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Published: June 18th 2005
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Islamic Prayer Nook
Forgive me, but I think they actually refered to this as a nook in the museum. After my day in the sun, taking useless pictures of animals and generally enjoying myself, I was overcome by a strong sense of guilt. It had to be guilt. Either guilt or heatstroke.
Surely there was some imbalance in the Jason, as I'd indulged my whimsy but not my intellect. Cavorting about Berlin on a rickety bicycle, drinking cheap beer and laying in the sun was all well and good, but when was I going to grow up, put on long pants, and play adult?
Hoping to avert disappointment and expand my mind, I visited the two most immediately appealing of Berlin's MANY (MANYMANYMANY) museums. Berlin is serious about its history and culture and seriously good at marketing it. There is even an
island in the city devoted solely to museums.
First, the
Jüdisches Museum
...heavily promoted, frequently recommended by word of mouth, and housed in a most excellent building. Looking like a shattered Star of David that's scarred the Berlin landscape, the museum is an architectural novelty that may accrue more photographs from outside than inside. Count me among those who wanted to capture (in vain) the pure might of the building, but I found
no way. Similarly enough, the inside of the museum is almost totally experiential. I kept my camera sheathed nearly the entire time, finally realizing that the only way to share the Jüdisches Museum is to bring someone here.
Split into three axes, the lower floor of the Museum charts the path of three seperate groups of Jews in Germany. Each axis is filled not with items from the Museum's collection, but those donated by families and friends in memory of loved ones. Throughout, there are giant (seriously mega) open spaces, known as the museum's "voids."
First is the Axis of Continuity, an ever-ascending staircase that leads to the permanent exhibition floors. Second is the Axis of Exile, chronicling the escape of nearly three hundred thousand Jews to destinations around the world, culminating in the Garden of Exile. The Garden of Exile is a walled-in parallelogram with a 7x7 grid of concrete-encased olive trees. 48 of them are filled with Berliner Earth, 1 with Israeli Earth. Olive branches extend from the open tops, nearly 20 feet above. The whole garden is set on an incline, with the columns claustrophobically close.
Lastly is the Axis of Holocaust. At its
Gangsta Bull
Three arrows in its head and still giving the raspberry terminus is the Holocaust Tower, a room several stories high, lit only by a tiny flourescent bulb. The wedge-shaped room is a challenge to enter due to the giant steel door one must heave open. Once inside, there's not much to it. If you can bear it, a few minutes inside will exaggerate the silence, cold, emptiness and bleary light so that when new people enter, it's like a brief explosion of stimuli. Of course, these people immediately shut up and move against a wall like everyone else.
I sat on the ground for almost a half an hour. Without question, it was the single best people-watching exercise I'd ever participated in. Most people stayed for several minutes. One by one, they all gravitated to the most acutely-angled nook of the room and stared into the corner, or up at the light. Eventually, a group of teenagers sat down opposite me and stared. One by one, they left, except for one brown-haired boy. Was he treating this like a competition? If so, I was determined to let him win. By that time, I'd had enough group isolation and was ready to see sunlight again. Hopefully he felt some sense
World's Coolest Frieze
I call this one, "Cyclone over Athens" of accomplishment.
The building was designed by
Daniel Libeskind, architect for the replacement of the WTC in NYC.
Disclaimer:
At the Jüdisches Museum, as well as at the Pergamon Museum, there were several wonderful and inspiring exhibits. In many cases, the presentation, experience or sheer scale of the display kept me from photographing them. Instead, I elected to only photograph the smaller, charming highlights, and leave the awe and wonder for you when you visit.
Pergamonmuseum
Like the Jüdisches Museum, the Pergamonmuseum threatens to overpower its collection with its setting. The building is positively enormous, epic, grand in scale and in concept. Hinting at the classical finds within, its presence is so commanding and muscular, it looks to have been roughly hewn out of a mountain.
From the moment you enter the Museum, it becomes clear why it is so titanically excessive. It's meant to hold pieces of other buildings
inside. There are so many display of breathtaking HISTORICALOSITY that the kneebuckling effect becomes expected...
The first thing you see is the Pergamon Altar of Zeus, three stories high, ringed by gigantic friezes of gods battling giants. It fills a room the size of a
football field and has signs warning people to climb the stairs at their own risk.
I continued through the museum and was stunned, over and over; first by the Pergamon Altar, then by the Market Gate of Miletus, then by the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, and the Mshatta Facade. They know how to impress. The Pergamon is like the summer blockbuster of Berlin Museums. Let's see that on some pamphlet copy.
It's not all gigantic treasures the Germans absconded with over a century ago. Many other delights are more normally proportioned, including collections of breadth and depth from Babylon, Assyria, the Caliphates as well as a large collection from early Islamic civilizations. Mosaics, altars, urns, jewelry and rugs. I began to enjoy the threads running between the collections, most notably the sculptures of magical creatures.
Here are some pictures.
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NinjaWadzi
non-member comment
Nook!
Man I never ever in my like, 25 years of being Muslim knew what the fuck to call that thing. Excellence.