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Here me and our two daughters Amber and Lea enjoy a quiet and wonderful day at DCHS with the girls seen in the Arizona Hot Pool :-)
Every time we meet someone new, we have a chance to retroactively reinvent ourselves. We tell them stories... what our childhoods were like; how we were in our teens; how we landed (or lost) our first jobs, our first loves... and, each time it happens... depending on the audience... we might just trim or tuck or embroider or completely leave out certain facts.
I know a woman who denies (to her partner) her entire 1980s experience. One day I was visiting and started to tell a hilarious story... which I'd just assumed she had shared with her partner... and suddenly, there she was, standing behind him... waving her arms at me, shaking her head and mouthing 'NO NO NO!!!' Later she explained that she found that whole era of her life terribly embarrassing and chose to just pretend - to herself as well as him - that it simply never happened. An entire decade.
This same woman regularly purges her belongings - clothing, furniture, music, books - to eliminate anything that does not currently fit her identity-du-jour. Essentially, she doesn't like to make "mistakes" - and so prefers to act as though they simply never happened.
I have another friend who does exactly the opposite - believes that his "mistakes" are to be treasured, kept and learned from. He quite happily hauls out pics of his bad 80s hair and even worse outfits and... even when they blow goats... keeps (and listens to!) the worst CDs... just because he bought them.
They're two extreme examples, I suppose. Most of us are probably somewhere in between.
But... memory being imperfect and subjective... I bet we'd all be surprised to see real-time tapes of certain parts of our pasts played back.
I'm writing this now because this pic strikes me as a representation of memory... its layers and levels and complexities... some parts soft and vague and fuzzy... some etched sharply... some aloft... others dark, deep and - ultimately - impenetrable.
Also... like this pic... they have no real objective form. They only exist in the mind and the eye.
It is an odd feature of history education that the detail of the background and postscript to the First World War is largely ignored. What is remembered is the futility of that war, fought over four years of attrition for so little gain and which set up the twentieth century with such a malignant legacy. And its extraordinary literary legacy, through the prose of Erich Maria Remarque and Robert Graves and the poetry of Wilfrid Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.
Looking back to school, it seems that I learned this history of the war through English literature lessons rather than formal history lessons. But is that to romanticise this awful conflict? What are the ethics of “battlefield tourism” anyway?
I took some time out of business in Brussels to pay tribute to the Welsh war poet Hedd Wyn, of whom more below.
First stop was the reconstructed Belgian town of Yprers/Ieper the strategic pivot of the war in northern Belgium.
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Its most famous landmark, the Menin Gate, was designed as a mausoleum to honour the Missing, who had no known graves. Its large Hall of Memory contains the names of 55,000 Commonwealth soldiers who died without graves, cut into vast panels.
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However, it suffered from a design fault. On completion of the memorial, it was discovered to be too small to contain the names of all the missing as originally planned. The bureaucratic imagination had failed in the face of the scale of the carnage – there were no design guidelines on how much space was required to record 90,000 names. 35,000 missing had to be left off, their names inscribed on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing instead.
This is a poignant postscript to the conflict. For those who subscribe to the “Lions led by Donkeys” school of history it is the crowning evidence of incompetence. For revisionists, it shows decent people trying their best to cope with a world in which the old certainties had collapsed and were trying to make sense of the new realities, making costly mistakes along the way. Having worked in the City through the banking crisis I am more inclined to the latter than I used to be.
But these are just the missing. The countryside around Ypres contains many communal cemeteries immaculately preserved by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The largest is at Tyne Cot which contains 12,000 graves. The sword of sacrifice, a feature of all Commonwealth cemeteries, is built on the remains of a captured German pillbox.
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The cemeteries are light and airy and relatives were allowed to personalise the memorial stones. These still have the power to move, almost to tears, one hundred years later. One stone commemorating a ...... had a simple heart shaped memorial with the message “Melys y cof amdanat yn Llanfair Llanllwni” (Sweet is your memory in Llanfair Llanllwni”). I had passed through the tiny Welsh village of Llanllwni two weeks earlier.
