All Your Art are belong to Contemporary

Allow me to tell you a little more about sites in Berlin. To the left you'll see the Berlin TV Tower and Marienkirche. As you can see, the tower is much like the one in Prague, minus the horrifying babies, but with the added charm of a giant discoball. Apparently for the World Cup they made it into a giant football. And then you have Marienkirche, a 14th century cathedral predating the Protestant Reformation. Here is a great example the blending of the historic and modern. It's all about juxtaposition. Walking in the city you'll find the remains of cathedrals and monuments that survived destruction through the ages, but then turn the corner and you see something off the cover of a 1970's Science Fiction novel.

Another example is the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche where you have the ruins of a 17th century bell tower, and a modern octagonal church tower. Discovering this structure was a surreal experience, for just as we enter the square the great bells begin to echo a haunting melody through the air. It lasted at least ten minutes, and I couldn't help thinking that this was the music we will hear on Armageddon. I have to wonder how the people working the office building nearby react to hearing the deafening roar of the bells every hour.

Then you have the quite famous building, the Reichstag (pictured below), which is the German Parliament house. It was complete in 1894 during the rule of Wilhelm II. Later in the years leading up to World War II, the building mysteriously caught fire. The supposed arson was blamed on the Communists by the newly appointed Chancellor Adolf Hitler, thus securing the power of the National Socialist Party. Then a lot of bad stuff happened for many years, and the building laid damaged and empty. Crashing on, we come to the year 1999, when a beautiful glass dome was completed atop the reconstructed building. Soon after Parliament returned to the Reichstag, and they continue to meet there today. Again we have a structure with a long history, set against the modern architecture of the dome. Although it's true that many European cities blend the old and the new, never before have I seen done so skillfully. Typically the modern sticks out like a sore thumb, but in Berlin it is all quite fitting.

That's all I have to say about the city for now. Perhaps I will visit again some day, but for now let me leave you with a quote. It is from the glowing neon sign that decorates the front the Altes Museum, a nearly two hundred year old building. I leave the interpretation to you.

"All Art Has Been Contemporary"