Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Berlin/Dessau
I've finally gotten some pictures. Last weekend, I went to the Egyptian Museum with some friends, and yesterday I went along on a trip to Dessau with Edgar (aka Concepcion Ascuncion Dolores) to see the Bauhaus. I think this Blogchen has been a little word heavy lately, so here are some pictures:
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3 comments:
You visited Dessau in Gartenreich, Faruq! Did you get to Wörlitz's mini England or Vockerode's smoke stacks? Or even Ferropolis?
Was the underground cafe of the Bauhaus hip or what? I mean, they even carry their own design for match boxes. Ok, it's because of the history.
Jason:
I did go to Woerlitz, and we went past the smoke stacks of Vockerode (I think.)
Woerlitz is lovely, but how is it different than any other garden built in the English style?
That day,I think the group wanted to get back Berlin because they didn't want to miss the Germany-Austria game.
Well Faruq, first, the Gartenreich was constructed on pancake flat land, extensively dike-protected, unlike the gently undulating topography typical for the 18th C. English country. It was also laid out according to a period's land-reform strategy/engineering for agrarian history and not merely for recreational pleasure or visual appeals (although they are always important!). You can say the movement behind it continued into the industrialization and modernization of this side of Central Europe. After all, the current Bauhaus tries very hard to tie together this land reform history with that of the German Industrial revolution and the Lutherstadt nearby.
The other thing about the so-called Anglo landscape is indeed the spirit of Enlightenment behind it (lacking in many 19th c. Romantic landscapes and parks). Gartenreich also incorporated early Baroque style of the Dutch, foreboding woodsy gardens of the Georgium, theatrics of a faux volcano as well as a Chinese pagoda garden that in spirit closer to that of Southern China than some bastardized Mongol folly. Ironically, there also exists a constructed scenery named Tolerance in which a boater could view both a Christian chapel and synagogue steeple simultaneously. Ok, I will stop here.
I had a great time when I visited that region back in 1999. In many ways, I could not believe how productive and significant the modern history of that part of Germany was, when all was left was the GDR charm and "Eastern" hip.
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