Late classical building, built in the middle of the 19th century. Schinkel's pupil Friedrich Stühler, it was badly damaged during the Second World War - much more than any other building of the "Museum Island". Therefore, it was not restored in the 1950s, like the Pergamon or Old museums. But the comprehensive reconstruction of the entire ensemble of museums on Spreeinsel Island, conceived in the 1990s, required the restoration of this ruin as well. In the 1997 competition for the project for the reconstruction of the Museum Island "(and in its composition - the New Museum), the winner was the version of David Chipperfield and the architect-restorer Julian Harrap, who proposed to restore everything that was possible, but refrain from recreating the non-preserved parts of the Stühler building. in its original form.
This position found its opponents among politicians, scientists, not indifferent to the fate of their city of Berlin, who wanted to see the New Museum carefully restored in all its splendor: with hieroglyphic inscriptions praising the Prussian king on copies of the columns of Karnak, with a relief frieze "The Death of Pompey", with gilding and frescoes. But the architect managed to convince his opponents that thoughtless copying of the past will do nothing for the renewed Museum Island and the whole of Berlin. On the contrary, a real history will be buried under the new smooth plaster and paintings restored from original cardboard, the preservation of traces of which is the goal of any museum.
In 1999, UNESCO declared Museum Island a World Heritage Site and the Chipperfield project was redesigned to comply with more stringent international regulations; his radicalism was also softened during discussions with members of the public. However, the architect, who has always admitted that he loves to work in Germany, sees in the activity of the Germans (as opposed to the more indifferent, in his opinion, the British) a positive factor that serves to improve the final project.
In the course of work on the reconstruction plan, a specific decision had to be made for almost each of the premises: although the interiors were damaged by bombing, the fire caused by them and the subsequent decades of exposure to rain and wind, a considerable part was restored. However, some parts of the building were almost destroyed in the war and later demolished to avoid further destruction, and therefore the northwest wing and southeast domed hall have now been rebuilt - in typical Chipperfield laconic forms with an echo of the classics. Also, the central lobby and two courtyards - the former Greek and Egyptian ones - received a completely new design. But even what has survived, it was decided not to renew in any way: the goal of the architect and restorers was to clearly show the visitor what was left of the construction of Stühler, and what was the addition of the 21st century. This approach is clearly visible in the dappled main façade, where authentic stone cladding and new brickwork plaster are combined. The same plaster covers the facade of the north-west wing, built according to the modern project: it repeats the rhythm and proportions of the articulations of the historical part of the building, but does not try to copy it.
The main vestibule has lost its murals, and a monumental grand staircase made of concrete covered with white marble chips is placed in the space of its brick walls, and the open trusses of the ceilings resemble the ceilings of early Christian basilicas. The only surviving parts of its original design are the Ionic columns, copies of the Erechtheion pillars. They are left almost untouched - with traces of fire and the effects of natural disasters - and look like exhibits in the museum's collection, damaged by time, but this makes them even more valuable. A similar principle was adhered to everywhere, therefore, the not very successful paintings of the 19th century "near Pompeii" or "a la Romanic" now seem to be genuine works of antiquity or the Middle Ages, which do not spoil significant losses in the least.
In the same style as the main lobby, the Greek and Egyptian courtyards (the latter also has an "art terrace" to accommodate the exposition) and the interiors of the new wing. By next autumn, the building will be occupied by the Egyptian Museum (whose collection includes the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti and other finds from excavations in Amarna), a collection of papyri and the Museum of the History of Primitive Society.
The transformation of the building, reflecting the history of Germany over the past two centuries, into an authentic monument of two eras, while possessing undoubted aesthetic merits, is a great achievement not only for the author of the project, but for German society as a whole. The fact that neither cultural officials nor city officials took the easy path of thoughtless repetition - or falsification - of forms that have long been lost and lost their original meaning - testifies to their courage and sharpness of vision. In the 19th century, when the Museum Island ensemble was being created, it was supposed to become a new Acropolis, a temple of culture unmatched in beauty and splendor. Prussia was guided by an imperial future and built Berlin according to its ambitions. The next century and a half changed a lot - or almost all - and the weathered gilding and cracked marble of the New Museum, reminiscent of Year Zero, are even more valuable than the nearby well-preserved Old Museum or the meticulously refurbished Old National Gallery and Bode Museum. Having passed the test of time, the construction of the German Empire acquired the nobility that is usually associated with the buildings of another empire - the Roman. At the same time, Chipperfield's project does not have a romantic enthusiasm for ruins or a desire to preserve the "scars of war", although supporters of documentary accurate reconstruction accused him of this. This building is a kind of work of the historical genre, but not in an academic spirit, but in a more modern and polysemantic sense; it enters into a living dialogue with history, into which the visitor of the museum is also drawn, it does not allow the past to be forgotten, does not allow turning its back on it - but by the very fact of its existence it opens the way to the future.