The largest German cemetery is at Langemark and it commemorates around 45,000 identified and unidentified German soldiers, including 3,000 German students killed in the Battle of Langemark in 1914 (the so called “Kindermord bei Ypern”) as the invasion plan (the Schlieffen plan) ground to a halt and the armies raced for the sea. Eight soldiers were buried in each plot and they are marked by a flat stone inscribed simply with their names, where known. The only other decorations are groups of Prussian crosses placed in the grounds and the life-size bronze statue of four mourning soldiers, by the Munich sculptor Emil Krieger.
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It is a bleak and dispiriting place. My impression was that the defeated were to be offered civility; but they could not be remembered with honour.
Three stops, commemorating 150,000 dead, still only 1/7th of the 850,000 casualties (dead, wounded and missing) at Ypres over the five Ypres battles. The numbers are hard to comprehend, but it is a reminder of how easily a society can drift almost carelessly into catastrophe
Images of the conflict are still dotted around the Belgian landscape.
The poppy in the cornfield, of course, the symbol of the Flanders conflict
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But also incredibly rusted and decaying munitions lying by many roads, dug up every year by farmers and builders.
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Despite the condition of the shells, they remain very dangerous. The French Department of Mine Clearance recovers about 900 tons of unexploded munitions every year. Since 1945, approximately 630 French minesweepers have died handling unexploded munitions. In Belgium, iron harvest discovered by farmers is carefully placed around field edges, or in gaps in telegraph poles, where it is regularly collected by the Belgian army for disposal
Hedd Wyn (born Ellis Humphrey Evans) (13 January 1887 – 31 July 1917), was a Welsh language war poet who was killed in The Great War.
He was posthumously awarded the Chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod, held that year at Birkenhead. David Lloyd George, by then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was present. The adjudicators announced that the entry under the pseudonym of Fleur de Lys was the winner and the trumpets were sounded for him to identify himself. After three such summons, the Archdruid announced that the winner had been killed in action six weeks earlier and the empty chair was draped in a black sheet. The festival was referred to as “Eisteddfod y Gadair Ddu” (the Eisteddfodd of the Black Chair).
Hedd Wyn is buried at Artillery Wood Cemetery, near Boezinge. After the war, a petition was submitted to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and it was granted that his tombstone did not read simply E.H. Evans, but also Y Prifardd Hedd Wyn ("The Chief Bard, Hedd Wyn").
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Gwae fi fy myw mewn oes mor ddreng
A Duw ar drai ar orwel pell
O'i ôl mae dyn, yn deyrn a gwreng
Yn codi ei awdurdod hell
Pan deimlodd fyned ymaith Dduw
Mae swn yr ymladd ar ein clyw
Cyfododd gledd i ladd ei frawd
A'i gysgod ar fythynnod tlawd.
Mae'r hen delynau genid gynt
Yng nghrog ar gangau'r helyg draw
A gwaedd y bechgyn lond y gwynt,
A'u gwaed yn gymysg efo'r glaw
“Why must I live in this grim age,
When, to a far horizon, God
Has ebbed away, and man, with rage,
Now wields the sceptre and the rod?
Man raised his sword, once God had gone,
To slay his brother, and the roar
Of battlefields now casts upon
Our homes the shadow of the war.
The harps to which we sang are hung,
On willow boughs, and their refrain
Drowned by the anguish of the young
Whose blood is mingled with the rain”
Taken and Editing by: Me
Model: some of Old Memories ^_^ .
i used newspaper background :P
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Bano0ota_alb7rain © All rights reserved
Please don't use this photo in anyway without permission
At about 10:30 p.m. on a Monday night, I decided to go to the Great Salt Lake and take some long exposures. I parked behind Saltaire and walked out to the lake with my mini-maglite in hand to show me the way.
Being out at the lake at night is a surreal experience. The lake was an abyss, the stars only able to break through the darkness at about 35 degrees above the water. The gentle lapping of a dead sea and the sporadic call of a lonely gull muted by the constant hum from the freeway behind me.
Swarms of brine flies scattered as I walked along the shore, they're irritated buzzing fading back to silence as I find the water's edge.
