New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-05-29
TWO BERLIN VIEWS.
THE BERLIN OF TO-DAY AND BERLIN n
MARCH, 1858.


banks of the Spree Well, Berlin is not Paris,
but it has attractions. If there were time-not
20 compare one with the other but to indicate the
points in which each has It's own iltcrest-Bcrlin
would not make bad show. There is no time,
nor do know Berlin well enough to touch on
anything but What is superficial and external.
One does not come to understand the real life of
o place by visiting it half dozen times at long
intervals. l was here in 1866 twice: after the
Austro-Prussan war. l saw the garrisons OF Der.
lin and Potsdam enter Berlin after the Prussian
triumph which settled once for all the place Of
each in Germany: made Prussia the real head Of
the great German-speaking people and left Austria
n transfer the centre of gravity of her empire
eastward, and to renOunce, probably forever her
ancient supremacy in Germany itself
I That was the beginning of the greatness OF
Berlin. The city then lay, for the most part, we'll
inside the Brandenburg Gate and either south Of
the Spree within the quarter known Alt
Berlin 1t now melts into Charlottenburg on the
west beyond the Thiergarten, and the acreage Of
streets and houses north of the Spree in the new
quarters and the second zone is nearly equal to
that on the south, though on the south side, too,
vast new quarters have sprung up. Yet the city
has never lost its individuality. The heart OF it
is where it The space between the Branden-
burg Gate and the Lustgarten the centre Of
the Kingdom of Prussia, and still is only it has
become also the centre of the German Empire.
The Inter den Linden is still the Unter den
Linden. The great Palaces, the great Depart
mental offices, the Ministries, the Embassies tho
Museums. the noble Arsenal these are where they
were. So the banks and the great business
streets. The Friedrchstrasse has stretched in
one direction. and the Leipzigerstrasse in an
other, but the best part of them is still the same
of old. If you do not choose to extend your
walks or drives, you may still imagine yourself
In the Berlin Of thirty years ago. Its growth has
Ieen rather ly accrction than by transformation
or reconstruction. The physOgnOmy OF the chief
streets remains and | suppose will long remain.
The general impression remains an impression
of spaciOusness which is a true impression, and Of
magniiccncc which will become much truer il
the Berncr. lis Government for him,
shall bethinl himself of tearing down these palaces
and temples of brick and stucco, and rebuilding
them in stone. That sincerity which all adj
mire in the German character does not, in Berlin,
express itself INTELLECTUALLY, in the material Of
+ its architecture The absence OF it is a positive
misfortune. Keen is the disappointment of tho
visitor when he first discovers how he has been
deceived. and that these stately fabrics which
line the Inter den Linden. the Wilhcmstrasse,
the Lustgarten, are so many shams. In prOpor-
ton and design they often admirable; but the
more admirable the proportion and design the less
is the for the cheap mposture of stuccO
fronts. Some of them are palpable limitations OF
stone; others offer you Il PLAIN surface by when
you need not be deceived if you look. BIT II Is
in either case. want of good faith. desire for
splendor at half price, the wish 20 puill mag
niicent city, or city with the air of magncence,
but not the substance or solidty Of an expensive
material There are. presume. no good quarries
near Berlin, and the transport of stone enough to
build city is a dear business. The simple
minded Baedel,er remarks with pathos on the
Palace of Count Redeem in the Pariser Platz: " The
effect of the building is marred by the executions
of its facade in plaster instead of in stone" 10
is and Baedeker whose loyalty TO his fatherand
and faith in whatever is German is touching
might have repeated his gentle criticism WITH
reference 10 almost every public building IN Ber@
lin Ii is an illustration of the commercial spirit
of the age on its good side. that the Exchange
finished in 1868, should be the first modern build@
ing in stone.
Stucco or stone it is not. after all the physical
side Of Berlin which appeals most strongly TO the
| Imagination or 10 the feelings. Ii is not what has
been built here. not even industry nor commerce.
nor art-least Of all modern German art-but whao
has beon done here that one cares most for. Inc
Berlin of September SGG, 10 which ! referred
moment ago, was memorable indeed. Nobody who
saw those two days-who saw those
10000 valiant and victorious Prussian
soldiers march mp the Inter den Linz
den who saw the King and his staff. who
saw that immortal three who rode by themselves
apart in a single rank, Bismarck, Moltkc, Won
Roon-will ever forget it them But there Is a
moro recent day than that which is more impress
siyo still that DAY of gloom in March, l-ss, when
/ the Empcror was buried. The two memories are
indissolubly connected, twenty-five years apart
! though they BE-. The King of Prussia, riding up
the Linden in all the flush of the victory OF $780,
the same King of Prussia became German En-
peror, going to his grave down the same street,
4 all Germany mourning, and all Germany followihs'
in person or by dcegatc-can any contrast be more
striking?
: As walk along the Inter den Linden to-day
see it again as it was five years ago. all drapeo III
black its lamps all lighted in the broad bleak day'
its central avenue filed with troops and with tho
societies and guilds from every corner OF the In
pre- the dead Emperor on his last journey TO
Charlottenburg. all Germany. as l said. accompany
ing him, all that is illustrous except the two men
most ilustrioas of ALL Bismarck and Moltkc, botn
ill., For days and nights the Emperor had lam IN
the cathedral in kiney and soldierly state" MS
generals keeping watch day and night about hlm'
! The Berliners have since pulled down the cathe-
dral. which seems a singular way OF doing honor
70 his memory The wreck of it, mere heaps OK
brick and mortar, cncumbers the Lusgarten to-
day, and suppose smart new church will pres
emily be built on the site Of the poor old DOM
! kirche The building nothing but are assocla-
lions and memories nothing? No cathedral IN
Germany, none in Europe, nor Cologne, nor Gamer
bury nor Seville itself, meant, in one way so much
TO Europe as this modest Protestant temple They
have gathered into the llohenzollern museum all
sorts of relics of this Emperor as they have OF the
great Frederick and of other Kings of Prussia great
and little. They keep his rooms as he left them az
Babcsberg and in the Inter den Linden ana
dare say in other Palaces. His little grandson
the present Emperor, is at the new Palace IN fots-
dam. and we could not see it, and cannot say
| MIN. 4ha,. Larn dina fInrn left nnlOne. but