SPK - The magazine shows the new centre of Berlin
Press release from 06/20/2018
Humboldt Forum, James-Simon-Galerie, the interim building for the Pergamon Museum, Staatsbibliothek Unter den Linden, debates about the Bauakademie: the centre of Berlin is changing. A new magazine looks at the present and future of the historically evolved centre.
Under the new title "SPK - Das Magazin", an issue dedicated exclusively to the new centre of Berlin will be published at the end of June. Shortly before the completion of the Humboldt Forum and the James-Simon-Galerie on Museum Island opposite, the magazine asks how culture and science can change the heart of the German capital. The magazine, which was supported by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Board of Trustees and realised with the publishing house Res Publica, will be included in the art magazine "Monopol" on 21 June, a partial edition of the "Tagesspiegel" on 23 June, the political magazine "Cicero" on 28 June and a partial edition of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" on 30 June.
"The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is shaping the new centre of Berlin with its five museums on Museum Island, the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art in the Humboldt Forum and the Staatsbibliothek Unter den Linden. A democratic landscape of culture and knowledge will emerge, inviting us to better understand the world in which we live. This has a long tradition, especially at this location. But how do you build with this history in a forward-looking way for the visitors of tomorrow? Why can't we get away from the modernity of Karl Friedrich Schinkel? And who does it actually belong to, this centre of Berlin?", writes Foundation President Hermann Parzinger in the editorial.
Thorsten Strauß, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, says: "The new centre of Berlin will showcase the diversity of the unique collections of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in a special way. When it is said that the world can be better understood here, this is not just an empty phrase, but an invitation to visit these magnificent museums. The Kuratorium Preussischer Kulturbesitz is involved in various projects for the new centre of Berlin - from the Bode Museum to the Humboldt Forum. We do this in the knowledge that this place of knowledge and experience is not just for insiders, but for everyone who lives in Berlin or visits the city."
"SPK - Das Magazin" with the title "Auf zur Mitte" is published with 52 pages. In addition to opulent photo spreads, David Chipperfield and HG Merz discuss with Christina Haak, Deputy Director General of the National Museums in Berlin, how to actually build for the visitors and cultural travellers of tomorrow and what the situation is in Berlin with hardware and software.
Matthias Wemhoff, Director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the National Museums in Berlin, Tim Edler , initiator of the Flussbad, and Cordula Machoni, pastor of St Mary's Church on Alexanderplatz, argue calmly about who actually owns the centre of Berlin. Should everything be allowed in the centre of Berlin? Or should urban spaces, as Matthias Wemhoff puts it, also be protected from overuse?
In an essay, architecture critic Rainer Haubrich calls for Berlin's most modern architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel to be honoured in the planned reconstruction of the Bauakademie. Supporters and opponents of the reconstruction find their advocates in Petra Kahlfeldt and Matthias Sauerbruch, who write once again on the fundamentals of what remains a heated debate.
And just a stone's throw away from the new Bauakademie building site, Irene Bazinger made an appointment with the Director General of the Berlin State Library, Barbara Schneider-Kempf , to walk with her through the almost completely renovated building on Unter den Linden, which will reopen its doors to the boulevard by 2020 at the latest.
The issue is rounded off with the new column "Fremdgegangen": Surgeon and Medical Director of the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin, Axel Ekkernkamp, meets with archaeologist and Deputy Director of the Antikensammlung, Martin Maischberger, at the Neues Museum to talk to him about people and their injuries. Using ancient models, of course!
- Please order press copies at pressestelle@hv.spk-berlin.de.
- Read "SPK - The magazine: Towards the centre!" online