The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1883-07-19

Bismarck Comes In For Share
Nearly all tho public monuments are
upon the Inter den Linden or In the new
extension. There are scarcely any more
lime trees "under the lime trees" they
have been replaced by some paltry elms
that look as though they were planted yes
terday; but the celebrated promenade can
do without this ornament; the monuments
which border 1t give it a frame of an indis-
putable solemness. From the loot OF the
statue of Frederick III. the eye takes In
about fifteen OF these public building, which
sight is worthy Of a capital. If you are not
taken with this glance of the ensemble, ii
YOU examine these edifices one after
the other, you are quickly struck with
the artifciality of The mind which
has united them on the borders OF the Spree.
They say to you what is said OF the German
genius-that it is made more for erudition
than invention. The Prussian rulers have
made great efforts to ornament their capital,
but these efforts'have influenced no original
artistic production. Architecture has no
tradition in Prussia: it could not draw in.
SEPARATION from past which does not exist;
the Gothic art stopped at Cologne, and 10
yle tlUlo Vi Lu6 TcuhlobdhCC DCiitiA Voo Ohiy
q village in a halt savage country. Ihey
contented themselves with what existed
elsewhere; they went to seek their models,
now in Greece, now in Italy now in France;
at present exoticism leads them even.outside
of Europe; they have Just constructed a
splendid synagogue, the cupola OF which,
with its capriciously interlaced arches,
would cause no astonlshment at oamar-
cand.
Sometimes the Berlin architects have
purely and simply copied. The visitor can
contemplate, for example, the Propyl@um.
at the Brandebourg gate the Panthgn OF
Agrippa at the st. Hedwige church, and the
arch of Septlmus Seyerus in one of the
doors of the royal castle. More often they
have initiated. There was never Berlin
style. nor a shade of what might resemble
one, but only some fashions which de-
pended either upon the fancy OF the SOW
ereign or upon the taste of his architect,
and which changed with, them; In the
first monuments built, and which do not
date further back than the end of the seven
teenth century, Schluter initiated the
Louis XIV. style. Frederick the Great
had strong passion for Roman archi-
lecture. Under Frederick Will
liam III. began the, reign OF the
Greek, which, with varying fortunes, has
palace has balcony with Doric columns
the old museum is an 1ronic temple, and
the national gallery is Corinthian temple.
Everywhere under the gray sky you see,
blackened by the rains ana corroded by the
winters. marbles with herpetic spots COL
onnades and trontons. There is, not a
building, even to the guard.house built IN
front of the imperial palace, which is not a
Doric edicule as stubby as it is heavy 1t
gives singular effect to see soldiers in
pointed helmets walking with needle guns
under portico where Agamemnon would
feel al home.
1t is said that Prince Bismarck feels very
keenly the artriclaiity Of Berlin, It's artistic
and literary stsr.itI, aud that he does MOI
4 we the city. | has no historical souvenirs
no local spirit, none OF thoEe mo IuGie nIs
around which the legend of people is
formed. He would have preferred as cap
ilal Of The empire he has created one OF those
old GEman cities the names of which are
i)stiM the night of time, and which have
sd e traditions sufficiently noted TO mark
with an original imprint the manifestations
of the intelligence OF which they are the
theater. But Berlin enjoys the benefit of
possession; perhaps some day soul will
Shoot out and there will be Berlin genius
The abundance of statues distinguished
Berlin more than its architecture. A great
artist, Rauch, and the pupils whom he
formed have peopled the principal streets
and places with the II. The monument OF
Frederick H., by Rauch, is masterpiece,
and no sculptor has ever better rendered
the historical expression OF parsonage
than he has done in this difficult portrait OF
such a complex hero. These statues seem
deligned TO keep up in the population the
military spirit to which the Prussian peo-
pie to-day owe their grandeur. They are,
above all, dedicated to the combatants OF
1913, to Stein, to York, to Scharnhorst, to
Gneiseneau, to Bulow and to Butcher, and
the soul lors have tried to render by the at
10 af ha the sentiments
which at that epoch reused
nm Germany against the for
eiener. We discovered abandoned
upon a square, a celebrated man who was
not soldier, a Schiller, but he had a very
unhappy look under his marble mantle
yisibly he felt himself out OF his element in
the midst of his blusterous companions.
The symbolic groups that We see are also
inspired by the same preocucpation. There
are eight OF them, not without merit, on
the chateau bridge, and there. are eight
lessons of warlike courage In action.
Fatherland teaching young man how to
shoot an arrow, furnishes several groups,
the last one showing the young man dying.
sustained by glory, who presents him
laurel wreath. Twenty years ago Theo-
phile Gautler, on his way to Russia, saw
these groups, but only noticed the way IN
which the nude was treated; to-day the
first thing which strikes us is the purpose
. for which they were made. There is an
other monument raised TO the German mil
itary glories which we feel Obliged 10 visit.
II is what is called the victory column,
raised upon one of the round points Of the
Thiergarten, in remembrance of the victo-
tories of the present emperor. The bas-re-
iiefs of il are mediocre, and the general as
pect is unreservedly ugly. Rauch is dead,
and his pupils have been below themselves
on this occasion. II does not matter: these
victories have not been able to find any
interpreters among the artists; they have
left upon the character OF the population
trace that we seem to find at every instant
-..Ao-. 81 ,t;s n.rey 10 not