Berlin has countless memorials and I have seen just a few of them. The most moving and impressing is Neue Wache, on Under den Linden, between Humbolt University and the Historical Museum. The official name of it is Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Dictatorship. // Gedenkstätte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland für die Opfer von Krieg und Gewaltherrschaft.
Nothing more and nothing less.
Inside the neoclassical building is the sculpture Mother and dead Son of Käte Kollwitz. The sculpture and the gloomy interior of the building commemorates how cruel war can be and how sorrowful and terrible it is to lose a son or daughter. Especially today when news almost every day show results of war and dictatorship.
This Neue Wache Memorial and Kate Kolwitz sculpture, which is an enlarged verson of her Pietà, she sitting with bowed head, umarming her dead son. The emptiness of the room, the gray stone walls and dark floor adds to the solemnity and moving impression it makes. In the middle of the spaciuos, gloomy room, the Mother with her dead Son in her arms. It also make you think of how dark and miserable life has been in Berlin, on its worst. The only glimpse of hope must be the small circular opening in the middle of the ceiling, letting in daylight.
