Neues Museum
Neues Museum | |
Established | 1855 |
---|---|
Location | Museum Island, Berlin |
Coordinates | 52°31′14″N 13°23′52″E / 52.52056°N 13.39778°E |
Type | Archaeology museum |
Public transit access | U: Museumsinsel () |
Website | www |
Part of | Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin |
Criteria | Cultural: ii, iv |
Reference | 896 |
Inscription | 1999 (23rd Session) |
Area | 8.6 ha (21 acres) |
Buffer zone | 22.5 ha (56 acres) |
The Neues Museum (New Museum) is a listed building on the
Overview
The Neues Museum was the second museum to be built on
Moreover, the Neues Museum is an important monument in the history of construction and technology. With its various iron constructions, it is the first monumental building of Prussia to consistently apply new techniques made possible by industrialization. As a further innovation, a steam engine was used for the first time in construction in Berlin. Among other things, it was used to ram pilings into the building ground. The soft, spongy soil around the River Spree means that buildings in the central area of Berlin require deep foundations.
It was built between 1843 and 1855 according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The museum was closed at the beginning of World War II in 1939,[4] and was heavily damaged during the bombing of Berlin. The rebuilding was overseen by the English architect David Chipperfield.[5] The museum officially reopened in October 2009[6] and received a 2010 RIBA European Award[7] and the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.
Exhibits include the Egyptian and Prehistory and Early History collections, as it did before the war. The artifacts it houses include the iconic bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti.[6]
Both as a part of the Museum Island complex and as an individual building, the museum testifies to the neoclassical architecture of museums in the 19th century. With its new industrialized building procedures and its use of iron construction, the museum plays an important role in the history of technology. Since the classical and ornate interiors of the Glyptothek and of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich were destroyed in World War II, the partly destroyed interior of the Neues Museum ranks among the last remaining examples of interior museum layout of this period in Germany.
History
Construction
Construction of the Neues Museum began on 19 June 1841, under the auspices of a committee established by Frederick William IV, which included the curator of the Royal Museums, Ignaz von Olfers, as well as Friedrich August Stüler. The king, with his cabinet, had already ordered that the construction project be assigned to Stüler on 8 March 1841. The poor quality of the ground at the building site became apparent quickly, when the workers discovered deposits of diatomaceous earth just below the surface. Therefore, a pile structure was necessary under the whole building, consisting of 2344 wooden foundation piles between 6.9 and 18.2 meters (23 and 60 ft) long. To ram the piles in, a 5-horsepower (3.7 kW) steam engine was used, whose power could be increased if necessary to 10 hp (7.5 kW). It drove the pumps that drained the building site, the elevators, and the mortar mixing machines. The newsletter of the Berlin Architecture Association reported on the building site and the new technical devices.
On 6 April 1843 when the ceremony of laying the cornerstone took place, the foundations, including the
From opening to World War II
When the Neues Museum opened, there were the Egyptian, patriotic and ethnographic collections in the ground floor, while the collections of the plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculptures from antiquity and
From 1883 to 1887, an additional mezzanine level, which is not visible from the exterior, was added to the Neues Museum. The collection of plaster casts, a centerpiece of collections at the time of the construction, grew during the course of the 19th century to become one of the most extensive and most comprehensive cast collections. However, because of a change in curatorial priorities in favour of original works of art, it was handed over between 1916 and 1920 (with the exception of the largest statues) to the
In the halls of the first floor, the vase collection of the antique museum, as well as the papyrus collection of the Egyptian museum were installed. Changes in the ground floor, from 1919 to 1923, led for the first time to substantial changes in the original building. In the Greek courtyard, the apse was removed, the courtyard covered with a glass roof, and a new floor at the same height as the ground floor was added. Thus several rooms and cabinets for the display of the Amarna collection were created. In the adjacent areas of the ground floor, suspended ceilings were added to produce modern, neutral display rooms by covering the original decorations.
The museum was closed at the beginning of World War II in 1939.
World War II to 2009
In the post-war period, the ruin of the Neues Museum in the Soviet-occupied part of the city was left decaying for a long period of time.
