Topping-out ceremony of the largest federal cultural construction project in the centre of Berlin: Today, around 1,500 guests from the political and cultural sectors celebrated the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace as the Humboldt Forum. Federal Building Minister Barbara Hendricks, thanked those involved in the construction side of the project and sponsors and supporters of the project. By 2018, the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning will reconstruct the building at a cost of 590 million euros under the direction of the Berlin Palace-Humboldt Forum Foundation.
Federal Building Minister Barbara Hendricks commented: "The Italian architect Franco Stella has very skilfully altered the plans of the palace's chief architect Andreas Schlüter. The prominent features of this new design are the covered courtyard, the Palace Forum, the public passageway leading from the pleasure garden (Lustgarten) to Breite Strasse and the belvedere to the east. This restoration has stayed true to the baroque but works on the interior have brought it up to today's energy efficient standards. This project, the largest federal cultural construction undertaking, which shares its name with the Humboldt brothers, will be promoting a dialogue between the world's cultures. The form of this building will knit into the urban fabric of the heart of Berlin. I am particularly pleased to see that the project is on budget and on schedule."
In 2002, the German Bundestag decided that the Berlin Palace would become the Berlin Palace-Humboldt Forum and specified that three baroque façades and the Schlüter courtyard must be historically restored. With a gross floor space nearing 100,000 m², 41,000 m² of this space will house non-European collections from the national museums in Berlin, the exhibition World.City.Berlin, a museum dedicated to the history of the site (Museum des Ortes), the laboratory of the Humboldt University and will be used as an event space.
A budget of 590 million euros has been set for the project. 32 million euros are being provided by the Land of Berlin, 478 million euros are being paid by the Federal Government, 80 million euros will come from donations, 23 million euros of which have already been procured for the baroque sandstone elements of the historic façades. The base levels have already been clad with the first natural stones to attract further donations.
Federal Building Minister Barbara Hendricks invites everyone to the two Open House days next weekend at the Schlossplatz.