The lack of visual and audible stimulation really made me feel small and isolated. Searching for a sense of direction I look up into the milky way. I find the depth of the universe above me dizzying.
My gaze turns again, blindly, to the sea. I can feel its mystery calling me, pulling me out into its depths. Turning back to the lights of the freeway my thoughts return to lucidity, but I cannot seem to stop staring out into the blank, my imagination going wild with visions of ghosts upon the waters.
Soon I feel that I should go, leave this place of darkness, water, and brine. I bid my farewell to the lonely gull, the flies, and the ghosts. Walking briskly back to my truck no longer needing my maglite, my eyes grown accustom to the dark.
As I drive home I feel like a petty thief having just stolen the exposures crudely stuck in my camera from the ancients. I don't know when I will be back to the lake, but I feel that I will not return a stranger.
This photo was made with nine 30 second exposures, stacked in PhotoShop layers with a screen blending mode.
The light streaking across the photo is an airplane.
The cheese in this post did not come from a can.
In memory of my friend Sherry. We lost her one year ago today to breast cancer. I thought this would be perfect for Pretty Pink Tuesday.
Included in the photo:
bracelets that I wore daily to support her and continue to wear to support those fighting; a scripture that was meaningful to her; a thank you note from her six months before she died.
Sweet friend, mother of four, wife, daughter, teacher, inspiration to many, talented singer, my daughter's namesake. I miss her.
Stone Memory is a series of projections at The REACH, commissioned by the Kennedy Center as a part of the opear premiere of Written in Stone
This is one of the few souvenirs I bought at Alcatraz Island outside of San Francisco when I visited the notorious prison earlier this year.
In Memory
What was it you had said?
Why did you have to go?
Each simple little memory
Now passes by so slow.
I am stuck in the yesterday
Not wanting to accept
The horrid truth that you are gone
Your life taken without threat
This morning you awoke
To face a brand new day
But a cold-hearted terrorist
Took that gift away
Though the grave cry for the lost
In the settling of the dust
They failed to shake our foundation
For in God we put our trust.
Michelle Lynn McPeters
Off work tomorrow so see you all then
The Boathouse...
Winter returned here today. At times it snowed, then ice pellets back to snow.
So instead of feeling depressed I looked at a few photos from last summer.
(further information and pictures you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Mariahilferstraße
Mariahilferstraße, 6th, 7th, 14th and 15th, since 1897 (in the 6th and 7th district originally Kremser Sraße, then Bavarian highway, Laimgrubner main road, Mariahilfer main street, Fünfhauserstraße, Schönbrunnerstraße and Penzinger Poststraße, then Schönbrunner Straße), in memory of the old suburb name; Mariahilf was an independent municipality from 1660 to 1850, since then with Gumpendorf, Magdalenengrund, Windmühle and Laimgrube 6th District.
From
aeiou - the cultural information system of the bm: bwk
14,000 key words and 2000 pictures from history, geography, politics and business in Austria
Mariahilferstraße, 1908 - Wien Museum
Mariahilferstraße, 1908
Picture taken from "August Stauda - A documentarian of old Vienna"
published by Christian Brandstätter - to Book Description
History
Pottery and wine
The first ones who demonstrably populated the area of today's Mariahilferstraße (after the mammoth) were the Illyrians. They took advantage of the rich clay deposits for making simple vessels. The Celts planted on the sunny hills the first grape vines and understood the wine-making process very well. When the Romans occupied at the beginning of our Era Vienna for several centuries, they left behind many traces. The wine culture of the Celts they refined. On the hill of today's Mariahilferstraße run a Roman ridge trail, whose origins lay in the camp of Vindobona. After the rule of the Romans, the migration of peoples temporarily led many cultures here until after the expulsion of the Avars Bavarian colonists came from the West.
The peasant Middle Ages - From the vineyard to the village
Thanks to the loamy soil formed the winery, which has been pushed back only until the development of the suburbs, until the mid-17th Century the livelihood of the rural population. "Im Schöff" but also "Schöpf - scoop" and "Schiff - ship" (from "draw of") the area at the time was called. The erroneous use of a ship in the seal of the district is reminiscent of the old name, which was then replaced by the picture of grace "Mariahilf". The Weinberg (vineyard) law imposed at that time that the ground rent in the form of mash on the spot had to be paid. This was referred to as a "draw".
