BERLIN’S Museumsinsel (Museum Island) is a cultural collection of ancient, old and modern art galleries in the heart of Germany’s capital city.

From the Pergamon Museum housing Islamic antiquities to the Bode Museum with Byzantine art there’s now a new, yet old, addition in the recently opened Humboldt Forum.

Built on the site of the former East German parliament, itself built on the site of a former royal palace, the Humboldt houses a controversial collection of artefacts, but is also contentious in itself.

The first issue is the building.

It is not a modern art gallery in the old sense, but an actual recreation of Berlin’s Prussian baroque royal palace which housed the Hohenzollern or German royals from 1443-1918 and was demolished after suffering extensive damage during World War II.
Costing £548 million to reconstruct, the funds did not quite stretch far enough and only three sides of the building were recreated, while a fourth — on the banks of the Spree — was built in modernist style, and actually is all the better for it.

It’s still not a patch on the former East German Palast der Republik, a modernist cuboid building that occupied the site from 1976-2008 and held not only the East German parliament, but art galleries, a theatre, cinema, skating rink and more.

Its mirrored bronze windows reflected back the wonders of its surroundings, while inside its distinctive array of lights shone bright.

But the bronze building was not to last, it was closed to the public shortly before German unification in 1990 — asbestos infestation was the excuse — and then marked for demolition, despite protests by many in the former east, and west to a lesser degree.

What then followed was a prolonged process of attempting to get the private sector to fund the royal palace’s reconstruction, but as usual it was for the state to pay the bulk of the costs; and over 85 per cent was provided by the government. The new building, designed by Italian architect Franco Stella, finally opened in July 2021.

But the controversy didn’t end there. There’s the question of its contents. The site is littered with looted artefacts from across the world, whether the Luf boat or Benin Bronzes, the latter of which Germany has at least pledged to return to Nigeria next year.

This controversy has been acknowledged, but will it be acted upon? The Luf boat takes pride of place on the second floor, but should it be there? The Humboldt states it has “diversity programmed in,” but displays a crass video from descendants of the Luf boat builder who say “we are happy that you keep our treasure in your museum,” and despite protestations, the boat remains in Berlin.

So while the words are warm, and probably heartfelt, there is much more to do. It’s like the dome that tops the building, the roof terrace affords views of the Berlin skyline, but also of the dome above the main entrance, it’s an empty space, devoid of artefacts, visitors and activity, is that a glimpse of the future?

For as much as candid words will go some way to restoring justice, the real answer is to return the artefacts to their actual home. It would perhaps be better for history, and for the people, if the Palast der Republik were still there.