By Susannah Edelbaum, to Museum Spotlight Europe (February 2021)
Gone are the days of Berlin’s status as arme, aber sexy (“poor, but sexy”)—the city’s real estate market seems to be on a never-ending climb. Given the hot topic, what better way to get to know Berlin than via some of its most historic abodes? These former residences spanning 300 years of the city’s history have all long been converted to publicly accessible museums that retain vestiges of their residential pasts, offering a unique portal into local life in Berlin during centuries gone by. Whether it’s a peek into royal apartments, bourgeois turn-of-the-century digs, or an artistic abode in the middle of former East Berlin, there’s something here for history (and museum) buffs of every stripe.
Stalk the Vaunted Royal Halls of Schloss Charlottenburg
Come for the historic royal apartments and excellent post-World War II refurbishment, stay for a walk through the extensive landscaped grounds which now function as a vast neighborhood park. This palace and former home of generations of Hohenzollern royals in the tony West Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf was commissioned by Sophie Charlotte, wife of King Friedrich I of Prussia, and officially inaugurated in 1699. Originally known as Lietzenburg and rechristened Schloss Charlottenburg by Friedrich after his wife’s death, the palace was occasionally remodeled according to current fashions by its subsequent royal residents.
On your visit, you’ll thus find Baroque decor in the so-called Old Palace contrasting with the rococo detail of the New Wing, commissioned by Frederick the Great. Despite heavy damage in 1943 during World War II bombing, the palace was returned to pristine historic condition thanks to faithful post-war restoration efforts. The complex’s lovely landscaped grounds are free to visit (and on any sunny weekend, you’ll be sure to see plenty of locals strolling, dog-walking, and the like). The palace’s interior is closed on Mondays and holidays; the grounds are open daily from 8:00 a.m. until dusk.
World War II Meets Modern History at the Boros Collection
Be sure to book tickets in advance to pay a visit to this private, contemporary art collection housed in what was once a bunker. The collector Christian Boros purchased this massive former World War II air raid shelter in 2003 to serve as a 32,000-square-foot exhibition space for his collection, building a penthouse on the roof for his personal abode. (The family home is off-limits to visitors, but you can catch a glimpse of it in the 2018 film The Girl in the Spider’s Web, which was shot in and around Berlin). Just as fascinating as the Boros Collection, which spans from 1990 to the present, is the building itself, which was once used for imported tropical fruit storage by East Germany (lending the space the nickname “the banana bunker”), then was transformed into a techno club after the Wall came down. Today, the works on display change every few years, but among the artists exhibited are blue-chip names like Ai Weiwei, Olafur Eliasson, and Klara Lidén. The Boros Collection is only accessible via guided tours given in German and English. Tours are held Thursday to Sunday, and as they are limited to small groups which fill up quickly, advance tickets are necessary (these can be purchased directly on the collection’s website).
Preservation by Chance at the Museum Pankow/Heynstraße
A hidden gem in the northeast Berlin district of Pankow, this superbly preserved late-19th century apartment is an authentic portal to Berlin’s upper-middle class life at the turn of the century. The home was commissioned by the furniture manufacturer Fritz Heyn (for whom the street is now named) in 1893 and designed by the Berlin architect Ernst Fröhlich, but it’s two of Heyn’s daughters we have to thank for the space’s unlikely preservation—they lived in their home until 1972 and changed almost nothing. The apartment’s painted ceilings, plaster moldings, antique heating ovens, tiled bathroom, and layout including a maid’s room and the so-called Berliner Zimmer, a large corner walk-through room typical of the period, are all original. The Museum Pankow/Heynstraße is open Tuesday, Thursday, and weekends, and is closed on holidays.
Get to Know Bertolt Brecht at the Brecht-Weigel Museum
This unusual space is a must for avid fans of the playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht, who lived here from October 1953 until his death three years later. Having returned to East Germany after a World War II exile spent in Scandinavia and the United States, Brecht took an apartment on the first floor of the building while his wife, the actress Helene Weigel, maintained separate living quarters on the second. Since 1978, rooms in each apartment have been preserved in memory of the couple, while another section houses Brecht’s 4,000-volume library, which is accessible to researchers and scholars on the writer. Though the Brecht-Weigel Museum is petite, it’s an easy visit, located in the central district of Mitte, and offers an unusual glimpse into creative life in the early years of the GDR. Guided tours are held Tuesday through Sunday.
Three Eras of History in One Estate at the Gründerzeit Museum
Centuries of German history collide at this manor house perched out at the edge of the eastern Berlin-Brandenburg border. Nestled in a park in the Berlin locality of Mahlsdorf, the museum is named not for the 1815 period when the home was built, but for the era of the German Empire, founded in 1871. The Gründerzeit, or founder’s period, was a moment of economic boom in the newly unified country which coincided with extensive industrialization. Here at the Gründerzeit Museum, visitors will find a seventeen-room collection of objects from the era (including clocks, sewing machines, record players, and entire roomfuls of furniture) passionately collected and maintained by the house’s former owner, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Von Mahlsdorf, who was born Lothar Berfelde and died in 2002, first saved the building from GDR demolition slated for the late 1950s, then transformed her rescued manor house into a hub for East Berlin’s gay community, before turning the home into an exhibition space for her massive collection of Gründerzeit objects. The museum is open on Wednesdays and Sundays and closed on holidays, with the exception of Easter Sunday and Pentecost.
Berlin’s museums and broader cityscape have long been a magnet for history buffs thanks to the capital’s unusual place in the annals of both German and European history. A visit to any or all of these former residences sheds additional light on how the city’s residents—whether royal or regular—once lived, over the course of centuries of change.
Photo: Jürgen Hohmuth / SPSG
