all the negative parts in the GDR, my friends from East-Berlin have also been happy to been born and grown up in this city during that time.
Now Berlin has turned into a gentrified Disneyland for tourists and investors, where we Berliners are a minority in our city. It's still a great city, but a lot of what makes this city special has gone away, because people took advantage of it. I am not being cynical here, but I can tell you it feels very strange to be "exotic" in you own hometown. But that's just my perspective.
@@tydalm.9665 Hello, it's so glad people actually read my comment especially in this difficult time when loneliness is being my common. I appreciate your interest too. I actually don't feel bad about the , politics, or the DDR and GDR. What makes me emotionally moved and touched are the people. I knew I never experienced such events in my whole life, but seeing German people were being divided, oppressed, and finally reunited again are the biggest tear breakers for me. I wish you always have a great day :D
@@tydalm.9665 And about the recent conditions in Berlin, I am so sorry to hear that and I don't know how to feel about that. I wish I could visit Berlin someday, but i have no intention to live there, I feel I don't deserve to be living in a city like Berlin with all its beauty and rich history without devouting my life to learn, respect, and understand it's history. I hope Berliners get what they deserves and better
We’re all living in a world shaped by colonialism, world wars and ultimately the end of cold war confrontation. The fate of Berlin has much more to do with your life than you might think. History is an incredibly complex learning opportunity, do never feel inadequate because there’s so much you don’t know yet. It is your curiosity that will make you grow as a person.
Hey thanks man :D
I'm not from Berlin but I find it right that the Baroque elements representing the Imperial Era stand there without comment. For example, France has Napoleon and Napoleon III, which plunged the world into Chaos and lead to a lot of deaths and nobody is really scoffing at the Arc de Triomphe. There is no disclaimer that the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and that the Invasion of Egypt was the first imperialistic war in Africa. Yes, the German Empire was not a "good guy", the atrocities in Africa are horrific, but the Empire was also the unifier of the nation, Germany would not be as it is today without them. Both things need to have their place - we can appreciate how the building looked in the old Berlin, as well as critically examining the history of Germany and the Empire that built it. We do not need both of these things to clash violently or one dominating the other.
I’ve always wanted to go to Germany along with my grandad, who’s mother was German 🇩🇪☺️
Come to Germany, it is a wonderful country.
1) Perfect 3-D copies should be made before restoration of the Benin Bronzes etc.
2) Besides establishing rightful "original" ownership, the question of political stability should also be determined. Look at what ISIS did to the Baghdad Museum: Sumerian, Assyrian, Sassanian artifacts that'd come through 3000 years, almost unscathed, are now marble dust! Also ideological harmony; the Buddhist frescoes surviving in Berlin would probably have been defaced, during Mao's Cultural Revolution, had they remained in China.
3) This is the reason India hasn't (wisely) asked for the restoration, for instance, of the Koh-i-Noor (the world's biggest) Diamond: it's safer, set as the central jewel in the British crown than it'd be back in India. Various factions (the Sikhs owned it last, the Muslims before them, the Hindus since time immemorial) who could stake a claim to its ownership might destroy it in their in-fighting!
Good explanation, I think so too. If a country is stable enough I think you could return it if we are sure nothings gonna destroy it. In preserving history its more important to actually keep it safe than to give it to the country of origin, so much has already been destroyed....
One Century of brutal colonialism, thieves, discrimination and you are ok with it because it looks pretty in the london tower
Wow
Sure when the country has stabilized the artifacts should be returned. If not it’s just post justification of greed rather than an altruistic act as proposed.
@@nicolasdeandrade849 Dude the past is the past, during ww2 there also was so much stealing going on from both sides, but it is what it is. I agree that once a country is politically and economically stable some things should go back, but a lot of them aren't.
And most museum have loads of greek and Egyptian stuff. The greeks dont cry about is and in Egypt at the time most of it was discovered, the Egyptians didn't even know about most of the stuff and destroyed it more than protected
This is a history with a headache 😅
The building was beautiful and the kiasereich was not of itself wrong. It was the last unstable kiaser William that was at fault. Apart from that rebuilding the destroyed palace is a repudiation of Soviet Communism and a beautiful replacing of a missing building in a group of buildings. The West is grateful to the Prussians for Blucher's arrival at Waterloo and defeat of the tyranny of Napoleon. The building is where the President should be situated. Germany should filter and concentrate on its artistic legacy. It should restore the beautiful and good. It should stop self mutilating and destroying itself with internal self ambiguity. Be German...the best. Don't self destruct and bring problems into Germany.
