Berlin – German History Museum & Altes Museum

Posted on by aspqrz

Just over (one of) the bridges connecting Museuminsel to the ‘mainland’ is the German History Museum which, as you might guess, covers German History. Unfortunately, while quite interesting (especially the special Exhibition on the Weimar Republic and how it failed, there wasn’t a lot to take pictures of … just lots of audiovisual material or stuff that I’ve captured on film (so to speak) elsewhere.

Miscellanea from the WW1 section – that’s the absolutely horrid and infamous Chauchaut Light Machinegun in the centre. More ways to jam than operate properly – semicircular magazine because of the tapered French rounds it used. An absolute abortion – but the French didn’t have anything better and the US also used as they didn’t, either.
Same display case as above, different angle – Maxim MG-08 in front.

Altes Museum

The Altes Museum is one of the lesser biggies on Museuminsel – mainly lesser stuff, or smaller stuff than in the Pergamon.

Looking suitably neoclassical.
Greek (Corinthian) style Hoplite Helmet of the 5th century BC (or so)
Ever wonder how to keep clean without soap? This is the Roman solution – the small silver pot is for olive oil and the silver rod with the curved end is a strigil (‘scraper’). You go to a Roman Bath and work up a sweat to open up the pores and then you cover yourself with olive oil to soak up the dirt and unwanted bodily oils and then you use the strigil to scrape it all off. Simple? Not really – it was notoriously difficult to impossible to do it effectively by yourself and you either had to have a slave/servant of your own or a hired slave/servant at the Baths assist you (doing your back, for example).
Classical Greek? Hellenistic? Byzantine? Heck, I forget – nice work though!
Reconstruction of a famous (lost) statue pair of two gods armed and equipped (but not armoured) as Hoplites. Like all classical graeco-roman statues they are painted in lifelike colours.
A selection of table silver from one of the several large finds from the late Roman period – hidden during the invasions/collapse and never recovered.

Leave a comment