Berlin - Shocking Piety of Kollwitz in New Guard building

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Kollwitz's Pieta in the New Berlin Guard

One of the most amazing and shocking corners you can see in the central Unter der Linden Avenue from Berlin is the one you find in the building of the New guard (Die Neue Wache).

Between Museum island and the Bebelplatz square, in front of Berlin Opera, you will see this small building with a characteristic neoclassical facade, which was completed in 1918.

Originally the New guard it was a barracks of the Prussian guard, which is understood by its proximity to the old Royal Palace of Berlin, of which now you will only see ... a large green esplanade.

New Guard building on Unter der Linden avenue in Berlin

But in you walk through the Unter der Linden Avenueduring your Berlin visit, when you enter under the porch of Doric columns inside the building of the New guard, you will be surprised to find yourself before a completely empty room, and in the center of it, a sculpture.

It's about the work Mother with dead son, by the German artist Kathe Kollwitz. However, this shocking sculpture is better known as The Kollwitz Piety.

This German painter and sculptor, who developed her work during the first half of the 20th century (died in 1945, just after finishing the WWII), had a very dramatic life, due to the early deaths of his brothers and, subsequently, of a son and a grandson in the two world wars.

Mother with Kollwitrz's dead son in the New Berlin Guard

This drama was reflected in all his work, and his best expression is the aforementioned sculpture Mother with dead son. In it, the image of a mother in whose arms lies her newly dead child soldier is shown.

During the time of the GDR, the Kollwitz Piety in the New Guard building it was presented as a tribute to the victims of fascism, but nowadays it is considered a momument to the victims of wars and dictatorships.

In you visit to the New Guard, notice that the sculpture is under an open circle, so that when it rains or snows in Berlin, the Kollwitz Piety it gets wet or covered by snow, which accentuates the drama and expression of pain.

In short, a corner I understand that little known of the German capital, but that you should not miss.

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