Neue Wache
52°31′03″N 13°23′44″E / 52.51750°N 13.39556°E
The Neue Wache (English: New Watchhouse) is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. Erected from 1816 to 1818 according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel as a guardhouse for the Royal Palace and a memorial to the Liberation Wars, it is considered a major work of Prussian Neoclassical architecture. A Victoria pedimental sculpture by Johann Gottfried Schadow and five General statues by Christian Daniel Rauch, referring to the Warrior statues on Schlossbrücke, also belong to the ensemble.[1] Since 1993, the Neue Wache has been home to the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny.[2]
History
King Frederick William III of Prussia ordered the construction of the Neue Wache as a guardhouse for the Königliches Palais (Royal Palace), his palace across the road, to replace the old Artillery Guardhouse. He commissioned Schinkel, the leading exponent of Neoclassical architecture, to design the building: this was Schinkel's first major commission in Berlin. The Neue Wache was inaugurated on 18 September 1818 by the Prussian 1st Guards Grenadiers on occasion of the official visit of Tsar Alexander I of Russia.
Located between the
Here I cannot fail to point out how the basic features of the building complex up to the new guardhouse, as it stands there now, correspond to mine. At first I had put this building on aligned, not with the armoury but with the university. The peculiarity of my construction was that the façade was actually formed by the rear front (high wall), in that the roof was to have its waste only towards the rear. In addition, two short side wings, connected by a Blinding-Masonry at the back and enclosing a small courtyard, were placed in such a way that the whole was a closed square. Finally, the façade was decorated with 6 Doric columns and two pavilions on each side. I hope that nobody will take offence at the comparison I am making here between Schinkel's design and my earlier project of one and the same building, because I am not talking about Schinkel's elaborate decoration of the building, but only about the adaptation of the execution and the construction.
— Salomo Sachs, My fifty year of services and literary Work A contribution to the thematic illumination of the question "Are Jews for state service are suitable?" (For the benefit of the Berlin poor) Berlin, 1842 printed by F. Weidle
The building served as a royal guard house until the end of
After the war, the Mitte district was located within the
After
See also
- List of tourist attractions in Berlin
- La Madeleine, Paris (Paris, France)
- Kazan Cathedral, Saint Petersburg (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
- Palais Bourbon (Paris, France)
- Palais Brongniart (Paris, France)
References
- ^ Neue Wache (in German) Landesdenkmalamt Berlin
- ^ a b "The New Guardhouse in Berlin". Domestic Protocol Office of the Federal Government.
- ^ Salomo Sachs. Autobiography, My fifty year of services and literary Work. A contribution to the thematic illumination of the question "Are Jews for state service are suitable?" by S. Sachs, Königl. Regierungs-BauInspektor in Berlin. (For the benefit of the Berlin poor) Berlin, 1842 Published by the author himself (Alexanderstraße Nr. 55.) printed by F. Weidle - Library of the Jewish Community of Berlin (in German) P. 10 and P. 11
External links
- Media related to Neue Wache at Wikimedia Commons
- "The National Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny: From Conflict To Consensus", lecture with handout and bibliography by Harold Marcuse, covers history since 1816.
- Neue Wache travel photos by Galen Fry Singer, of facade, sculpture and inscriptions.