1495 the Mariahilfer wine was added to the wine disciplinary regulations for Herrenweine (racy, hearty, fruity, pithy wine with pleasant acidity) because of its special quality and achieved high prices.
1529 The first Turkish siege
Mariahilferstraße, already than an important route to the West, was repeatedly the scene of historical encounters. When the Turks besieged Vienna for the first time, was at the lower end of today Mariahilferstrasse, just outside the city walls of Vienna, a small settlement of houses and cottages, gardens and fields. Even the St. Theobald Monastery was there. This so-called "gap" was burned at the approach of the Turks, for them not to offer hiding places at the siege. Despite a prohibition, the area was rebuilt after departure of the Turks.
1558, a provision was adopted so that the glacis, a broad, unobstructed strip between the city wall and the outer settlements, should be left free. The Glacis existed until the demolition of the city walls in 1858. Here the ring road was later built.
1663 The new Post Road
With the new purpose of the Mariahilferstrasse as post road the first three roadside inn houses were built. At the same time the travel increased, since the carriages were finally more comfortable and the roads safer. Two well-known expressions date from this period. The "tip" and "kickbacks". In the old travel handbooks of that time we encounter them as guards beside the route, the travel and baggage tariff. The tip should the driver at the rest stop pay for the drink, while the bribe was calculated in proportion to the axle grease. Who was in a hurry, just paid a higher lubricant (Schmiergeld) or tip to motivate the coachman.
1683 The second Turkish siege
The second Turkish siege brought Mariahilferstraße the same fate. Meanwhile, a considerable settlement was formed, a real suburb, which, however, still had a lot of fields and brick pits. Again, the suburb along the Mariahilferstraße was razed to the ground, the population sought refuge behind the walls or in the Vienna Woods. The reconstruction progressed slowly since there was a lack of funds and manpower. Only at the beginning of the 18th Century took place a targeted reconstruction.
1686 Palais Esterhazy
On several "Brandstetten", by the second Turkish siege destroyed houses, the Hungarian aristocratic family Esterhazy had built herself a simple palace, which also had a passage on the Mariahilferstrasse. 1764 bought the innkeeper Paul Winkelmayr from Spittelberg the building, demolished it and built two new buildings that have been named in accordance with the Esterhazy "to the Hungarian crown."
17th Century to 19th Century. Fom the village to suburb
With the development of the settlements on the Mariahilferstraße from village to suburbs, changed not only the appearance but also the population. More and more agricultural land fell victim to the development, craftsmen and tradesmen settled there. There was an incredible variety of professions and trades, most of which were organized into guilds or crafts. Those cared for vocational training, quality and price of the goods, and in cases of unemployment, sickness and death.
The farms were replaced by churches and palaces, houses and shops. Mariahilf changed into a major industrial district, Mariahilferstrasse was an important trading center. Countless street traders sold the goods, which they carried either with them, or put in a street stall on display. The dealers made themselves noticeable by a significant Kaufruf (purchase call). So there was the ink man who went about with his bottles, the Wasserbauer (hydraulic engineering) who sold Danube water on his horse-drawn vehicle as industrial water, or the lavender woman. This lovely Viennese figures disappeared with the emergence of fixed premises and the improvement of urban transport.
Private carriages, horse-drawn carriages and buggies populated the streets, who used this route also for trips. At Mariahilferplatz Linientor (gate) was the main stand of the cheapest and most popular means of transport, the Zeiselwagen, which the Wiener used for their excursions into nature, which gradually became fashionable. In the 19th Century then yet arrived the Stellwagen (carriage) and bus traffic which had to accomplish the connection between Vienna and the suburbs. As a Viennese joke has it, suggests the Stellwagen that it has been so called because it did not come from the spot.
1719 - 1723 Royal and Imperial Court Stables
Emperor Charles VI. gave the order for the construction of the stables to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. 1772 the building was extended by two houses on the Mariahilferstrasse. The size of the stables still shows, as it serves as the Museum Quarter - its former importance. The Mariahilferstraße since the building of Schönbrunn Palace by the Imperial court very strongly was frequented. Today in the historic buildings the Museum Quarter is housed.
