Hohenzollern Berlin: Construction and Reconstruction

Hans B. Neumann is a history lecturer at Scarborough College, University
of Toronto.

Little does the title of this book indicate its contents: a treatment of the history of major architectural landmarks (Wahrzeichen) built in the former Prussian and later German capital city from 1701 to 1918. Some of the better-known edifices surveyed are the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor), the Royal Arsenal (Zeughaus), and the Imperial German Parliament Building (Reichstag). Robert R. Taylor, a member of the history faculty at Brock University in Ontario, is already well known for previous publications dealing with similar subjects.

Between the hardbound covers of this book are 26 pages of photographs relevant to the text, a city map of pre-War Berlin indicating where the discussed landmarks were located, a chart correlating the construction of major edifices with reigns of Hohenzollern rulers, and a substantial six-page bibliography. Although it is certainly a scholarly book, footnotes have been kept to a minimum.

To use the author’s own words, the main theme of the book is to explain “how the Hohenzollern kings and emperors tried to use architecture as a symbolic buttress for their rule, and... how contemporary East and West Berliners have accepted these stone and brick relies” (Introduction, p. 1). Hence this presentation is not at all an architectural history per se, but rather a study of the role of architecture as symbolism to the non-specialist observer then and now. And this symbolic function loomed very large indeed in a city physically shaped, as perhaps no other was (with the possible exception of the early St. Petersburg) by a single royal dynasty.

Given this generalist emphasis, the text is eminently readable, if only for the incorporation of a wide-ranging mix of interesting primary source material. The scholarly and academic reader devoted to mainstream history will find this book a useful supplement dedicated to a hitherto relatively neglected area of historical investigation. This scholarly effort, in fact, represents the only currently available sound introduction to the subject matter extant in English. The specialist in architectural history of Berlin would probably find the presentation cursory and would still have to resort to such German-language publications as the exhaustive series Die Bauwerke und Kunstdenkmaeler von Berlin, a continuing series begun in 1955 and published by the Department of Historical Conservation (Amt fuer Denkmalpflege) of the municipal government of West Berlin.