War Damage and Demolition
As a precaution, all the palace windows had been bricked up already in 1940, but the entire building was gutted during an air raid in November 1943 and almost entirely destroyed. The ruins were left in place until 1959, when the East Berlin Magistrate—against the strenuous objection of museum professionals and parts of the West Berlin public— ordered the final demolition, apparently out of an ideological motivation similar to what prompted the breakup of the likewise heavily damaged Hohenzollern city palace in 1950. Only a few names remain as testimony to the former existence of the palace: On the grounds between Oranienburger Straße and the Spree there is a shady refuge of three hectares with a children's open-air swimming pool, today’s Monbijou Park. Nearby there is a Monbijou Square, a Monbijou Street, and a Monbijou Bridge for pedestrians connecting both banks of the Spree at the north end of Museum Island.
Coordinates: 52°31′23″N 13°23′49″E / 52.52306°N 13.39694°E / 52.52306; 13.39694
Read more about this topic: Monbijou Palace
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or damage:
“Today we know that World War II began not in 1939 or 1941 but in the 1920’s and 1930’s when those who should have known better persuaded themselves that they were not their brother’s keeper.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“There is such a thing as food and such a thing as poison. But the damage done by those who pass off poison as food is far less than that done by those who generation after generation convince people that food is poison.”
—Paul Goodman (1911–1972)