The church and monastery of Maria Hülff
Coloured engraving by J. Ziegler, 1783
1730 Mariahilferkirche
1711 began the renovation works at the Mariahilferkirche, giving the church building today's appearance and importance as a baroque monument. The plans stem from Franziskus Jänkl, the foreman of Lukas von Hildebrandt. Originally stood on the site of the Mariahilferkirche in the medieval vineyard "In Schoeff" a cemetery with wooden chapel built by the Barnabites. Already in those days, the miraculous image Mariahilf was located therein. During the Ottoman siege the chapel was destroyed, the miraculous image could be saved behind the protective walls. After the provisional reconstruction the miraculous image in a triumphal procession was returned, accompanied by 30,000 Viennese.
1790 - 1836 Ferdinand Raimund
Although in the district Mariahilf many artists and historical figures of Vienna lived , it is noticeable that as a residence they rather shunned the Mariahilferstraße, because as early as in the 18th Century there was a very lively and loud bustle on the street. The most famous person who was born on the Mariahilferstrasse is the folk actor and dramatist Ferdinand Raimund. He came in the house No. 45, "To the Golden deer (Zum Goldenen Hirschen)", which still exists today, as son of a turner into the world. As confectioners apprentice, he also had to visit the theaters, where he was a so-called "Numero", who sold his wares to the visitors. This encounter with the theater was fateful. He took flight from his training masters and joined a traveling troupe as an actor. After his return to Vienna, he soon became the most popular comedian. In his plays all those figures appeared then bustling the streets of Vienna. His most famous role was that of the "ash man" in "Farmer as Millionaire", a genuine Viennese guy who brings the wood ash in Butte from the houses, and from the proceeds leading a modest existence.
1805 - 1809 French occupation
The two-time occupation of Vienna by the French hit the suburbs hard. But the buildings were not destroyed fortunately.
19th century Industrialization
Here, where a higher concentration of artisans had developed as in other districts, you could feel the competition of the factories particularly hard. A craftsman after another became factory worker, women and child labor was part of the day-to-day business. With the sharp rise of the population grew apartment misery and flourished bed lodgers and roomers business.
1826
The Mariahilferstraße is paved up to the present belt (Gürtel).
1848 years of the revolution
The Mariahilferstraße this year was in turmoil. At the outbreak of the revolution, the hatred of the people was directed against the Verzehrungssteuerämter (some kind of tax authority) at the lines that have been blamed for the rise of food prices, and against the machines in the factories that had made the small craftsmen out of work or dependent workers. In October, students, workers and citizens tore up paving stones and barricaded themselves in the Mariahilfer Linientor (the so-called Linienwall was the tax frontier) in the area of today's belt.
1858 The Ring Road
The city walls fell and on the glacis arose the ring-road, the now 6th District more closely linking to the city center.
1862 Official naming
The Mariahilferstraße received its to the present day valid name, after it previously was bearing the following unofficial names: "Bavarian country road", "Mariahilfer Grund Straße", "Penzinger Street", "Laimgrube main street" and "Schönbrunner Linienstraße".
The turn of the century: development to commercial street
After the revolution of 1848, the industry displaced the dominant small business rapidly. At the same time the Mariahilferstraße developed into the first major shopping street of Vienna. The rising supply had to be passed on to the customer, and so more and more new shops sprang up. Around the turn of the century broke out a real building boom. The low suburban houses with Baroque and Biedermeier facade gave way to multi-storey houses with flashy and ostentatious facades in that historic style mixture, which was so characteristic of the late Ringstrasse period. From the former historic buildings almost nothing remained. The business portals were bigger and more pompous, the first department stores in the modern style were Gerngross and Herzmansky. Especially the clothing industry took root here.
