Born in East Berlin in 1947, Karl Biedermann is a German artist, best known for his sculptures. I highlight here two of his works as memorials, both located in Berlin Mitte. The two locations are separated by a short 1-km walk.
A bronze kneeling torso appears on the west side of Zionskirche (Zion Church). The 1997 sculpture by Karl Biedermann is a memorial to Dietrich Bonhoeffer: theologian, pastor at Zionskirche, and vocal dissident who opposed Nazi programs of forced sterilization and euthanasia. He was arrested at his parents’ house in 1943, and executed for conspiracy at Flössenburg on 9 April 1945, mere weeks before the Nazis’ unconditional surrender.
At the north end of Koppenplatz (Koppen plaza) is what appears to be an open room with a table and two chairs; one of the chairs has fallen over. It’s as if the people who once lived here had to leave quickly and are now gone. This is “Der verlassene Raum”: Denkmal für die deportierten Juden, or “The deserted room”: a memorial for the deported Jews. It’s a reference to the nearby Scheunenviertel, once a thriving hub for Berlin’s Jewish community. Biedermann and landscape architect Eva Butzmann created the sculptural piece for Koppenplatz in 1996.
It’s my 2nd time at the latter sculpture, and the empty eerie feeling has never left me.
Memorial to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, by Karl Biedermann (1997), next to the Zionskirche.
On the granite base of the sculpture is the sculpture’s title and inscription: “Für Dietrich Bonhoeffer” (For Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
“Der verlassene Raum”: Denkmal für die deportierten Juden.
“The deserted room”, memorial for the deported Jews.
I made the images with an iPhone15 on 21 May (first two) and 4 June 2025 (last two). This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
To the northwest of the yellow-roofed and very modern Philharmonie (Philharmonic Hall) is the 2014 “T4 memorial”, dedicated to patients in hospitals, elder-care homes, and mental health facilities who were murdered because they were deemed “financial burdens” and “socially, physically, and/or mentally unfit for any use in society”.
The Nazi “forced euthanasia” program saw the murder of hundreds of thousands across Europe, and became the first stage of systematic mass extermination, whose initial practices led directly to the much wider-scale organized and industrialized process of the Holocaust. In 1940, a department called “Zentraldienststelle T4” (T4 central office) put together the coordination of leadership, medical staff, methods of killing, assembly of victims, and the facilities required. The department was named after its Berlin address: Tiergartenstrasse 4. The “Aktion T4” (Operation T4) continued secretly until 1944, accelerating to gas chambers and the establishment of killing centres.
This is a part of the playbook with similar language being used again. Not even a century has passed, and to the shameless of some, all those people entrapped by T4 all apparently died for nothing.
I’m standing today at Tiergartenstrasse 4.
24-meter long blue-wall (left, east); information display (right, west).
“Goodbye, blue sky …”
Anna Lehnkering, 1915-1940. Growing up in the Ruhr region, Anna was a sweet mild-mannered child with a learning disability. As she was discovered to have a “hereditary disease”, she was forcibly sterilized in 1935, and admitted to Bedburg-Hau hospital in 1936. She became increasingly restless and difficult; officials declared her “incapable of work”. In March 1940, the T4 doctors’ commission selected her for murder by gas asphyxiation at the Grafeneck killing centre.
Ilsze Lekschas, 1895-1940. Ilsze, her husband, and their two children lived in East Prussia’s Memel, which in 1923 was occupied by Lithuania. She underwent treatment in 1925 because of religious delusions. In 1939, the Memel region was incorporated into greater Germany by which time she was moved to a facility in Tapiau. In May 1940, she was transferred to the Soldau transit camp, where she was murdered by the SS-Sondercommando Lange unit which had developed the use of “gas vans” or mobile gas chambers.
Wilhelm Werner, 1898-1940. Born into a penniless family, Werner sometimes lived in housing for the needy in Franconia’s Nordheim am Main. In 1919, he was admitted to the sanatorium in Werneck with the diagnosis of “idiocy.” He was subsequently and forcibly sterilized in 1933 under Nazi law. He tried to come to terms with the “Triumph of Sterelation” with over 40 of his drawings. In 1940, “Aktion T4” selected him for murder by asphyxiation with carbon dioxide at the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing centre
At right is “Berlin Junction” by Richard Serra (1987).
Despite the bright afternoon sun, walking inside and between the two tall curved metal pieces was an unsettling experience.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 3 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) is one of the most important German architects in early 19th-century Berlin, where most of his works are located. They include: Altes Museum, Friedrichswerder Church, Konzerthaus, Neue Wache, Schlossbrücke, and the Humboldt Schloss (known also as Tegel-Palais or Schloss Tegel).
There’s a modest patch of Humboldt family history in Tegel, about 10 km northwest from Berlin city centre. What started as a mid-16th century manor house would by the mid-18th century be owned by the Humboldt family. Brothers Wilhelm and Alexander Humboldt grew up in the house in the (17)70s and 80s. Many years later in 1819, Wilhelm commissioned Schinkel to rebuild the palace in the Classicist style. Inside there are many Greco-Roman decorative elements, reflecting the years Wilhelm and his wife, Caroline, lived in Rome. Schinkel would also go on in 1829 to design the family burial site on the palatial grounds.
