Lucifer Lighting Lecture Series

*Lecture Title: * The Rebuilding of Berlin’s Royal Palace as Humboldt-Forum: A Milestone for Art and Architecture
*Lecturer: *Wilhelm von Boddien, mastermind and driving force for the rebuilding of the Imperial Castle, Berlin into Humboldtforum Museum

Mr. Wilhelm von Boddien on the future Humboldtforum in Berlin
Presentation will showcase the progress of this most important museum construction of the 21st Century in Europe. It will enlighten architecture students and professors, as well as history and art buffs on so many aspects of the Berlin Castle and its demise – and its glorious re-purposing as part of the incredible museum holdings of Berlin.

The future Humboldt Forum was the castle of the emperors of Germany in Berlin. It was bombed during the second WW but not totally damaged, and subsequently razed in East German times to make space for a parade ground rivaling the Red Square in Moscow. In the 1970’s the Palace of the Republic was erected on its perimeters. After furious debates following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German government finally agreed to give appr. 525 million Euros for the castle’s rebuilding under one condition – that von Boddien and the very powerful Foundation Berliner Schloss e.V. take it upon themselves to redo the Baroque facade. When it is finished in 2017/18, the extensive Berlin museum holdings of Mexico and South America, that Alexander von Humboldt started collecting in the 19th Century, will be transferred into the building. Then, the center of Berlin will have the most complex museum treasures of Europe at her Museum Island and the adjacent Humboldt Forum.