After years of fierce debate Berlin’s mayor announced plans to rebuilt an 18th century royal palace. The building will replace the nearly demolished Palace of the Republic, the East German equivalent of a parliament building, which had been built on the Schlossplatz in the 50’s. This is also the site of the former palace and is located next to the central Berlin boulevard Unter den Linden and near Museums Island, where most of Berlin’s main public museums are located. The new palace building will primarily be used to showcase the city museums’ collection of non-European art, currently housed in a suburb of Berlin. Many German commentators Tuesday criticized the plans for the new Stadtschloss and called it a lost opportunity for the city. One commentator (from Die Tageszeitung) said that “the area from the Museum Island to the Schlossplatz will be turned into a museum space, in which at best, the tourist masses will play the extras in a scene of urban life.”So are the construction plans merely kitsch or will they enable the city to heal a painful urban wound in its historic center? Rem Koolhaas once defended the Stadtschloss by saying that modernist architects have failed to deal with history. There were people in Poland and elsewhere who recreated entire historical cities, and although western architects despised them they had no real alternative to offer. So instead of defending the preservation of the Palast der Republik, as the prime symbol of the former totalitarian regime, he supported the idea of (re)creating a sacred space in the heart of Berlin. But is it possible to make people forget their recent past and let them believe in eternal values by building a new museum? Perhaps they should call it Palast der Utopien..

Read related article (Der Spiegel, April 24, 2007)