Humboldt-Schloss (Tegel-Palais): entering the property.
The property is under private ownership, and the only access is a guided-tour of the house on Mondays from early-May to the end of September. There’s an admission charge for the 1-hour tour in German; neither photos nor video allowed inside. The tour is not for the casual visitor, but for those who’re serious to learn more about the Humboldts, Schinkel’s architecture, and their respective impact on Berlin history.The info here was useful.
Main entrance, east side of the house; the west entrance is off-limits. The ticket counter is on the north side of the building.
About 600 metres on a sandy path west from the palace is the Humboldt family cemetery, designed by Schinkel.
At the top of the central column is a copy of “Spes” (Roman goddess of hope) by Bertel Thorwaldsen (1817). Favoured by Caroline Humboldt, the original sculpture for the column is inside the Humboldt palace and visible during the guided tour.
Wilhelm Humboldt: diplomat, linguist, philosopher; born 22 June 1767, died 8 April 1835.
Alexander Humboldt: ecologist, geographer, natural historian; born 14 September 1769, died 6 May 1859.
The Humboldt family palace in the background, as seen from the family cemetery.
View of the palace from the west, in late-day sun.
Sign at entrance to the property.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 2 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
The international UNESCO body recognized the importance of Berlin’s Museumsinsel or Museum Island by inscribing the site onto the list of World Heritage (WH) Sites in 1999.
The Berlin Museumsinsel is an island consisting of five museums built between 1824 and 1930: Alte Nationalgalerie, Altes Museum, Bode-Museum, Neues Museum, and Pergamonmuseum. These museums represent individual artistic and historical significance, the continuing development of what museums should mean to society, and the achievement of a grand central civic project.
To coincide with Germany’s annual World Heritage Day on the 1st Sunday in June, the entire Museum Island celebrates its 200th anniversary with a weekend festival. I’ve chosen to visit the Altes Museum (Old Museum) and the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery).
Altes Museum
Altes Museum: construction 1823-1830, to designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Berlin’s oldest museum now specializes in Greek and Roman antiquities.
Natural light through the cupola in the rotunda illuminates Roman statue-copies of deities from Greek mythology.
Hera (Juno), queen goddess.
Hygeia (Salus), goddess of health.
Nike (Victoria), goddess of victory.
Tyche (Fortuna), goddess of chance.
Aphrodite (Venus), goddess of love.
Demeter (Ceres), goddess of agriculture.
Artemis (Diana). goddess of wild animals and the hunt; however, she’s missing a bow and arrows.
Alte Nationalgalerie
Alte Nationalgalerie, constructed 1866-1876 from designs by F. Stüler & J. Strack; now houses paintings and sculptures mostly from the 19th-century, including important works by C.D. Friedrich and K.F. Schinkel.
“Gothic Cathedral on the water”, by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, 1813.
“Castle by the water,” by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, 1820.
“Rock arch”, by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1818).
“Deep in the forest by moonlight”, Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1830.
“Greifswald Harbour”, Caspar David Friedrich, 1818-1820.
“Moonrise over the sea”, by Caspar David Friedrich, 1822.
“Woman at a Window”, by Caspar David Friedrich, 1822.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 1 June 2025. I did not receive any request or compensation for the content here. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
Behind the Wall, the East Germans continued to build monuments to bolster their one-party-is-all ideology among the working masses.
In 1986, authorities set aside about 3 hectares of space for the Marx-Engels-Forum after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who both authored “The Communist Manifest” (1848). This park was located between the Palace of the Republic, the East German parliament which eventually got demolished; and Alexanderplatz with the area’s largest and tallest free-standing structure, the Television Tower completed in 1969.
Today, the Marx-Engels-Forum has been left somewhat wanting long after the Fall of the Wall and subsequent reunification of the two Germanys. There are plans to renovate the site, but in the meantime, the Forum is squeezed on one side by the new Humboldt Forum and the City Palace, a new old-reconstruction with a large controversial dose of the imperial past; and on the other side by one of the last remnants of socialist East Germany, the Television Tower, which makes money now like any good tourist attraction should in a western-style economy.
What Marx and Engels might be thinking, sitting “alone” between reminders that East Berlin and East Germany no longer exist.
Karl Marx (seated) & Friedrich Engels, after whom the open public space was named after completion in 1986 by East German authorities.
Behind Marx & Engels to the southwest is the very recent Humboldt Forum and the City Palace behind (not seen).
In front of and over Engels & Marx to the northeast looms this funky ‘70s disco ball in the sky 🪩
Big plans for a big plaza, from all levels of government: city-state, federal, and European. What will the space be and how will it eventually appear?
The wide open space: in the background left to right are respectively: Marienkirche (St. Mary’s), Fernsehturm (Television Tower), Rotes Rathaus (red city hall).
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 31 May 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
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