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We and the soup are announced at Hartmut's cousin Stefan and his girlfriend Maria at 2 o'clock in the afternoon in Leipzig.
More than one hour later we arrive. How embarrassing! we haven't expected to be invited for a cultivated lunch together with other guests, on a feastful decorated table with nice food like amuse geul, hors d'oeuvre and a royal fish soup.
Fortunately our hosts are neither nitpicky nor resentful and also the other guests Georg, Ellen and Claudia are taking it easy. The enjoyment about the arrival of the soup prevails and so we have a nice sunday afternoon, eating soup, drinking wine and - once again we discuss on the issue of architectural innovation and demand for historical preservation of monuments.
Georg, who's an architect argues strictly for a modern, contemporary solution in the matter of the Berlin Castle, Palast der Republik. In his opinion it makes all the difference, if a building will be destroyed by a singular incidence and will be rebuilt immediately or if in consequence of social and political upheavals and armed conflicts during decades, new architectural statements and conditions will be created. These processes cannot be called off, but need new appropriate, valid responses in connection with the precence. History as well as contemporary architecture should find its expression.
The discussion here in Leipzig is not a coincidence.
At the place between Gewandhaus and opera a new university is being built. This is the place, where once, until 1968, the St. Pauli Church was located. The 700 years old church was one of the few buildings not being destroyed during the Second World War.
Here's the simple version of the story, why this church doesn't exist any longer: After visiting the opera, Walter Ulbricht (chairman of the council)glanced at the St Pauli Church and said 'it must be steamrolled!'
Probably it wasn't solely Ulbrichts desicion to demolish the church, but his comment sums up the unbelieveable ingnorance in matters of cutural tradition and the political extension of poor taste. The vehemency and brute violence, wherein ideological blindness takes on religious lineaments, made them believe, that the creation of a new human being needs to delete all signs of the past and it is similar to another distressing example of absurd violence, namely the vandalism of the Afhan Taliban, that have destroyed all the statues of Buddha in Bamian, just a few years ago.
The concept here in Leipzig: the St. Pauli Church is being new built and called St. Pauliaula, It's being made of ferroconcrete with several differences to the original. Time will show, if this solution will be successfull. The true to original replica of a destroyed historical building, which can be admired as well as disliked is the Frauenkirche in Dresden.
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