1863 Herzmansky opened
On 3 March opened August Herzmansky a small general store in the Church Lane (Kirchengasse) 4. 1897 the great establishment in the pin alley (Stiftgasse) was opened, the largest textile company of the monarchy. August Herzmansky died a year before the opening, two nephews take over the business. In 1928, Mariahilferstraße 28 is additionally acquired. 1938, the then owner Max Delfiner had to flee, the company Rhonberg and Hämmerle took over the house. The building in Mariahilferstrasse 30 additionally was purchased. In the last days of the war in 1945 it fell victim to the flames, however. 1948, the company was returned to Max Delfiner, whose son sold in 1957 to the German Hertie group, a new building in Mariahilferstrasse 26 - 30 constructing. Other ownership changes followed.
1869 The Pferdetramway
The Pferdetramway made it first trip through the Mariahilferstraße to Neubaugasse.
Opened in 1879 Gerngroß
Mariahilferstraße about 1905
Alfred Gerngross, a merchant from Bavaria and co-worker August
Herzmanskys, founded on Mariahilferstrasse 48/corner Church alley (Kirchengasse) an own fabric store. He became the fiercest competitor of his former boss.
1901 The k.k. Imperial Furniture Collection
The k.k. Hofmobilien and material depot is established in Mariahilferstrasse 88. The collection quickly grew because each new ruler got new furniture. Today, it serves as a museum. Among other things, there is the office of Emperor Franz Joseph, the equipment of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico from Miramare Castle, the splendid table of Charles VI. and the furniture from the Oriental Cabinet of Crown Prince Rudolf.
1911 The House Stafa
On 18 August 1911, on the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph, corner Mariahilferstraße/imperial road (Kaiserstraße) the "central palace" was opened. The construction by its architecture created a sensation. Nine large double figure-relief panels of Anton Hanak decorated it. In this building the "1st Vienna Commercial sample collective department store (Warenmuster-Kollektivkaufhaus)", a eight-storey circular building was located, which was to serve primarily the craft. The greatest adversity in the construction were underground springs. Two dug wells had to be built to pump out the water. 970 liters per minute, however, must be pumped out until today.
1945 bombing of Vienna
On 21 February 1945 bombs fell on the Mariahilferstrasse, many buildings were badly damaged. On 10th April Wiener looted the store Herzmansky. Ella Fasser, the owner of the café "Goethe" in Mariahilferstrasse, preserved the Monastery barracks (Stiftskaserne) from destruction, with the help other resistance fighters cutting the fire-conducting cords that had laid the retreating German troops. Meanwhile, she invited the officers to the cafe, and befuddled them with plenty of alcohol.
Charlottenburg Palace (German: Schloss Charlottenburg) is the largest palace in Berlin, Germany. It is in the Charlottenburg district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough.
The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during the 18th century. It includes much lavish internal decoration in baroque and rococo styles. A large formal garden surrounded by woodland was added behind the palace, including a belvedere, a mausoleum, a theatre and a pavilion. During the Second World War, the palace was badly damaged but has since been reconstructed. The palace with its gardens are a major tourist attraction.
HISTORY
PALACE
The original palace was commissioned by Sophie Charlotte, the wife of Friedrich I, Elector of Brandenburg in what was then the village of Lietzow. Named Lietzenburg, the palace was designed by Johann Arnold Nering in baroque style. It consisted of one wing and was built in 2 1⁄2 storeys with a central cupola. The façade was decorated with Corinthian pilasters. On the top was a cornice on which were statues. At the rear in the centre of the palace were two oval halls, the upper one being a ceremonial hall and the lower giving access to the gardens. Nering died during the construction of the palace and the work was completed by Martin Grünberg and Andreas Schlüter. The inauguration of the palace was celebrated on 11 July 1699, Frederick's 42nd birthday.
Friedrich crowned himself as King Friedrich I in Prussia in 1701 (Friedrich II, known as Frederick the Great, would later achieve the title King of Prussia). Two years previously, he had appointed Johann Friedrich von Eosander (also known as Eosander von Göthe) as the royal architect and sent him to study architectural developments in Italy and France, particularly the Palace of Versailles. On his return in 1702, Eosander began to extend the palace, starting with two side wings to enclose a large courtyard, and the main palace was extended on both sides. Sophie Charlotte died in 1705 and Friedrich named the palace and its estate Charlottenburg in her memory. In the following years, the Orangery was built on the west of the palace and the central area was extended with a large domed tower and a larger vestibule. On top of the dome is a wind vane in the form of a gilded statue representing Fortune designed by Andreas Heidt. The Orangery was originally used to overwinter rare plants. During the summer months, when over 500 orange, citrus and sour orange trees decorated the baroque garden, the Orangery regularly was the gorgeous scene of courtly festivities.
