Holland, Belgium and Germany: Germany Part 2

This is the last of the four posts of our 2015 trip to Holland, Belgium and Germany.

GERMANY, Part 2
Munich and Berlin

MUNICH

Munich Rathaus

Munich is a real city.  It has about 80 museums.  We only visited a few during our ~week there.  We spent a bit of time wandering the streets in the historic sections of the city.  We visited the extremely large Residenz (photos were permitted) and Ludwig II's summer palace, Nymphenberg, on the outskirts of town (photos permitted here, too).

Art in Munich:  Over the years, I had been told that Europe has the best art and that American museums had the second-rate works of the first-rate artists.  I always considered that European chauvinism, but I have come to realize that this is largely true.  When the European museums sold their art, they kept the best and sold what they didn't want/need. We have something like that in the U.S., too.  The east coast museums have the best quality works of art and the quality goes down as one travels west.  Obviously there are exceptions, but not many.

There are many items from the Third World that found its way into German museums rather than American museums because they were looting those countries well before we were. And when it comes to Bronze Age artifacts, there are no Bronze Age artifacts native to the Americas.

We spent more than two weeks in Munich and Berlin. We thought that the art in Munich was top notch and then we went to Berlin where it was even better.  There were too many stunning items to display on this blog.  We'll post a few, but just choosing which ones is difficult because so many are truly outstanding.

The Residenz Museum:

The palace of the dukes and kings.

It's a lot bigger than it looks.

The Munich Residenz has the world's
largest collection of reliquaries

Rathaus

There are two scenes on the Rathaus clock tower which play several times a day.  One is a scene from the 1568 wedding of Duke William V  (the origin of Oktoberfest). It involves jousting.  The other is the traditional coopers dance to mark the end of the plague in 1517.

It is the fourth largest glockenspiel in Europe.

Kristallnacht Memorial

The new synagogue was build to resemble the Western Wall
in Jerusalem. The stones were imported from Israel.

Nymphenburg, Ludwig II's summer residence on the outskirt of Munich.

Nymphenburg's back yard

For a quick ride into town.
No reason to hitch up the eight horses for this carriage.

Sarah listens to some oompah at the Hofbrauhaus

A monument

A museum

Another monument

Another museum

 No beach,

no problem

NS - Documentation Center

Munich was the birthplace of National Socialism (Nazis).  Munich is coming to terms with its past.  This new museum (2015), the NS - Documentation Center, deals with conditions which led to the Nazi rise to power and the excesses of their administration, particularly to Jews, Roma and Sinti.  The monuments and museums above, as well as many others, were re-purposed by the Nazis for propaganda. 

The museum has no artifacts on display.  The story is told with display boards and tables which have text and supporting/ancillary photographs.

Works by da Vinci, Raffael, Rembrandt and Rubens.  Not necessarily in that order,

A minuscule sampling of the photos which I took of the artwork.

Berlin

Brandenburger Tor / Brandenburg Gate

Berlin is filled with history, culture and politics and we were in the center of it.  Sarah is pointing to where were stayed for our ten days in Berlin.  We were two blocks from the Brandenburg Gate in the former East Berlin. The American embassy was around the corner. The British embassy was at the end of the block. The Holocaust Memorial was at another end of the block and the Fuhrerbunker was across the street from that.

We were able to walk to Checkpoint Charlie and Museum Island (a collection of large museums which were built in the 19th century on an actual island in the Spree River). Other than its historical significance, Checkpoint Charlie was not all that exciting, but the museums exceeded my expectations exponentially.

I saw an awful lot of high-quality art in a short period of time.  Between Munich and Berlin, we spent many long days going to museums.  This was not a vacation, it was more like a passion and it was a lot to absorb.  I am glad that I took so many photographs so that I can see and remember what we saw.  And that was after the museums in Holland and Belgium we had gone to before our two week break driving along the Rhine and following the Romantic Road through the countryside, cobble-stoned medieval villages and walled cities.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe: There had been holocaust memorials in various cities in Germany for decades, but this was the first memorial on a national level and it is only ten years old.  But they did not mince words.  They came right out and said murdered.

