Heroes Without a Sword – Schinkel Square in Berlin

“Without history, there is no future”.

This idea is not new, yet in our flyby times it is often forgotten. What seems to be of importance today is the smooth and best possible combining of functional procedures whereby recollection, a necessary enterprise, is increasingly neglected.
In this context, the term ‘recollection’ is far from referring to the mere knowledge about courses of action in history or a rosy memory of allegedly ‘golden’ times past, which are often cited in order to vent criticism of the presence. Rather, recollection means to recall the successes of earlier generations as well as their mistakes and failures. If seen in this sense, recollection is a helpful devise for evaluating one’s own actions and perceiving the past as an admonition as well as an incentive.

Schinkel Square in Germany’s capital in a way is a symbol of the importance of recollection in the proper sense of the word. It is one thing to recall this square where once stood the Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture and three monuments. Another thing is to ask why Schinkel Square was so laid to waste during the inferno of World War II and why it was overlooked in the GDR’s city planning. And thirdly, there is the question why we today take the effort of reconstructing this square and its monuments and thereby create a link to the square’s original design.

In the thinking of the communist rulers after World War II there was no room left for Schinkel Square since the overall city planning foresaw to install the GDR centre of political power in that very location. For the GDR’s way of presenting itself and for the regime’s self-awareness it was an important issue to construct here – right in the centre of historic Berlin – the foreign ministry as a symbol for the newly-founded state. However, after the fall of the fall this building also had to yield up to its fate.

Drawing a lesson from the demolition of the Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture could, from today’s perspective, mean to see the importance of today’s actions in context with the significance of an existing topography including its buildings – and thereby to reactivate that given structure – and to call for a careful way of handling and dealing with ‘recollection’ turned to stone. Items of the past do not paralyze us, rather witnesses from history have an enriching effect on our own lives today.
In spite of the fact that those who came to power after 1945 knew about the significance of Schinkel’s Academy they had it demolished. And even though East Berlin’s political rulers in the early 1950s, the period of Stalinist realism, reclaimed Schinkel for the development of an independent tradition of building in Berlin, it did not allow for Schinkel’s monument to return to its original location. Then again, the farmers in 1952 transferred the monument of Albrecht Daniel Thaer to the atrium of the Faculty of Farming and Gardening of the Humboldt University, thus giving him a place of honour.

The first ‘heroes without a sword” – Thaer, Beuth and Schinkel – are now able to return to their original position on Schinkel Square. While in the 19th century, bestowing honour on these three personalities by means of a public monument could only be accomplished against the reservations of the monarch, today they reclaim the place that belongs to them in terms of location as well as public memory: we owe the development of modern agriculture to what it is today to Thaer. Beuth was called into memory after the decline that took place after World War II – a man who, under the worst conditions possible following the Prussian catastrophe of 1806, promoted ‘Gewerbefleiss’ in Prussia. As to Schinkel, he has again for many architects become a much admired example.

The Ernst Freiberger Foundation has re-erected the statue of Thaer because it is the foundation’s proclaimed aim to preserve and cultivate significant traces of history. Thus, it contributes to developing a form of culture that draws attention to the fact that our present times owe a great deal to the achievements of earlier generations.
Ernst Freiberger

Including contributions by:

Prof. Dr. Rupert Scholz
The Capital Berlin and German History
Cultivating History – The Capital’s Task

Prof. Helmut Engel
“Due to whose careful cultivation the fatherland is to continue expecting an upturn turn and rising reputation in a peaceful manner for the future”
Location and Time

- The Creation of the Square and the Monuments
- The People Honoured: Albrecht Daniel Thaer, Christian Peter Wilhelm Beuth, Karl Friedrich Schinkel
- The Monuments of Thaer, Beuth, Schinkel
- The Academy of Civic Engineering and Architecture
- Schinkel Square in the Following Periods of Time

Prof. Helmut Engel
How Can Berlin Today Be or Become a “Heimat”, a Home for its Inhabitants, and not only a “Focal Point of Daily Life”?

Hardcover, 139 pages, Berlin 2000
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