The Neue Wache (New Guardhouse) in Berlin is located on the boulevard Unter den Linden between Deutsches Historisches Museum (German History Museum) and Humboldt University. Since 1993, the Neue Wache is a memorial to the victims of war and tyranny. However, during its 200-year history, it had four distinct faces. The building’s interior has seen even more configurations during that time.
History of the Neue Wache
In 1818, on the occasion of Germany’s victory in the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon, King Friedrich Wilhelm III ordered the construction of the Neue Wache. Originally, it was erected as a guardhouse for the Prussian royal family and a monument to the victims of the anti-Napoleonic wars. For the next 100 years the Royal Guard was stationed at the Neue Wache. It was the Neue Wache to which Wilhelm Voigt, the bogus “Captain from Koepenick,” took the mayor and the city treasurer of Koepenick in 1906 while impersonating a captain in the Regiment of Foot Guards. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/the-captain-from-koepenick-ruse/
One hundred years later, in 1918, the German monarchy abdicated and the Neue Wache was converted into a memorial for the victims of World War I. During World War II the building was severely damaged by bombs.
Following the division of Germany in 1945, the Neue Wache was located in the Soviet sector of the divided city. In 1960, the East German government transformed the restored building into a memorial to the victims of fascism and militarism. It housed an eternal flame in a cube above the remains of an unknown concentration camp prisoner and an unknown fallen soldier. A Soviet honor guard stood watch and marched in front of the memorial.
Change of the Soviet Honor Guard in front of Neue Wache – photo © J. Elke Ertle, 1990, www.walled-in-berlin.com
The Neue Wache Today
In 1993, the Reunified Germany turned the Neue Wache into its main monument for the commemoration of the victims of war and tyranny. The building now houses Kaethe Kollwitz’s sculpture “Mother and her Dead Son.” An open, circular skylight provides the only light and leaves the sculpture in the center exposed to wind and weather. An underground room still houses the remains of the unknown soldier and soil from battlefields and concentration camps.
Kaethe Kollwitz sculpture “Mother and her Dead Son” inside the Neue Wache, Berlin – photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2016, www.walled-in-berlin.com
Who was the artist Kaethe Kollwitz?
Kaethe Kollwitz, a well-known German artist, was born in eastern Prussia in 1867. With the outbreak of the First World War, her sons Hans and Peter volunteered for service. Peter was killed just months into the conflict and Kollwitz never recovered from the loss. Several of her sculptures, including “Mother and her Dead Son” were inspired by Peter’s untimely death.
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Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
