Germany's Historic Preservation/Restoration

[Gistok]

I know that technically this thread doesn't belong in Detroit Issues.... [[Non-Detroit can be so juvenile)... but from a purely historic preservation standpoint, giving a glimpse of European preservation [[done mainly by government and donations) versus the USA, where it's mainly businesses with government tax credits and other subsidies makes for an interesting study.

I was astonished to learn that after 60 years... with the 1990 reunification of Berlin [[and Germany)... that the war damaged and later destroyed Berlin Town Palace of the German Emperors/Prussian Kings [[war damage could have been restored, but instead it was destroyed by the Soviets in 1950).... well this former palace is today being reconstructed.

This nearly $800 million project is being funded by the German Parliament, Berlin City government and private donations for completion in 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtschloss,_Berlin

This huge reconstruction of mainly the outer walls of the huge palace, plus a few historic interior rooms, with the remainder being modern... is to house art and antiquities museums [[not that Berlin doesn't already have a mind boggling number of museums), part of a university, the city main library, and shops and restaurants.

A lot of architects are pissed off about this "pastiche" reconstruction, but enough didn't boycott the rebuilding competition, so as to give some nice designs. Here's the winner...
http://able2know.org/topic/126172-1

This massive recreation of the Berlin Town Palace is the 2nd major German historic recreation work of the 21st Century.... the first being the rebuilding of Dresden's historic Frauenkirche, a church whose dome is about as tall as Detroit's Broderick Tower. This chuch is the Lutheran Cathedral of the city [[it was the largest Lutheran church in Germany until the night of Feb.14, 1945 when Dresden was firebombed)...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Frauenkirche

Ironically a lot of money collected for the restoration of the cathedral was donated by the British. Many of the WWII British bomber pilots had major remorse after that fateful night in February 1945, when they destroyed the non-military "Athens on the River Elbe", and killed over 150,000 [[mainly elderly, women and children) in a massive firebomb that sucked all the oxygen out of the air and caused mainly suffocation among the doomed populace.

The restoration of the Dresden Semper Opera [[finished in 1985), the Dresden Cathedral [[in 2005) and now the rebuilding of the Berlin Town Palace... these restorations have inspired a lot of other projects throughout Europe.
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It is interesting to note that many of Detroit's more historic ruins cause Europeans to shake their collective heads in disbelief... because if some of these buildings [[such as the MCS, Michigan, United Artists and National Theatres) were located in Europe, they would have been well on their way to restoration.

But sadly many Americans don't have as much pride in their architecture as Europeans do. Also, American's have a hard enough time maintaining our infrastructure, let alone historic preservation. And American's are averse to paying extra taxes for such frivolity.

I guess if we had a 2,000 year history... maybe we would appreciate it more...