From Neues to Altes: buildings and collections hand in hand at the Berlin museums
A pair of hands from a statue of Akhenaten and Nefertiti (ÄM 20494) at the Neues Museum
You may have seen that I've been in Berlin. Surprisingly, it was a relaxing and rejuvenating holiday, during which I also packed in 15 museums in 6 days with my long-suffering friend. It helps that in Berlin, five spectacular museums housing the state collections are all together on one glorious island. They are in the cream of historic 19th-century museum buildings, many of which have been recently renovated and re-displayed. But, it doesn't stop there, across the city are a whole host of beautiful and thought-provoking collections, like the Museum of Things that I discussed last week. I adopted a different photographic approach to my last visit, and looked 'a-round' for inspiration across the collections and buildings (as you can see below).
So what is there to say about Berlin museums as a whole? I kept wondering this as I wandered around, thinking back to my conclusions on big American museums after visits to NYC, Boston and Philadelphia. I must confess to being surprised at the lack of digital engagement: no wi-fi in any of the museums I visited and almost no Twitter accounts. But, there's something calmly self-assured about the Berlin museums, something a little philosophical about the display style, and what I might term a more holistic approach to the relationship of collections, buildings, institutions and narratives.
The Neues Museum is a perfect example. Housing the Egyptian, pre-historic and classical antiquity collections of the Berlin State Museums, the Neues marries collections and building beautifully. The original 19th-century building was badly bomb-damaged during the Second World War and only recently rejuvenated between 2003-9 in restoration by David Chipperfield. The new museum combines the fabric of the original building - complete with remnants of complex room frescoes, ghostly visitor signage, and surviving blocks of masonry - with simple but rich modern materials: wood, marble, mosaic, brass. The displays tie the collections into the histories of their former gallery spaces, while showcasing every object with shining but subtle cases and lighting. As a whole you come out with an appreciation of why and how the collections are there, both historically and aesthetically.
On a different spectrum, the Berlin Museum of Medical History is equally thought-provoking. Housed in the old Pathological Institute museum of the Charité Hospital, the museum tells the complex history of European medicine through the history of the Charité, its collections, and its patients. I was struck by the successful balance between a gallery that tells the history of medical teaching from the early anatomy theatre and cabinet of curiosities to the digital possibilities of 21st-century medicine, and a gallery telling the story of the human body through the pathology collection. Linked to these is the ruined space of the former Rudolf Virchow Lecture Hall, left as a damaged but useable space to reflect on the impact of war. Within the history of medicine displays, a small but sensitive section considers head-on the role of National Socialism in teaching and research at the Charité in the 1930s and 40s.
There is a sense in the Berlin museums of facing-up to the past, of acknowledging its scars and traumas in a way that brings new meaning to the collections and new beauty to the buildings, old and new together. In 2019, Museum Island will change again when the new Pergammon Museum opens. So watch this space.
