Of
Jörg Haentzschel
The Berlin Palace has been rebuilt, including the dome, cross and patched Bible verse. But anyone who thinks that there is more in the past than the present can cope with is wrong: the Berlin Palace Friends’ Association, which collected 105 million euros in donations for the facade, is not finished yet. Soon “balustrade figures” will be set up again along the edge of the roof, four of which will bear the facial features of Wilhelm I, his wife Augusta and the crown prince couple Friedrich Wilhelm and Victoria. Just as the pharaoh is part of the Playmobil pyramid, the castle is not complete without a king. Wilhelm von Boddien, the managing director of the association, who went bankrupt as an agricultural machinery dealer but was enormously successful as a fundraiser, complains that he already paid 3.4 million euros to the castle foundation for the figures a year ago. “Nothing happens.”