Babelsberg Palace: Stories of time

As the renovation of the interior is still pending, a small presentation with a few exhibits, some of which have never been shown before, will introduce three selected topics:


Traces from afar: a little-known episode of Prussian-German foreign, colonial and trade policy in the Sulu Sea (now part of the Philippines) from the 1870s is recounted using two shell halves fished by the German sailing ship "Minna" in the Sulu Archipelago and the busts of Otto von Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm I.


Traces of the protection of works of art: Babelsberg Palace, the Flatow Tower and the kitchen building were the largest storage depot of the Prussian Palace Administration during the Second World War.including Frederick the Great's desk from Sanssouci Palace and his libraries as well as carriages from Monbijou Palace were stored here and some of them were taken to the Soviet Union after the war. Many works of art returned from there in 1958, packed in plain wooden crates, one of which is on display. Other works of art from the Babelsberg palace inventory were lost forever after 1945 or were willfully destroyed, such as the zinc cast fragments of a lansquenet figure from the Flatow Tower.


Traces in the palace rooms after 1945: Some of the original room shells in Babelsberg Palace were destroyed to accommodate certain institutions in the post-war period. This is exemplified by the dining room with its recessed false ceiling. Historical signs and photographs show how the palace rooms were used between 1945 and 1990 by the People's School of Judges, the Academy of Film Art and the Museum of Prehistory and Early History.


Palace manager Jens Straßburger-Asbeck will guide visitors through the still unrenovated rooms on the main floor, report on the former residents Kaiser Wilhelm I and Empress Augusta, the older and more recent history of the palace and provide in-depth information on the selected topics.


The aim is also to get visitors talking about their questions about the palace.

• What memories or hopes do you associate with Babelsberg?
  

This external perspective will be incorporated into future museum concepts and help to make the offerings even more interesting.



(LECTURE IN GERMAN)