Various artists were invited to decorate the interior of the palace. As the court painter of Friedrich I, the Flemish artist Jan Anthonie Coxie was commissioned to paint the walls and ceilings in various rooms of the palace. Coxie painted between 1701 and 1713 frescos and an altarpiece in the Palace Chapel and frescos in the Gobelin Gallery and Porcelain Room. The frescos in the Porcelain Room were blatant propaganda for the glorious rule of Friedrich I. They
represent Aurora, the Goddess of Dawn, in her seven-horsed chariot chasing away Night and clearing the way for the Sun-God Apollo, who approaches in his chariot in a blaze of light. Hovering overhead, Mercury heralds the arrival of the life-giving god and Saturn ushers in the Golden Age with his scythe. Coxie also included images of the Four Continents as well as the Four Seasons, which are familiar allusions to political power and thus affirm the greatness of Friedrich I.
Inside the palace, was a room described as "the eighth wonder of the world", the Amber Room (Bernsteinzimmer), a room with its walls surfaced in decorative amber. It was designed by Andreas Schlüter and its construction by the Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram started in 1701. Friedrich Wilhelm I gave the Amber Room to Tsar Peter the Great as a present in 1716.
When Friedrich I died in 1713, he was succeeded by his son, Friedrich Wilhelm I whose building plans were less ambitious, although he did ensure that the building was properly maintained. Building was resumed after his son Friedrich II (Frederick the Great) came to the throne in 1740. During that year, stables for his personal guard regiment were completed to the south of the Orangery wing and work was started on the east wing. The building of the new wing was supervised by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, the Superintendent of all the Royal Palaces, who largely followed Eosander's design. The decoration of the exterior was relatively simple but the interior furnishings were rich with painting and sculpture,textiles and mirror. The ground floor was intended for Frederick's wife Elisabeth Christine, who, preferring Schönhausen Palace however, was only an occasional visitor. The especially splendid decoration of the upper floor, which included the White Hall, the Banqueting Hall, the Throne Room and the Golden Gallery, was designed mainly by Johann August Nahl. In 1747, a second apartment for the king was prepared in the distant eastern part of the wing. During this time, Sanssouci was being built at Potsdam, and once this was completed Frederick was only an occasional visitor to Charlottenburg.
In 1786, Frederick was succeeded by his nephew Friedrich Wilhelm II who transformed five rooms on the ground floor of the east wing into his summer quarters and part of the upper floor into Winter Chambers, although he did not live long enough to use them. His son, Friedrich Wilhelm III came to the throne in 1797 and reigned with his wife, Queen Luise for 43 years. They spent much of this time living in the east wing of Charlottenburg. Their eldest son, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who reigned from 1840 to 1861, lived in the upper storey of the central palace building. After Friedrich Wilhelm IV died, the only other royal resident of the palace was Friedrich III who reigned for 99 days in 1888.
The palace was badly damaged in 1943 during the Second World War. In 1951, the war-damaged Stadtschloss in East Berlin was demolished and, as the damage to Charlottenburg was at least as serious, it was feared that it would also be demolished. However, following the efforts of Margarete Kühn, the Director of the State Palaces and Gardens, it was rebuilt to its former condition, with gigantic modern ceiling paintings by Hann Trier. From 2004 till early 2006, Charlottenburg Palace was the seat of the President of Germany, whilst Schloss Bellevue was being renovated.
GROUNDS
The garden was designed in 1697 in baroque style by Simeon Godeau who had been influenced by André Le Nôtre, designer of the gardens at Versailles. Godeau's design consisted of geometric patterns, with avenues and moats, which separated the garden from its natural surroundings. Beyond the formal gardens was the Carp Pond. Towards the end of the 18th century, a less formal, more natural-looking garden design became fashionable. In 1787 the Royal Gardener Georg Steiner redesigned the garden in the English landscape style for Friedrich Wilhelm II, the work being directed by Peter Joseph Lenné. After the Second World War, the centre of the garden was restored to its previous baroque style.
