Berlin day tour: Zeughaus (Old Arsenal), Neue Wache (New Guard House) and Staatsoper (Berlin Opera House)

Continued from Berlin day tour: Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)

Left side view of the Zeughaus

The Zeughaus (Old Arsenal) is just across the Lustgarten and can be reached after crossing the Schlossbrücke (palace bridge) over the River Spree. Originally built as an artillery arsenal, it now houses the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum). The open-air art market where we stopped by previously was actually beside the Zeughaus building.

Right next to the Zeughaus is the Neue Wache (New Guard House) built in the early 18th century as the Royal Palace Guard House.

Neue Wache facade

It was then redesigned in 1931 as the “Memorial to those who fell in the World War” but sadly was destroyed during the bombings of World War II. Repair of the building followed in 1960 and it was reopened as a “Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism”. Nine years later, to commemorate the German Democratic Republic’s 20th anniversary, a glass prism with eternal flame was installed in its central part along with the enshrinement of the remains of a soldier and a concentration camp victim.

In 1993, significant changes in the building’s interior were again done and it was renamed as the “Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny”. Instead of the previous memorial objects installed in the center, a heartrending sculpture of a woman grieving over her dead son was in place. The sculpture was done by Harald Haacke as a larger production of the original work “Mother with her Dead Son” by Käthe Kollwitz.

Neue Wache interior

Sculpture of “Mother with her Dead Son”, the central object inside the Neue Wache

Here’s part of the memorial’s text in English:

The Neue Wache is the place where we commemorate the victims of war and tyranny.

We honor the memory of the peoples who suffered through war. We remember their citizens who were persecuted and who lost their lives. We remember those killed in action in the World Wars. We remember the innocent who lost their lives as a result of war in their homeland, in captivity and through expulsion.

We remember the millions of Jews who were murdered. We remember the Sinti and Roma who were murdered. We remember all those who were killed because of their origin, homosexuality, sickness or infirmity. We remember all who were murdered whose right to life was denied.

We remember the people who had to die because of their religious or political convictions. We remember all those who were victims of tyranny and met their death, though innocent.

We remember the women and men who sacrificed their lives in resistance to despotic rule. We honour all who preferred to die rather than act against their conscience.

We honour the memory of the women and men who were persecuted and murdered because they resisted totalitarian dictatorship after 1945.

The Zeughaus entrance was already closed to visitors when we arrived, so we just viewed its interior through the steel rails. With only the sculpture at the center of a large room, a light coming in from a circular skylight above, the area devoid of any decors, one is led to focus and reflect on the tragic sufferings of the innocent during the war and the dictatorship period.

Across the street, in front of the Zeughaus, is the Staatsoper (Berlin State Opera), one of the noteworthy landmarks along the Unter den Linden Avenue.

Staatsoper facade

Next stop: Cathedral of St. Hedwig, Humboldt University, Bebelplatz and other landmarks