Hello, where can I find these documentaries in German? I am looking for them because I want to practice my listening. I was looking for in DW Deutsch channel but I didn't find any.
Hi @Lauti C, documentaries we have available in German can be found on our website: www.dw.com/de/media-center/alle-inhalte/s-100814?filter=&programs=293837-16687561&sort=date&results=20
@@DWDocumentary thank you!
This is the first DW documentary where I’ve felt there was some sort of bias, and quite a ‘tone’ in the narration. DW doco’s are usually so impartial, and simply state facts, ask important questions, talk to relevant experts/stakeholders, and leave it to the viewer to fall on a position. Quite disappointed to be honest. Hopefully a one-off.
*What I got from this documentary:*
Germany is afraid of being culturally proud and also being German or perceived as such, and instead they want to promote themselves as a "global" country from all over the world.
I don’t know if it’s true , if Germans want to be seen as Global Citizens. If it is the case , it’s the maturity of German society .
@The Rockall Times That's completly insane, german people aren't going extinct.
@The Rockall Times really ? Anything we can do to save the race ?
@The Rockall Times let me ask you why it is relevant here whether I am theist or atheist ?
@The Rockall Times hope the save the race 🙏
It's like if Paris decided to rebuild the Tuileries Palace except the east pavillon of the Palace proper looks like a Soviet apartment block and the interior is more akin to a Garage.
As a Samoan, I already see Samoan artefacts and ocean-going vessels in there from Germany’s colonial period in Samoa.
Meanwhile in Samoa, the former government had recently torn down the crumbling old German colonial administration building amid mild protest but mostly indifference. It too was going to be a museum. Similar arguments to Berlin’s debate but cost won out in the end - too expensive to renovate and rebuild.
Of course just for Berlin! I don’t get how people got the idea this forum is about decolonialzation and restitution? It’s for us to know about the world and rule with knowledge. Like every other educational facility. Enlightenment is about cold hard facts not your hurt feelings!
Why is nobody talking about 15:42?
England gouvernment really does not care about the horror
What that extremely-left documentary obviously ignores is that German troops helped the king of Bamun to regain the head of his father who was killed and whose head was stolen by another tribe. As a gesture of gratitude, the Bamun people gifted the Kaiser the throne and swore allegiance to Germany. But that obviously doesn’t get mentioned…
Don’t the comments show you that nobody agrees with your ideology and framing?
What a beautiful building with a rich history in a beautiful nation being built with a hardworking and dedicated group of people, welcoming people from all over the world to share in his rich history
Such a beautiful building… thank you for this great documentary!
I agree with the Dutch guy. They are devoting the centre of their own capital city to world history not just their own. That's admirable.
@Alejandro B yes o great communicator YOU are!
Oh for God's sake. Just give all the items back then, and make the forum 100% about German history. This woke posturing is exhausting.
So they wanted to make a post colonialist museum? In a colonial capital in Europe... That's the top 5 contradictions all at once... But didn't even got input from the cultural leaders of the cultures to be displayed? OMG
600M for a museum for contemporary art?
When all contemporary artists are priced out of the city, like most artists.
All that money could have gone towards housing....
Isn't a big chunk of this going to the artists in first place? In other word: by showing contemporary artwork you are effectively supporting artists.
But anyway as per your question, 600M won't do that much for housing, as explained below:
We can spend the 600M as
800Euro per month ,
For 30 thousand people (artists)
For two years (24 months):
Total cost: (800 x 24 x 30,000) ~600M
Berlin population is 3.6M, so in it total we just helped 0.8% (3K/3.6M) for just two years.
Anita K thankfully most of the museum is not for contemporary "art". Real artists like those who reconstructed the facades were supported by the palace. And who cares about modern artists having to move somewhere else? Perhaps if they had any talent they could support themselves in a world class city. Until they get that back though, maybe they'll just have to tape bananas to walls in cheaper places.
@@MTobias You think Berlin is a world class city? lol hilarious.
i enjoy all your vlog.the content, also every country you introduce for your vlog❤👍👌
many pieces would have been destroyed or stolen in the meantime ... the museum is a safe place, all exhibits should remain there
@Ernest Khalimov Often so where the materials to make it or the gold to pay for them. The Benin Bronzes for example where paid for by selling the people of rival kingdoms to the Portuguese.
Sounds to me that the plan to reconstruct a beautiful historic palace that was tragically lost was hijacked by a bunch of uptight jerks who hated the idea of its very existence. Maybe instead of all those self-righteous clowns making people feel bad about Germany's past and how those items ended up in Germany, they should just send all that foreign stuff home and dedicate the vacant space to German arts, history, and recreate the best of the original palaces' interior. They can use anything left for civic uses. Germany doesn't need a peoples of the world come together space, they get enough of that and they the citizens of the world cult are free to use their passports. I hear Afghanistan is nice this time of year.