There is an underground museum below the memorial. There is no admission charge; 

they want everyone to come and learn.

Memorial to the Persecuted Homosexuals
is across the street.

The New Synagogue (1866) survived Kristall-
nacht but was destroyed by an Allied bomb

in 1945. The facade was rebuilt and it is once 

again a significant part of Berlin's skyline. 

There are constant reminders of the past throughout the city.

This sign at the zoo tells visitors that Jews help develop the zoo but under the Nazis they were denied the right to visit.  The sign expresses deep sorrow  and  remembrance for this.

Topography of Terror Museum at the site of the former 
Gestapo Headquarters is also free of charge

The Topography of Terror Museum has one of the
longest remaining sections of the Berlin Wall.

Wall markers run through the city.

 

Checkpoint Charlie

From Wall to Mall
The Berlin Mall
Two blocks from our apartment
Across the street from our local supermarket

Christmas Market
There are temporary Christmas Markets in every town.
There are many in Berlin.

Museum Island is an actual island in the Spree River where Berlin originated.  Between 1830 and 1930, several large buildings were constructed to house Germany's growing collection of culturally significant items starting with royal donations. The works displayed were of interest to cultured Germans, not necessarily by Germans. The arts of Greece and Egypt and the Orient are on display. There are even items excavated in Germany.  Some of the items are huge and dwarf the Temple of Dendur at the Met.  Let's face it, the Europeans got there first and scooped up the best stuff. There was no American Congo or American West Africa; we were too busy fighting our Civil War and expanding westward to bother with Africa and Asia.

I am posting several items which I found of interest. 

Gold Hat

 There have been only four gold hats excavated.  They are Bronze Age astronomical calculators. They appear to be have been used for religious purposes.

Egyptian stuff here.  Lots of Egyptian stuff.
No photos allowed of the bust of Nefertiti.
It's in its own room.
See it here.

Tens of thousands of artifacts were removed from the museums for protection during the war and brought to safer locations.  The items were taken by the Americans and Russians. In the 1950s, the Americans returned the items to the museums.  The museums are still waiting for the artifacts from the Russians. Meanwhile, copies were made for display purposes.  The gold hat (above) is real.  

 There's more to Ishtar's Gate.

See more from the Pergamon.

 Left side and right side.  Really large.  Greece.

The façade from Mshatta, Islamic art.

Wings

There are feathered bird wings, membranous bat wings and insect wings.

Who knew that the evolution of the human form would take us down such a diverse path?

Love conquers all.

It doesn't matter what kind of wings you have.

Then there is the Ancient Wing -
the archaeopteryx, the first bird.
There have only been 11 fossils of archaeopteryx found.
All in Germany
This is from Berlin's Museum für Naturkund, the natural history museum, 
something else I was looking forward to seeing.

The natural history museum's wet storage room.
They have dry storage on several floors.
A lot of stuffed stuff.

Diversity of Life

Diversity of Minerals

The former owners of this, and other reliquaries in this exhibit, are currently
suing the museum in US court claiming a forced sale to the Nazis

Berlin Zoo's Elephant Gate

The world famous Berlin Zoo has more species of animals than any zoo.  It is larger than four of the five NYC zoos; not the Bronx Zoo.

 Brandenburg Gate

Reischstag, the German parliament

The Kaiser's Church was left un-repaired as a memorial.
The ground floor is fixed up.

Victory Monument
I don't know who they beat.
It wasn't us.

Book Burning Memorial

The glass isn't clean. Maybe because it's the off season.  However, you can see the empty bookshelves below.  It represent the thousands of books burned on this square of Humboldt University during the Nazi era.

The plaque reads that where they burn books, they will burn people.

It was written by Heinrich Heine in 1820.  Some people consider it prophetic.  But Heine was Jewish and knew about the Spanish Inquisition.  It had happened before, but modern technology allowed it to go further.

Hitler killed himself under this parking lot.