A New Palace for BerlinThe Humboldt Forum

The Berlin Palace, home of the Prussian royal family for centuries and an imposing presence on the Berlin skyline, was badly damaged by bombing in 1945. After the war the East German authorities demolished the ruins and built the Palace of the Republic, the seat of the parliament of the GDR.

After German reunification this communist-era edifice was torn down to make way for a replica of the baroque palace, finally completed and reopened to the public in June 2021. The controversial building houses the Humboldt Forum, a museum of non-European art, itself controversial in an age where the debate is raging over the restitution of art and artefacts from former European colonies.