It's The End of The World As We Know It

A couple of weeks ago I spent a day attempting to go to the Altes Museum to see the Roman stuff. Somehow I lost my way and spend two hours walking in a circle in the Tiergarten. So I gave up my plan to see Roman statuary and stopped at Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

I would sound smarter if I said it was to see the exhibition on the intersection between European and African history, but I needed a bathroom. The exhibition was good, but the building is spectacular.  It was the USA’s contribution to the INTERBAU 1957 building exhibition in Berlin and designed by Hugh Stubbins. This is modernism in its heyday. Today it is beautifully empty. It's like a set from an odd 1960s European film about life after a global pandemic. Abandoned ticket booths, vacant cafés, and a bookstore with one listless cashier.

Now I know what life will be like after the end of the world. I don't think that was the original intention for the building, but it sure does work. FYI, the Fleischmann Planetarium at University of Nevada built in 1963 is a clear ripoff.