In 1997, planning for the reconstruction project was resumed and English architect
A new reception building for visitors to Museum Island, the "Cube", was also planned to be completed in 2009. The "Cube", which cost about €60 million, was under a planning freeze, which Chipperfield saw as endangering progress on the Neues Museum, according to ZDF, the Second German Television channel. In view of the total cost of the Museum Island master plan, estimated to be €1.5 billion, the controversy over the €60 million for the "Cube" appeared disproportionate not only to the architect. A March 2006 report on ZDF commented, "if the planning freeze is not lifted by the end of the year, the "Cube" cannot be completed in time.
Reopening in 2009
After the consolidation of the foundations and walls, the Neues building was reconstructed. This work was done within the framework of the Masterplan for Berlin's Museum Island, with a cost of approximately €295 million for the Neues Museum. The northwest wing and the south-east façade, which were completely destroyed in the war, have been reconstructed according to Chipperfield's plan, in a manner close to their original layout in the museum building.
In March 2009, the museum briefly reopened to the public with its empty building; artifacts had not been installed at that time.
The museum houses the Egyptian museum and papyrus collection with its famous
The museum becomes part of the archaeological promenade: an underground passageway connecting all the buildings on the Museum Island, with the exception of the Alte Nationalgalerie. This includes the Neues Museum as an important part of the historical architectural context of the Museum Island. The building has been said to represent a lasting monument in stone for its first architect, Friedrich August Stüler, who wished that "the whole building should form a centre for the highest mental interests of the people, the likes of which no other capital would likely be able to exhibit."[citation needed]
Building
As originally built (see map below), the Neues Museum was nearly rectangular, with the long axis of the building (105 m or 344 ft) oriented north to south, parallel to Am Kupfergraben (the street to the west, across the River Spree), and a width of 40 meters (130 ft). The building is nearly perpendicular to the Altes Museum, with the Bodestraße between them. The bridge connecting the two museums (destroyed during World War II) was 6.9 m (23 ft) wide, 24.5 m (80 ft) long, and supported by three arches. The main stairway was located in the center of the building, which was the highest section (31 m or 102 ft tall).
The three main wings surround two interior courtyards, the Greek courtyard and the Egyptian courtyard. The northern Egyptian courtyard was covered with a glass ceiling from the beginning, but the southern Greek courtyard was first covered with a glass ceiling between 1919 and 1923.
2009
The James Simon Gallery, located on Museum Island, provides access to an area near the Neues Museum that was previously inaccessible. The architectural dialogue between the two buildings is now evident, representing the culmination of a process that began when the Neues Museum reopened in 2009.[10] The contemporary architectural plan for the James Simon Galerie was also designed by David Chipperfield.
General map
Ground Floor (Erdgeschoss) 1) Greek Courtyard |
Upper Floor (1. Stockwerk) 13) Main Stairs |
See also
- List of art museums
- List of museums in Berlin
- List of museums in Germany
- Medinet Madi library
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-3-03768-067-4.
References
- ^ Neues Museum (in German) Landesdenkmalamt Berlin
- ^ "Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Home". Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
- ^ "Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
- ^ Spiegel Online. 16 October 2009.
- ^ a b c Glancey, Jonathan (16 March 2009). "A rebirth in Berlin: British bombs turned the Neues Museum into a charred wreck. Now British architects have rebuilt it". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
- ^ a b c d e Hickley, Catherine (16 October 2009). "Queen Nefertiti's Home, a Ruin for 70 Years, Opens in Berlin". Bloomberg.
- ^ "2010 RIBA Award Winners Announced". Bustler. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- ^ a b c Richter, Christoph (16 October 2009). "Reconstruction of Berlin's Neues Museum vexes traditionalists". Deutsche Welle.
- ^ Kimmelman, Michael (11 March 2009). "For Berlin Museum, a Modern Makeover That Doesn't Deny the Wounds of War". The New York Times.
- ^ "Acropolis in the heart of Berlin: James Simon Galerie on Museum Island". Detail.de. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
External links
- Official website (in German and English)
- Masterplan für die Museumsinsel
- Rede von Kulturstaatsministerin Christina Weiss am 24. Juni 2003
- Monuments in Berlin/Senate Department of Urban Development in Berlin
- A visit to the Neues Museum
- Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung: The rebuilding and restoration of the surviving ruin of the Neues Museum (with many pictures included)