The White Hall in focus

Schwetzingen, Summer Residence, palace theatre, auditorium, ceiling painting by Franz Schilling, Apollo and the Nine Muses, 1937, 

It is not known how the ceiling in the auditorium of the theatre was originally painted, as the canvas has been lost. When the palace theatre was renovated in 1937 Franz Schilling therefore executed a completely new ceiling painting showing Apollo and the Muses – and a swastika. 

Mannheim, Palace, main staircase, detail from the ceiling painting by Cosmas Damian Asam, Judgement of Paris, 1730, state before 1945

The photograph shows a detail of the ceiling painting prior to its destruction. In the absence of colour photographs Vocke had to base his reconstruction of the painting on this and similar images, recreating the overall impression of the coloration from other paintings by Asam. At Charlottenburg, where there was a similar body of extant source material, the decision was taken against reconstructing the original. 

Mannheim, Palace, Knights’ Hall, ceiling painting by Carolus Vocke after Cosmas Damian Asam, Banquet of the Olympian Gods at the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis, 1960–1961, state in 2018

After the staircase Vocke created a free copy of the destroyed ceiling painting in the Knights’ Hall – incidentally on the same subject as that of the White Hall in Charlottenburg – completing work in March 1961. His task was especially difficult in that he had only black-and-white photographs at his disposal and the coving had been lowered during reconstruction, with the result that he had to shorten all the figures. A report on the Mannheim paintings commissioned in 1967 by Schloss Bruchsal from the Berlin conservationist Kurt Seeleke was critical in its assessment.

Bruchsal, New Palace, staircase, ceiling painting by Karl Manninger after Johannes Zick, History of the Bishopric of Speyer, 1965–1967, state in 2002

Following a competition in which sample work was submitted, the commission to reconstruct the destroyed ceiling fresco by Zick was given to Karl Manninger. With the existence of colour photographs of details and the painting as a whole, the source material was astonishingly good; however, the execution in true fresco technique (painting on wet plaster) in the oval cupola proved difficult. 

Munich, Bürgersaalkirche, upper church, ceiling painting by Hermann Kasper, Assumption, 1973, state in 2021

After the almost total destruction of the Bürgersaalkirche in Munich during the Second World War the fabric and interior were reconstructed, with work being completed by 1959. However, it was decided to refrain from replicating the monumental ceiling painting created in 1774 following modifications to the interior. Instead the church’s very first ceiling – recorded in a drawing from 1720 – with stucco work and two ceiling panels was reconstructed in 1959, though it was not until 1971 that Hermann Kasper completed the reconstruction with two frescoes in a 1970s interpretation of Baroque style.

Saarbrücken, Palace, central pavilion of the corps de logis, Gottfried Böhm, 1987–1988, Christof Kiefer / Regionalverband Saarbrücken

A contemporary solution was chosen for the destroyed Baroque central pavilion of the corps de logis of the palace at Saarbrücken when the building was renovated in the 1980s – one of only a small number of examples in Germany. The modern skeleton structure in steel and glass occupies the cubature of the lost central pavilion. 

Saarbrücken, Palace, Ceremonial Hall, ceiling painting by Gottfried Böhm, 1982–1989, Thomas Salzmann/ Regionalverband Saarbrücken

For the Ceremonial Hall of the modern interpretation of the central glass and steel pavilion Böhm designed a postmodern interior with glass surfaces and mirrored walls inspired by Baroque halls of mirrors. Spanning the ceiling is an illusionistic painting, presumably intended to evoke the construction of open roof timbering.

Berlin, Charlottenburg Palace, New Wing, White Hall, state before 1943

Shortly after his coronation Frederick II commissioned the architect Knobelsdorff to design the New Wing at Charlottenburg in place of a never-realized orangery. Alongside apartments for himself and his wife it also contained the Golden Gallery as a ballroom and the White Hall, inaugurated in 1742 as a large banqueting hall.

Berlin, Charlottenburg Palace, New Wing, view from the staircase into the White Hall and the Golden Gallery after the destruction, state in November 1952

During an air raid on Berlin in November 1943 Charlottenburg Palace suffered extensive destruction. Apart from a small number of rooms the New Wing was gutted by fire, with only its external walls left standing. The roof, ceilings and floors were completely destroyed. Just a few portions of the wall fixtures were preserved.

Berlin, Charlottenburg Palace, New Wing, White Hall, state in c. 1955

Around ten years after the palace had been destroyed reconstruction was in full swing. Work on the ceilings, floors and roof had been completed but the new windows had not yet been installed. The photograph gives a clear view of the new vaulting filled in with brickwork. For reasons of cost the vaulting was constructed to be shallower than the original. 

Berlin, Charlottenburg Palace, New Wing, White Hall, state in 1965

Twenty years after the palace was destroyed its reconstruction had advanced to the point where after insertion of the new wooden windows work was able to start on the reconstruction of the walls, pilasters and entablature in marble-stucco. This was executed to the highest standards of traditional craftsmanship.

Heinrich von Luckner, design for the ceiling painting of the White Hall in the New Wing of Charlottenburg Palace, inscribed 1947 on the back, but presumably dating from 1957, paper, gouache, 119 x 200 cm

A proposal to commission a contemporary work of art for the ceiling was first made at a meeting in the White Hall in 1957. The idea received a positive reception, resulting in the presentation of a design made by Heinrich von Luckner on his own initiative. While the design was not realized it can be seen as the foundation stone of the discussion on a modern solution for the White Hall ceiling.

Herbert Sommerfeld assisted by Gunnar Voigt in making a picture frame, April 1965

Born in the Neukölln borough of Berlin in 1904, Sommerfeld worked as a restorer at the palace from the end of the war to the 1970s. In addition to the ornamental framing on the ceiling of the White Hall he painted several cloudy skies as replacements for ceiling paintings that had been lost during the war, such as that over the staircase in the Old Palace or the Chinese Gallery.