When I think of Berlin I think of opera and construction sites — and here I was lucky enough to get both in the same photo, because they happened to be ripping up the street “Unter den Linden” right in front of the State Opera House (Staatsoper) when I was Read More …
This distinguished gentleman casting a skeptical eye at Berlin’s largest opera house is none other than the great English playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616), whose bust was given to the city of Berlin by the city of London on the occasion of Berlin’s 750th birthday. Up to now I have only Read More …
Berlin is the only German city that has three full-scale professional opera houses. This one is called the Komische Oper or ‘Comic Opera’, but that doesn’t mean everything they do is hilariously funny. The name Komische Oper was originally meant to suggest that this opera house (like the Opera Comique in Read More …
The Philharmonie in Berlin is an early example (perhaps even the earliest?) of a modern concert hall with the orchestra in the middle and the audience seated in irregular blocks on all sides. It was built from 1956 to 1963 by the architect Hans Scharoun (1893-1972). The German author Gerwin Read More …
Right next door to the Berlin Philharmonie, in fact in the same complex of buildings and built in the same style, is the Musical Instrument Museum (Musikinstrumenten-Museum). This museum belongs to the State Institute for Music Research, which has a collection of 3500 musical instruments from the 16th century to Read More …
Charlottenburg is a district in the western part of Berlin. It is not very old, by European standards, but that doesn’t stop it from having an “Old Town Path” with thirteen stops and a text panel (or sometimes two) at each stop. The tenth stop on the Old Town Path Read More …
From the excellent English-language audio guide, we learned that this palace was originally built by Elector Friedrich III as a summer residence for his wife Sophie Charlotte in 1699. It was later expanded into a royal palace after Friedrich became the first Prussian King, Friedrich I. The palace was severely Read More …
The Humboldt University in Berlin was founded in 1810 by the scholar, linguist and diplomat Wilhelm von Humboldt, 1767-1835, who for a short time — less than a year, actually — was in charge of education in the government of Prussia. During that time he and his staff not only Read More …
In 1905 Albert Einstein, who was then a 26-year-old employee of the Swiss Patent Office in Bern, published four scientific papers which among other things solved the long-standing problem of Brownian motion and introduced the totally new theory of Special Relativity. The 100th anniversary of these papers in 2005 was Read More …
Although I am not a military buff (my own military service cured me of that), I do enjoy looking at 16th and 17th century citadels, particularly since I have visited the ones designed or strengthened by Vauban (1633-1707) in French cities such as Belfort, Besançon and Lille. The Citadel in Read More …