Over the past 200 years, the Neue Wache has had many roles, but one thing remains constant. It serves as a memorial to something related to war
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The Neue Wache was initially inaugurated in 1818 as a guardhouse for the royal palace, which was located on Museum Island. 100 years later, the German emperor abdicated, and since then it has served as a memorial to war and the victims of tyranny.
The Neue Wache (or New Guardhouse) was designed by Berlin’s renowned architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Schinkel designed part of the guardhouse with the intention that it also serve as a memorial to the War of Liberation, which marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
This was Schinkel’s first major commission for Berlin and was inspired by Roman architecture. This is evident primarily in the fact that it is a freestanding building with columns in front of the entrance.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@flickr. CC BY-SA.
In 1931, the empty guardhouse took on a new significance. Reich President Paul von Hindenburg dedicated the Neue Wache as a memorial to soldiers who fell in World War I.
A little more than a decade later, the Neue Wache found itself in the midst of World War II. During the Battle of Berlin, when the Red Army had invaded the city, the guardhouse took several hits. Some of the bullet holes have been repaired, but there are still traces of the war on the building.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@flickr. CC BY-SA.
After World War II, this part of the city was East Berlin. The East German authorities renovated the guardhouse in 1960 and reopened it as a memorial to the victims of fascism and militarism.
Inside, a glass prism was installed, in which two urns containing the ashes of an unknown fallen soldier and an unknown concentration camp prisoner, respectively, were illuminated by an eternal flame.
And in 1993, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Neue Wache was transformed once again. This time, it became a memorial to the victims of war and tyranny, and Käthe Kollwitz’s sculpture Mother with Her Dead Son was installed there.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@flickr. CC BY-SA.
The sculpture is located directly beneath the oculus and is exposed to rain, snow, and frost, symbolizing the suffering endured by civilians during and after both world wars.
Käthe Kollwitz herself was a victim of the Nazi regime in Germany. Her art was removed from museums, and she was banned from exhibiting. Kollwitz was also outspoken against war, and she was bisexual. Basically, everything the Nazi regime disliked.
So, in the end, the Neue Wache has always been associated with war, and Kollwitz’s sculpture beautifully and tragically embraces the consequences of war and tyranny.
Location:
Unter den Linden 4
10117 Berlin
Family friendly: Yes
Price: Free
Experiences nearby
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