Tiergarten and Zoo, Berlin

I found this metal and large sculpture by Alexander Calder in front of New National Gallery (Neue Nationalgalerie). Calder was an American artist (1898 - 1976) who invented the mobile - a type of kinetic sculpture which consists of a number of rods, from which weighted objects or further rods hang.

This composition looked similar to monumental sculpture in the capitol of Brazil that is city of Brasilia located in the middle of Amazon jungle. I mean the impressive iron statue of two people in the Square Of The Three Powers created in honour of the MEN who worked in the construction of Brasilia. Am I wrong?

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Across the road from the Brandenbuger Tor starts the Tiergarten Park, stretching for miles, until it ends at the Zoo. There are many Kilometers of walks in the Park, some lovely lakes and streams, several monuments, lovely areas of grass to relax on, and many, many photo opportunities. It's very peaceful. even though it's always busy.

An apse is the end (back side) of a church, esp. the east end of a church. It's either rounded or many-sided. Old christian churches (esp. western, not orthodox churches) were often oriented front size/facade to the west. I have no idea why. Hmm... for most of Europe the papal city of Rome was to the south rather.

In Berlin I enjoyed my eyes of renovated recently brick and rounded apse of St. Mathew Church (St. Matthäus Kirche). There were two smaller apsidioles on its both sides. The neo-romanesque church was relatively young (1844 - 1846) and evangelic so it was "wrong" oriented - apse to the south that was back to Rome :-).


From my friend OlafS from Belgium:
An apse is the closing part of the choir, the most sacred part of a catholic church.

It's not so much that the western part is oriented towards the west, rather the choir is oriented towards the east ('oriented' even means something like 'directed to the east'), the symbolic direction of where Jerusalem is.

I don't know how important this is for protestant churches, but the German Lutheran church has preserved many catholic habits. However, and this goes for catholic churches too, orientation is not demanded. When it's impossible or unattractive to orientate the choir, especially in cities this happens, than the choir can point to any other direction available.

Again: I found this artwork on my picture put in front of New National Gallery (Neue Nationalgalerie) at Potsdamer Straße (Tiergarten). I have no idea who created it, do you?

Nothing very special but the four square elements of the work were moving on the wind. Look at the previous tip and compare pictures.

I was always a little bit over-sensitive on art. It started with music (rock, pop, soul, blues, jazz). Now when I am getting older I am more interested in architecture both old one and modern. And I must admit that Berlin surprisingly satisfied my demands on that matter.

So, if you like architecture don't skip beautiful details like this brick hexagon top part of the tower of neo - romanesque St. Mathew Church (St. Matth?us Kirche). Pay attention to patterns created by various colors of small bricks.

There are a lot of influences present in architecture of old buildings in Berlin. Like in many other European cities there are Italian influences. This brick, square part of the tower of neo-romanesque St. Mathew Church with arcaded floor reminded me many churches and towers in Italy. Am I wrong?

By the way there was a viewing platform with panoramic view over Berlin and esp. modern area with skyscrapers around Potsdamer Platz behind the arcades on my picture. Luckily iron bars put there were not seen from the distance.

The Tiergarten is a huge park, with many quiet spots and enchanting walks. The weather was great when I visited Berlin; hence there were crowds of people out sunbathing and families having picnics in the Tiergarten.

The Tiergarten is a very large park in the center of the city. The column of the Victory is popularly known as the Angel. You can climb to the view point and feel like the characters in one of the films of Wim Wenders.