In 1788, Friedrich Wilhelm II arranged for the building of the Belvedere, designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans, in the grounds beyond the Carp Pond. The building was used as a teahouse and as a viewing-tower.
Langhans also designed the Palace Theatre, which was built between 1788 and 1791 to the west of the Orangery wing. The Mausoleum was built as a tomb for Queen Luise between 1810 and 1812 in neoclassical style to a design by Heinrich Gentz. After the death of Friedrich Wilhelm III, it was extended; this design being by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. It was extended again in 1890–91 by Albert Geyer to accommodate the graves of Wilhelm I and his wife Augusta. In 1825, Friedrich Wilhelm III added the Neuer Pavilion, an Italianate villa designed by Schinkel, to the north of the palace. This was damaged in the war in 1943 and was reconstructed between 1957 and 1970.
BURIALS
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Frederick William III of Prussia
Wilhelm I, German Emperor
Prince Albert of Prussia (1809–1872)
Augusta of Saxe-Weimar
TODAY
The palace and grounds are a major visitor attraction.
For an admission charge, parts of the interior of the palace are open to visitors, including the Old Palace (Alte Schloss) and the New Wing (Neuer Flügel). The Old Palace contains many rooms with baroque decoration, and includes a room called the Porcelain Cabinet, which holds thousands of porcelain objects. On special display are the crown jewels and the royal silver and fine porcelain tableware. The New Wing includes the opulent rococo State Apartments of Frederick the Great and the more modest Winter Chambers of Friedrich Wilhelm II. The formal and informal gardens are freely open to the public.
For an admission charge, the Mausoleum, the Belvedere and the Neue Pavilion are open to visitors. The Mausoleum contains the graves of, and memorials to, members of the Hohenzollern family. The memorial to Queen Luise includes her reclining effigy, which is made from Carrara marble and was designed by Christian Daniel Rauch.
Also open to the public are the Belvedere, which contains a collection of Berlin porcelain, and the Neue Pavilion, which houses a collection of arts and crafts of the period when Schinkel was active.
The former Orangery houses a restaurant and café. Destroyed during World War II, the Great Orangery was reconstructed on the model of the baroque building. Today, it shines in its old brilliance again. The light-flooded festival room provides a pleasant framework for cultural events, concerts and banquets.
In addition, a large equestrian statue of Friedrich Wilhelm I is the focus of the palace courtyard. This was designed by Andreas Schlüter and made between 1696 and 1700. From 1703, it stood on the Langen Brücke (now the Rathausbrücke) but was moved to a place of safety in the Second World War. On its return after the war, the barge carrying it sank and it was not salvaged until 1949. In 1952, it was erected on its present site. Across the street of the palace are two more museums, the Bröhan Museum, which contains art nouveau and art deco articles, and the Berggruen Museum, which houses modern art, in particular works by Picasso and Klee. On the left you can find the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection. Its collection of paintings, graphics and sculptures, spanning the period from French Romanticism to Surrealism.
WIKIPEDIA
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Many have spent lives here, their sweat on the walls, their breath still in the air. Their life, their lifes work, left to slowly decay, to be vandalized. Left for ruin. What does it all amount to in the end? A false memory? even those die out.
An old grain mill in Waterloo.
Photography by Ismael Barrera
As the light hits every surface, reflecting and creating perspective. The beauty can be seen. Sometimes the unusual addition of monochrome space can enhance the our sense of appreciation. Perhaps the uniformity of what we see… or perhaps that the lack of color. Either way, the introduction of the same scene with a completely new elements will engender everlasting memories. Adding to our vast collection of little moments, evocative mind images that contrast the happiness we experience in our lifetimes.
Thinking about memory lanes that you seldom stroll down; bright joys that lie just out of sight; hints of green summer days and happiness carefully filed away; so close but just out of reach.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVdDtIqRwh0
Inside the abandoned Barber Mill.