Out & About

Delegates attending WOC 2010 should take

a walk through the Enlightenment in Berlin By Renata Rubnikowicz

A
great city’s history is displayed in its
great monuments and rich museums,
and Berlin certainly has no shortage of
fine art. But just as the two bears on Berlin’s
coat of arms signify its joining together with
Cölln on the other side of the river Spree in
1307, so science has marched with arts down
the centuries – most notably as the town
developed as a centre of the Enlightenment
under Friedrich the Great in the 18th century.
For delegates attending the The World
Ophthalmology Congress 2010 (WOC®
2010) in Berlin, a major attraction will be
the annual “Long Night of the Sciences”. On
the evening of Saturday 5 June, from 5pm
to 1am, dozens of learned institutions will
open their doors to celebrate the city’s tenth
such festival. Hundreds of events, including
lectures, guided tours, experiments, readings,
interactive demonstrations, workshops,
performances, concerts and even cookery
demonstrations will make science come alive
for all ages and interests.
The programme will be posted on www.
langenachtderwissenschaften.de (http://www.
langenachtderwissenschaften.de) from 10 May.
Tickets and printed listings will be available
from 20 May. One of the educational
establishments taking part is the Humboldt
University, now based at the Adlershof
campus in the south-east of the city. Brandenburg Gate

(Will there be cats in boxes at its Erwin unavoidable interruptions, the hotel has been the many buildings that make up along the lines of the 18th-century original,
Schrödinger Centre that night? No one welcoming royalty and celebrities, including Humboldt University and forms one side of which itself was closely modelled on the
knows.) Garbo, Chaplin and Einstein, ever since. If you Bebelplatz, once Kaiser Franz Joseph Platz and Pantheon in Rome.
The university’s first home when it was don’t want to try one of its three Michelin- centrepiece of the Prussian Enlightenment. Further along Unter den Linden is the
founded in 1810 was the former Palace of starred restaurants, you can still experience Planned in 1740, this square was inspired by Neue Wache, once a royal guardhouse and
Prince Heinrich of Prussia on Unter den the glamour with afternoon tea or a glass of the Forum of ancient Rome. Yet here is one now an antiwar memorial with a sculpture
Linden, a 1.5km-long boulevard that was champagne in the Lobby Bar. of the jarring notes in the otherwise elegant by Käthe Kollwitz of a mother holding her
already the backbone of Enlightenment Berlin. Passing the British and Russian embassies, Enlightenment symphony of the area. This dead soldier son, and, finally, the Zeughaus
Stroll down this route, originally a ride down and the Deutsche Guggenheim Museum is the place where, on 10 May 1933, Nazis or Arsenal. The oldest building on Unter den
to the hunting grounds of Tiergarten, and (which has an exhibition of the work of burned books on Hitler’s blacklist. A square Linden, its first stone was laid in 1695. By the
you have an instant introduction to Berlin’s Kenyan-born artist Wangechi Mutu until 13 of glass set in the ground showing a sunken 18th century it had become Prussia’s greatest
historic past as a centre of learning. June) you come to the Berlin State Library library lined with empty bookshelves with weapons’ hoard, and home to the first Royal
Begin at the magnificent Brandenburg (Staatsbibliothek) which can claim a lineage a line from Heinrich Heine – “Where they Weapons and Model Collection, which was
Gate, opened in 1791, and so a relative stretching back three and a half centuries and burn books they end by burning people” – is a opened to the public in 1831. At the end
latecomer to the area. Its crowning glory, whose expanding collections are now housed reminder of the shocking event. of the 19th century it was reconstructed
the Quadriga statue showing Victory in her in various different buildings around the city. More harmoniously, Bebelplatz is also home as a pantheon of Prussian military history,
chariot, was taken by Napoleon in 1806 and A new reading room is being constructed in to the celebrated Staatsoper. The original eventually becoming, in the days of the
held by him for eight years before she was the current, century-old building on Unter building on this site was the first in Frederick German Democratic Republic, a museum of
reclaimed to reign again over Pariser Platz. den Linden to replace the central domed II’s “Forum Fredericianum” and gave the German history with a Marxist-Leninst bent.
Once a symbol of the division of the city reading room which was damaged during square its prewar name. Destroyed by fire in Now it offers a permanent exhibition – with a
after World War II, the gate has become the second world war. As well as being 1843, it was soon rebuilt and remains one of walk through 2,000 years of German history
a symbol of its reunification two decades Germany’s largest research library – with the world’s most beautiful music spaces. On – and temporary exhibitions (in June there
ago. This is where US President Ronald more than 10 million books – the institution the nights of 5 and 6 June, the state opera will be a display of 20th-century photography)
Regan said, “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this is also the guardian of treasures such as a house proclaims “Opera for Everybody” in an annex built by the celebrated modern
wall.” JFK spoke here too, and nearby you’ll Gutenberg Bible and original scores by Bach, (www.staats-oper.org), with a live broadcast of architect IM Pei.
find a photographic archive chronicling the Beethoven and Mozart. Eugene Onegin on 5 June, and a live concert Ahead lies the Schlossbrüke, the bridge
Kennedy family. Crossing the boulevard near a statue by the State Orchestra conducted by Daniel that leads over the western channel of the
Now rebuilt like so much of the well of Frederick the Great on his horse, you Barenboim on Bebelplatz the following night, river Spree to Mueuminsel, or Museum Island,
restored centre of Berlin, the Hotel Adlon find the curving Baroque frontage of the 6 June. but such are its many riches that it would be
opposite claimed the Emperor Wilhelm II as Alte Bibliothek or Old Library, which the Next to the opera house look up to see better to save them for another day.
its first guest when it first opened a century Staatsbibliothek replaced when it became the copper dome of St Hedwig’s Cathedral,
ago. Comparing its marble with that in his too small. Nicknamed “Kommode,” or Berlin’s only Catholic place of worship until * For further information on WOC 2010, which
palace, he apparently said, “mine is not as “chest of drawers” by Berliners, it had its 1854, and like so much of central Berlin, takes place from June 5 to June 9, 2010,
shiny and nicely polished.” With certain origins as a royal library. Now it is one of reconstructed after the second world war visit www.woc2010.org.

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