Neue Wache is famous for its changing of the guard ceremony, which went unchanged throughout the 20th century despite radical changes to the German political system. Neue Wache, though, no longer has a regular honor guard except during special events. The modern changing of the guard lacks the goose step once continued by the East German Army, but is otherwise nearly identical to the old ceremony. [3]
History
Original view of the Neue Wache with flanking statues of von Scharnhorst and von Bülow, 1938Scharnhorst statue, originally erected next to the Neue WacheThe glass prism (with eternal flame) in 1970
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 Zeughaus and the Humboldt University, the plain building is characterised by four massive corner risalits and a portico of Doric columns, of the original Greek form, without bases. Schinkel wrote of his design: "The plan of this completely exposed building, free on all sides, is approximately the shape of a Roman castrum, thus the four sturdier corner towers and the inner courtyard." The statuary in the tympanum is intended as a memorial to Prussia's role in the Napoleonic Wars, whose final stage is known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation. It shows Nike, the goddess of victory, deciding a battle. The triglyphs and guttae of the Doric order are omitted. The Jewish architect Salomo Sachs (1772–1855) describes in his autobiography that his architectural designs for the Neue Wache, submitted in 1806 for the Academy Exhibition in Berlin, served as the basis for Schinkel's executed plans.[4]
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
Today's interior of the Neue Wache with Käthe Kollwitz's statue Mother with her dead son
The building served as a royal guard house until the end of World War I and the fall of the monarchy in the German Revolution of 1918–19. In 1931 the architect Heinrich Tessenow was commissioned by the Free State of Prussia to redesign the building as a war memorial to commemorate those who died in the Great War. Tessenow converted the interior into a memorial hall centered around a black granite block with an oak wreath designed by the sculptor Ludwig Gies, situated under an oculus (circular skylight). The Neue Wache was then known as the Memorial of the Prussian State Government. After the Nazi Party took power, the building played a vital role as the site of the annual Heroes' Memorial Day celebrations held by the Nazis and the Nazi German armed forces. The Neue Wache was heavily damaged by bombing and by artillery fire during the Battle of Berlin in the last months of World War II.
After German reunification, the Neue Wache was again rededicated in 1993 as the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Tyranny.[2] At the personal suggestion of the Federal Chancellor of GermanyHelmut Kohl, the East German memorial piece was removed and replaced by an enlarged version of Käthe Kollwitz's sculpture Mother with her Dead Son. The pietà-style sculpture is directly placed under the oculus, and so is exposed to the rain, snow and cold of the Berlin climate, symbolizing the suffering of civilians during and after both World Wars. In addition, there has also been discussion about returning the neoclassical statues back to their original places (next to and opposite the Neue Wache) from where they had been removed by order of Walter Ulbricht.
^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
.jpg)