👏👏
Precisely, seeing what they have done to the interior is just sad, it should have been rebuilt exactly as it was, or at least in keeping with the baroque style if there were artworks and the likes that would have to be changed
I think the old guy just liked old buildings.
Yes
It will with time have the green oxidation which is common for copper. It will look natural in this way and add an extra dimension to the dome.
The old German architecture was perfect and beautiful. It needs to be rebuilt.
What's the name of that statue on you profile?
No. Old Buildings are the superior type of Architecture. WTF.
I want to like this documentary, it contains a lot of good information and imigary. However it is just way too opinionated to actually be considered a documentary. Calling the carefully reconstructed facades "fake baroque" and even completely giving up on the pretense of neutrality at 23:30 or39:48 and straight up telling the viewer what the makers of the documentary want you to think is just way below the standards I expect from dw.
The reconstruction of the palace is about closing a gaping wound blasted into the historic city structure by WW2 and the socialist east German government. Any modern building or preserving the Palast der Republik just would have cemented that wound forever, punishing every person passing by for sins committed by other people in the past.
All the idiologicalisation and politicisation was just done by lovers of former East Germany, neo-socialists and most of all salty modernist architects that simply can't justify the existence of their inhumane style without defaming actually beautiful architecture. In a way, it's the proof that the reconstruction of the facades was the best possible option, since arguing that the palace is ugly just won't get you anywhere, it's opponents have to atttach negatively connotated ideologies to it to attack the project.
Bravo!!!
Outside look grand but inside do not have old style of grandness and replace with plainess of wall and pillar
Still......there has been destroyed a ‘palace’ to make way for this ‘palace’.
Exactly the same way as the historical palace has been eradicated in the first place.
Germany forcibly removing parts of its history becoming routine.
There should be a museum just for that.
Soviet architecture in Berlin is mostly boring gray trash.
@@Bork_In_Volcanic ,.
Take a look at the Karl Marx Allee ♥️
The budget buildings are no worse than wat was done in other European cities.
The Palace was already destroyed before it got converted into a mall
Why does that throne story feel so familiar like I've seen it before?!
Why are there ads on a Film of the Public Brosdcast Service??
Been there today, was very disapointed. The palace reconstitution looks fake and the new part looks ugly. The building just isn't very engaging, it doesn't feel like a place of creation and exchange, more like a simple old school museum...
I think the East German palace of the republic looked very cool and futuristic. I wish they had gone through with the merging of the two styles.
Coming from a place that can’t build storm drains, reconstructing a century years old palace looks so flamboyant and such a waste of money
I believe this is a generally positive project that best compliments Germany and Berlin in that area. Of course the devil is in the details, but I assume thoughtful adults will sort it all out, case by case. At least the main building is there. We must consider this site as an evolving space. When the palace was the original, it was under Bismarck as well, and he never wanted overseas colonies.
Europe has become more of a museum than a living thing. The mummies are trying to capture utopia. Egypt repeated.
I love the old reconstruction - full of beauty and grandeur. The "modern" part full of precast concrete is ugly and dehumanizing. The narrator apparently wishes the modern part would "subvert" the grandeur of the older part and I couldn't disagree more. It's based on a collective guilt we're all supposed to have over a past we cannot alter. To think we can is a kind of hubris that reeks of imagined moral supremacy. Riding high on our great Western civilization while decrying those who fought to build it is just hypocrisy. Colonialism did cost a lot - on both sides. Colonialists thought they were bringing something good to cultures that were stuck in the stone age. Courts and rule of law, systems of governance, railroads and (in the case of India) unification that may never have occurred on its own are some of the pluses. Most of todays modern African cities wouldn't exist without colonialism because the west built and financed them. As for the "stolen" artifacts, a lot wouldn't exist if they hadn't been placed in Western Museums, because their cultures of origin didn't respect or value them. All cultures are not equal, nor are all their values worthy of respect. What a false, stupid concept. Why doesn't the narrator go live in the socialist paradise of North Korea and spare us any more of her empty headed leftist nonsense.
🇩🇪🏰In Postdam ( german Versailles ) They rebuilt a new castle replica,destroyed during ww2, with original part of this old castle. They rebuilt cathedrale in Dresden too🏰.
Great presentation !
I love to see cultures, German in this case, invest in it's past and future. Not much of that here in the U.S.
They took down the video about Assange and wiki leaks...why ?
