Pock-marked Memories

Reliving a poignant visit to the Neues Museum in Berlin – a building that houses the treasures human history – brings the past alive while reflecting lost memories that continue to survive

- Vani Sriranganayaki

Back in 2013, my Master’s class went on a field trip to Berlin. Quite obviously we hit all the major sites – Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe; Libeskind’s Jewish Museum; Brandenburg Gate; Museum Island; Mitte, which houses the old Jewish quarters and the many stolpersteines; the Eastside Gallery; the intimidating Karl-Marx-Allee and crowded Checkpoint Charlie. One of the course requisites of the trip was that we all keep journals and track our daily events and thoughts. Almost seven years later now, I went back to the journal and, in a sense, relived the few days I spent in the city. One entry, from the day we visited the Neues Museum on the Museum Island, struck a chord. Maybe because what I remembered was in some senses similar to how the city itself remembered the Museum.

Growing up in India, my understanding of the World Wars was limited to brief mentions in high school history books. Going from that to Berlin – a city where every corner housed a reminder of war and the many years of struggle that followed – was overwhelming. Neues Museum especially so. An Egyptian history buff or prehistoric art collector would have, of course, found the contents of the museum fascinating. (Quick trivia: it includes the iconic bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti). But as an architect, I couldn’t look beyond the columns with peeling plasters and walls that flaunted their many scars and bullet holes. It was even more surprising to later find out that it was intentionally left that way.