During the years of 1968-1977 Germany lived in fear. Three terrorist groups - the Red Army Faction (RAF), Movement 2 June, and the Revolutionary Cells (RZ) - gathered about a hundred Germans as their members. The Baader-Meinhof Gang, who called themselves the Red Army Faction, and two other terrorist groups went killing dozens of people. In 1968 … [Read more...]
The Amber Room Reconstruction
In the early 1980s, serious work on recreating the Amber Room based on old photographs and reminiscences was undertaken in the Catherine Palace, but the lack of funds threatened to put an end to the works. The process was left to the fate, but it seemed to be merciful to the Amber Room's re-creators. Ruhrgas AG, Essen, Germany, made it possible to … [Read more...]
The Amber Room: History of the Creation
The history of the Amber Room dates back to the very beginning of the 18th century, when Andreas Schluter, the chief architect of the Prussian royal court, had the idea of using amber, a material never before used for interior decoration, to complete one of the rooms of the Great Royal Palace in Berlin during the reconstruction under Frederick I. … [Read more...]
Intrigue and Mystery of the Amber Room
In the pantheon of the world's greatest unsolved mysteries, few capture the imagination quite like the Amber Room - that legendary chamber whose walls literally glowed with the warm, honeyed light of six tons of amber panels, gold leaf, and precious mirrors. Often called the "Eighth Wonder of the World," this masterpiece of baroque artistry … [Read more...]
Prussia 2001
On January 18, 1701 Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg (11.07.1657 - 25.02.1713), crowned himself as King in Prussia. Today, exactly 300 years after this outstanding event, the government heads of Berlin and Brandenburg, Mr. Diepgen and Mr. Stolpe, officially opened the celebrations on the occasion in the Berlin theater on Gendarmenmarkt. During … [Read more...]
Women in Post-War Germany
Post-War life for German women was harsh. Trümmerfrau (literally translated as ruins woman or rubble woman) is the German-language name for women who, in the aftermath of World War II, helped clear and reconstruct the bombed cities of Germany and Austria. With hundreds of cities having suffered significant bombing and firestorm damage through … [Read more...]
East Germany
What is 'East Germany'? This question arises not just from political background of the country, but historical, too. Postwar society used to name Soviet GDR as 'East Germany': lands of Prussia, Silesia and Pomerania belonged to former GDR and located in the east of the Oder. Historically these lands were inhabited by Germans, but after the World … [Read more...]
Degenerate Art – “Entartete Kunst”
In 1937 in Munich the Nazis held an art exhibition of what they called Entartete Kunst, or Degenerate Art. The purpose of the exhibition was to let the Germans know that some forms and pieces of art were not accepted by the "highest race", and this art is "degenerate", also called as Jewish or Bolshevistic. During the "Entartete Kunst" campaign … [Read more...]
Nazi and Bauhaus School
The end of Bauhaus The Nazi majority of Dessau suspended the seat of learning. Paul Schultze-Naumburg was the architect that they sent into the school to re-establish pure German art instead of the "cosmopolitan rubbish" the Bauhaus artists were doing. He described Bauhaus furniture as Kisten, or boxes. Bauhaus was even as private institution so … [Read more...]
Bauhaus School
The beginning and the goals of Bauhaus Bauhaus: [Ger., lit. "architecture house", from Bau = building (bauen=to build) + Haus = house.] Contemporary German architecture set its main trends in the first thirty years of the 20th century. The strongest influences came from Weimar and Dessau, where the Bauhaus school was founded in 1919. Under the … [Read more...]