After several conversions and a period of use as a theatre in the years immediately following the First World War, the Kaisersaal was largely destroyed in the Second World War. The most opulent of all rooms, the Kaisersaal on the second floor, was a barrel-vaulted banquet hall, commanding an area of 650 square metres with 11 metre-high ceilings. Modern touches were seen in the electric light fittings and lampshades for indirect light. This included colourful wall and ceiling paintings in the style of Pompeii, classical pilaster structures, and Jugendstil decorative elements.
The building’s somewhat sombre façade is in stark contrast with the opulent design of its interior, which was in keeping with the tastes of the Wilhelmine era.
The Neoclassical building originally served as a casino for the Prussian officer corps of the Berlin Landwehr division and contained a restaurant, guest rooms, several ballrooms (one of which was the Kaisersaal itself), and even a bowling alley and target range. The imposing building opposite the Zoologischer Garten station at Jebensstrasse 2 was designed by architects Heino Schmieden and Julius Boethke and was inaugurated on 2 September 1909 in a ceremony attended by Emperor Wilhelm II. The exhibitions are accompanied by a varied programme of guides, lectures, and symposia on current research topics. A diverse exhibition programme is presented here, which on the one hand draws from the rich photographic collections held at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin while simultaneously featuring outstanding photographers and outlining important themes in the history of photography. The hall’s renovation, which lasted until 2010, means it is now suitable to host exhibitions of all kinds of photography ranging from the 19th to the 21st century. Their exhibitions always tested the very limits of photography, its relation to other media such as sculpture and film, as well as its relation to religion and history. A string of photographers and artists – Raimund Kummer, M+M, Philipp Schönborn, Boris Hars-Tschachotin and Hannes Nehls, Regina Schmeken, Reiner Leist, Raymond Depardon and Simone Mangos – designed spectacular installations specifically for the room that had been severely damaged in the Second World War. From 2004 to 2008, the Kaisersaal’s prevailing state of ruin formed a strikingly unusual venue for contemporary art and photography exhibitions.
#Paparazzi restaurant newton series#
In the Kaisersaal on the museum’s second floor, the Kunstbibliothek’s Collection of Photography presents a series of rotating exhibitions that explore the medium of photography in all its protean forms.
The Helmut Newton Foundation occupies the two lower floors in the building and has for many years presented its hugely successful permanent exhibition 'Helmut Newton’s Private Property', as well as individual exhibitions on Helmut Newton’s work, his wife Alice Springs, and his contemporaries, including: 'Helmut Newton: Sex and Landscapes', 'Newton, Nachtwey, Lachapelle: Men, War & Peace', 'Pigozzi and the Paparazzi', and 'Helmut Newton Polaroids'. These two institutions have 2000 square metres of exhibition space at their disposal in which to present exciting exhibitions on diverse topics in the history of photography. In the last few years alone, over 1 million visitors have flocked to see the exhibitions presented at the museum by the Kunstbibliothek’s Collection of Photography and the Helmut Newton Foundation. The Museum für Fotografie (Museum of Photography) has been a magnet for photography enthusiasts from all over the world since its opening in 2004.
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