. Romantic Germany. al with the esthetic; Wertheims beauti-ful department store was built by the royal architectof museums, Alfred Messel, while the architectureof the Rheingold, near by, compares favorably withthat of any American restaurant. From this commercial street, Wilhelm-Strasseleads past the palaces and gardens of the Chancellor,the Foreign Office, the ministers, and the EnglishEmbassy to Unter den Linden. In the quality,though not in the quantity, of its activities, Wilhelm-Strasse is considered the diplomatic center of Eu-rope. It is a monument to the ruler who, in spiteof his inhe
. Romantic Germany. al with the esthetic; Wertheims beauti-ful department store was built by the royal architectof museums, Alfred Messel, while the architectureof the Rheingold, near by, compares favorably withthat of any American restaurant. From this commercial street, Wilhelm-Strasseleads past the palaces and gardens of the Chancellor,the Foreign Office, the ministers, and the EnglishEmbassy to Unter den Linden. In the quality,though not in the quantity, of its activities, Wilhelm-Strasse is considered the diplomatic center of Eu-rope. It is a monument to the ruler who, in spiteof his inherited instincts, has preserved the peace ofthe Continent for twenty years. The masses of marble in memory of FrederickIII and the Empress Victoria, erected by WilliamII outside the Brandenburg Gate, are regarded withdismay by artistic Berlin, as is the Column of Vic-tory in the Konigs-Platz, and to a less degree theReichstag, whose gifted architect, Paul Wallot, washampered by imperial collaboration. The exterior 74. BERLIN lacks unity, and the sculpture is monotonously mili-tant; but the interior is a masterpiece of arrange-ment. Hamburgs mighty monument to Bismarckdwarfs the Berlin bronze before the, Reichstag bothin bulk and in spirit; but, on each side of it, the mer-men and the fisherfolk are delightfully un-Prussianinterludes, while the hawthorns about the Column ofVictory add, in June, a grateful glow of color tocolorless Berlin. In the Sieges-Allee, William II hit upon a capitalidea, which does credit to his love of education andto his pride in his forerunners. But here again it isrecognized that the Emperor fell short, and hisfamily feeling came out too aggressively,—worstof all, that he made the old mistake of fettering theindividuality of his artists, so that there are fewworks of genius between the Column of Victoryand the Roland Fountain, like Schotts Albrechtthe Bear, and Briitts Otto the Lazy. There is,by the way, a popular belief that the latter comesdown from
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectgermany, bookyear1910
