Architecture: Humboldt Forum with crown: portal decoration installed

architecture
Humboldt Forum with crown: portal decoration installed

In its controversial reconstruction of the baroque palace facade, the Humboldt Forum in Berlin can now also contribute to the image of the capital with a huge crown. The gold-plated piece of art, measuring two by two meters, has been sitting on a cartridge weighing around four tons since Tuesday evening.

Like the entire historicizing facade of the 680 million euro building, the cartouche with a crown, which cost around two million euros, was financed from private funds. This raising of funds repeatedly brought negative headlines for the Humboldt Forum. After donations from controversial sources for one of the most important German cultural projects, the origin of the funds should therefore become more transparent.

The eight by eight meter cartouche made of embossed copper with a gilded coat of arms in the center was created in the past two years in a Berlin art forge, taking around 30,000 hours of work. The initials FR in the coat of arms stand for Fridericus Rex (King Friedrich), Friedrich I (1657-1713) was the first king of Prussia. The ensemble also includes a religious cross at the lower end.

This part comes as an original from the Hohenzollern city palace, which was rebuilt at the end of the 17th century. After being damaged in World War II, the building was blown up in 1950 in the GDR. Later, the Palace of the Republic was built on part of the square, which was not rebuilt after extensive asbestos removal.

Humboldt Forum

dpa

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