Thank you for your comment. This title is not a DW production but has been licensed. The producer has requested we take the title down as a reedit is required.
Cameroon was the most loyal colony to the Germans. Thanks DW for this documentary 🔥❤️
Berlin is beautiful made after the wall came down.
Comunists made it gray, dark & horrible something hard to call "city".
Miracle happened when wall came down, it became a blend of old history & modern art & is beautiful.
Grate project.Grate ideas.Wen I visit Berlin I will visit Humbolt Forum for sure.
Stop twisting yourself into knots over museum collections!🙄 Ridiculous. Without them being in a museum, these things wouldn’t still exist! Look around at Africa & Middle East!🤬🙄
A place that was first built... and then everyone looked for what to do with it. Never a good plan. The history of the politics.... and the finanical planning .. is equally as bad.
juts make a copy of the artefacts, send the originals to the country of origins, say sorry and that's it
you found money and time for that behemoth of a building, you will find them for that
wHT WAS THERE BEFRE WAS A SCAR ON THE CITY
Then a rebel group comes in, loots the museum, and destroys/sells the artifacts to private buyers. It's the circle of life
Captivating discussion
very good idea and beatifull thing, except this modern part on the river side. Thats totally stupid idea.
Great contents..interesting to watch. 👍
How is it “fake baroque”? the architecture isn’t plaster and foam, how insulting to modern architecture that doesn’t need to be “modernist” it’s a return to classical styles
They should rebuild the interior. You can’t go on for ever blaming a nation on the mistakes of one generation
Doesn't have to do with rebuilding the interior; it is just too costly and there isn't much will to devote so much resources and time to that
Who would have guessed that the Germans would worry something in to anemia? LOL... Personally I like the OLD palace. It has something none of these Art Fascist understand; living in a charming place.
second half is a bit boring. so much focus on cultural appropriation and colonization, yet germany within the context of europe was a very minor player in colonization. there weren't large amounts of land and there wasn't such brutalization as the other european colonizers. if you are going to give it back then just give it back, let them keep it. still i love this project beyond the negativity presented, because this took decades to develop and hopefully it shows berlin / prussian history in its royal days.....simple and all that is needed for this location. you might have screwed it up trying to be culturally sensitive / fashionable fad (no idea why this was so necessary), we will see when i visit. interesting that you brought polynesian ships in there.
0:47 in other words, "it is hollow"
It's not as lavish as putler's palace.
Yes, the lack of a stripper pole really brings the Humboldt down.
Complex and difficult subject of works of art belonging to countries colonized by Europeans.
My respectful opinion:
1. It is true that they were acquired in a rather obscure way, not to say "looted and robbed."
2. I think that despite the above, (1) These invaluable works of art are safer and more accessible to the world public, in European museums than in the countries of the Southern Hemisphere, (so as not to offend or exclude anyone).
Greetings from Medellín. Colombia.🇨🇴
Moving all cultural heritage back to the countries of origin would be quite an effort. But if Germany got back all the works of art and culture looted by the US and the Soviet Union...
🇩🇪🏰In Berlin on 80 'ies, they rebuilt the old town. There rebuilt the old church and old building replica.
Damn, this is bigger than my home.
Is not fake to rebuilt an old style building because moderne archicteture is UGLY ! The Berlin Scholoss is the end of hypocrisie. The city NEEDS buildings in old style just because is beutyful and the beuty is the only thing that unify human kind. Is not the uglyness and meaningfulless conceptual art and the modern. I am a Brazilian by the way. We had no WW II bombs over our cities, but we got modern architecture which changed the cities into a big favela anywhere, ugly and horrible. Do not be hypocrite.
🇩🇪🏰 Berlin is so incredible. As a French tourist, i was impressed by the mixte of old and new modern building. It is CLEAN everywhere.
Es ist wirklich schade, dass sie die Innenräume des Palastes nicht wie zu Zeiten des Kaiserreichs wieder aufgebaut haben, obwohl es Möglichkeiten dazu gibt
Es fehlte leider sowohl Geld als auch Wille.
@@dinofelis9343
Es stimmt, ich hoffe, dass die Museumsstiftung auch nach mehreren Jahren eine 3D-Darstellung der Räume der Hofburg anfertigt
The Throne of Bamun should be *RETURNED* to Bamun. This is an *IMPERATIVE!*
Yes, return all the pagan art and restore the Palace rooms and halls
Just make a replica and give it to them. They won't no the difference.
Who decides if the assets acquired by colonial appropriation should be returned?!
