I got to spend last weekend in Berlin and absolutely loved the city. The first day we spent tourist-ing through all the sites including visiting the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Memorial and the Berlin Wall Memorial. On the Sunday, we had time for a quick trip into a museum so we stopped into the Neues Museum situated on Berlin’s famous Museum Island.
I went in not knowing anything of the history of the museum apart from that it contained an impressive Egyptian collection and presumed it would be something similar to London’s British Museum. This presumption was proved incorrect within minutes of our trip!
To start with, the museum is not free like London museums and I was a bit annoyed to shell out 12 euros for a visit. However, my feelings quickly changed once we entered and the museum was quiet, calm and relaxing (basically the opposite of weekend museum trip in London!). Once inside, we were directed by signs of which way to go through the museum for the ‘tour’. This was a nice way to highlight the most important things to see while being able to enjoy the architecture and flow of the building itself.
A couple rooms into the ‘tour’, we found the glorious Nefertiti! No pictures were allowed, but I bought a postcard so I could have a memento of her. The sculpture is in such excellent condition that both my husband and I were shocked it has not been touched up, restored,or altered since it was made. The statue to truly gloriously highlighted in its own domed room with nothing to distract and it created an impressive sensation to visitors.
Several rooms down, the Xanten Youth sculpture is given another position of glory overlooking the steps and visible from the landing in the staircase below.
This theme of the artefacts complementing the museum’s architecture was something that most impressed me about the Neues Museum. It was restored only several years ago (re-opened in 209) after being left derelict after the war, and the refurbishment of the museum is absolutely striking. The British architect David Chipperfield has married the 19th century grandiose building with contemporary minimalism in a way that allows the visitor to experience the best of new and old.
The museum was originally structured this way as well – rooms were designed to complement the collection: the Roman sculptures were in a room with Roman columns, architecture and colours; Greek artwork was in a Greek-styled room and the Medieval kings were in a room with 9 domes- one of each king. As much as possible, the current collection lives where it was intended in the 19th century.
The 3rd floor of the building contains some of Berlin’s most impressive archaeological artefacts. I loved how the Roter Sal (Red Room) was intentionally designed like 19th century ‘cabinets of curiosity’ were – it is a modern-day, 19th century ethnological study. The glass cabinets house German archaeological collections that the museum was originally created for. Several other museums have attempted to demonstrate early museum styles – the British Museum’s ‘Enlightenment Room’ and the Horniman Museum spring to mind – but I enjoyed the simplicity of the Roter Sal and I felt like I had stepped back into the personal collection of an aristocrat from the 1860’s.
Another highlight was the Golden Hat which is an incredible golden ceremonial hat from the Bronze Age and found in Berlin. There is a ground floor which we were unable to visit but contained more Egyptian artefacts.
The Neues Museum impressed me in a way a museum hasn’t for a long time, but in the way a museum should: I was in awe of the building, in awe of the items, and in awe of the knowledge presented to me.
I left Berlin feeling slightly disappointed I didn’t have time to visit more of their museums as but I guess this gives me several reasons to go back!
– V
Musemiento 