The Reconstruction of the Berlin City Palace

Stone carver Pike Wünsche is working on a 16-ton block of sandstone. His model is a plaster mould of the original. Wünsche is turning the raw chunk of rock into a sculpture for the façade of the new Berlin City Palace. In keeping with a centuries-old tradition, the construction team put a building hut on the site back in 2011. This workshop is where the façade elements are being made. The new palace, which will be called the Humboldtforum, is slated to open in 2019. We have to produce around 3,000 pieces in all. That includes the heads of rams and lions, and full-blown sculptures and ornamental scrollwork. In the end, we'll have carved our way through 9,000 cubic meters of sandstone. The new Berlin City Palace will have a baroque façade identical to the one designed by architect and sculptor Andreas Schlüter more than 300 years ago. Only a few original carvings survived the Second World War and the later demolition of the damaged old palace. But they'll be included in the new façade, too. To reconstruct the façade, the stone carvers have to work largely from photographs. Fortunately, there are plenty of them. The palace was the city's most important building. So as soon as photography was invented, people started taking pictures of it, from every angle. Badly damaged in the air raids, the old palace was demolished in 1950. East Germany's communist regime didn't want to repair what it regarded as a symbol of the feudal age. Even so, a few pieces of the building, like Schlüter's sandstone figures, were saved. They ended up in museums. The late baroque period began in Germany with Andreas Schlüter. But very few people know that Berlin was where many of its ideas were born. Construction of the Berlin Palace began in the late 17th century. The level of expertise Schlüter brought to it in Berlin is equivalent to what we saw in Rome, Paris and Vienna at the time. The new Berlin Palace will be used as an international cultural center. Designed by Italian architect Franco Stella, it will cost around 590 million euros to build. In contrast to the three baroque facades, the fourth side along the river Spree will be modern and unadorned. On this side of the building, there will be several cafes. These cafes will cater to the daily needs of residents. At least that's how I imagine it. It'll be a vibrant slice of life here on the banks of the river Spree. To be financed entirely by donations, the facade alone will cost 80 million euros. Around 30 million have been contributed so far. We travelled all over the world telling people about it. Places like the US, Brazil and Turkey and many cities in Germany too. We raised awareness for the project everywhere. Since it will be a center of cultural dialogue, we wanted to let everyone know that it's happening. The plaster models are now done. They'll be the basis for making the decorative elements, which will be as true as possible to the originals. Heik Wünsche is working on one of many individual pieces. Right now he's transferring the proportions of the plaster model onto the sandstone. It's a big job, which will probably take him about a year and a half.