The *PRUSSIAN* cultural heritage foundation! 😂😂😂
So it was destroyed only to be rebuilt to look identical? That just sounds stupid
I'm only watching here and already got a headache from all the issues of the artifacts' unsightly history and the developer's unending problems (some political). They're using a large amount of donations and it's much better to invest it wisely on their established buildings or the needs of their citizens. I doubt Germans will missed out with this particular museum too, will it also be better to return the artifacts that were originally from their native homelands??
When this are stable stats it would make sense but not when there is a real chance it get´s lost in war.
This museum is exactly what Germans need (plus one for our own history). This thirst for knowledge not wealth is what separates us from the British and makes us who we are. I’m only sorry we can’t spend more on our museums! We got to start collecting these items again.
@@Oberkommando Yeah, I think India wants that diamond back plus reparations for one or two centuries of occupation.
Maybe Germany should have looked at Canada and at our re-imagining museum and presenting today a new vision.
Why the heck you are talking about "fake baroque"? This is a reconstruction and not fake. An ornament is an ornament is an ornament.... There is no fake until the ornament is painted or somehow a trick. Those baroque elements are heavy reality.
That's not how architectural history works. We call things neo-Gothic for a reason. Buildings are dated as belonging to a particular cultural and historical period. "Reconstructions" of the historical past are not the same thing, even if they look exactly the same. Nobody goes to Dresden and sees the reconstructed Frauenkirche and thinks it's the original.
@@h.b.7104 Fake is the wrong word for a 100% reconstruction. Nobody would call the rebuild frauenkirche a fake...
first they rebuilt the royal place then they will restore the monarchy
I hope so tbh
palace of the republic was beautiful...
Definitely not...it was very ugly like those communist russian blocks buildings indeed
It had all the charm of a seedy pod mall.
@@Booka60 one was a palace for the people with many amenities, and what we have now is a symbol of prussian imperialism and the german colonial era. So i'd take the former rather than the present, even if it looks like a seedy pod mall.
Beauty is entirely subjektiv, I for one find the palace of the republic to be ugly and the royal palace to be beautiful but other people might have the opposite opinion or even like or dislike both of them. The main problem with the GDR building was however the fact that the entire thing was literally filled with poison.
@@dinofelis9343 I find the beauty in the palace of the republik because it was a centre for the community, something that germany lacks today, and would have been very nice if something like that would have rebuilt today. Unfortunately they built an imperial relic that is frankly irrelevant to Berlin’s post-imperial culture and just another tourist magnet to add to the museum island, further pushing locals away from the city centre…
Be honest once destroyed should be leave it as it is as it lost value of historical records
First as tragedy then as farce.
I🇩🇪🏰 In Berlin east, they are a lot of original building, repared after the end of the walls on 90'ies.
26:06
Whait what
I thought Bismarck was against colonies
Only until the Berlin Congress
@@jakubegermajer9841 The kaiser was for it, Bismarck famously said: my map of Africa lies in Europe.
He was against it (mostly for economic reasons - also he saw it as a great way to have more conflicts with other european powers. But he was the chancellor so it was his task to aquire colonies and protect them if wished so from the Reichstag
@@AM-md6sv Bismarck said that before the 1878 Congress. When the scramble for Africa began, he realized that no country can be respected any more as a great power without colonies. General mood among public was for the colonies, as was the case in the armed forces. But it was for Bismarck as the indisputed leader of the Reich to make the final decision
You cannot build that museum with any sense of continuity if you have too many groups that you feel the need to apologize to or appease. It’s really a symptom of a larger problem plaguing western civilization, decay. The moral order is in shambles.. The basic guidelines in which masterpieces can be assembled aren’t acknowledged.
Great to see the Palace rebuilt mostly in the way it is supposed to be, and no it shouldn't have been built without the cross and New Testament passage, that is what was there before and what deserves to be there today. Also, this anti-colonialism stuff is not good, and Germany's history should be respected especially here!
This is a crazy timeline to be living in , as in all the others, Germany has ben wiped out because of all the global atrocities they have committed, and there are just nations of the peace. Under one rule and govern of Humanity. I am amazed at how flawed and evil this timeline is, yet it still beholds it's ever flowing wander.
All the bitching and moaning from the museum operators🙄 they should have just reconstructed the original grande rooms and halls of the Palace
I agree. What is the point of rebuilding a historical building but change it that significantly? They might as well have bult something completely new.
Why do they have to fight over the reconstruction of a building? Don't they have more interesting things to talk about? The building they demolished was ugly and the new one looks good so there shouldn't be opposition beyond that of the exorbitant cost.
In Japan most buildings last less than 50 years and are rebuilt, no one complains about hidden meanings or other strange things.
@Alejandro B its quite nice actually.