I was born in Berlin and raised until eight years old within walking distance of the Museum Island with its Altes, Neues and Pergamon Museum, home of the Pergamon Altar.

Though as a child it was Schinkel’s nearby, Soviet-repurposed Neue Wache (New Guardsman) building with its eternal flame and changing guard that left the longest impression, when I returned to Berlin as an undergraduate I naturally came to all these buildings with a different perspective and appreciation, especially in relation to the Pergamon Altar.

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