Either way, my plan for the summer- as already mentioned -is to go to as many Mendelssohn related places in and around Berlin as humanly possible. My first stop was the Friedhof der Dreifaltigkeitsgemeinde, which is the graveyard were Felix and Fanny are buried along with their parents, Wilhelm Hensel(Fanny's husband), Sebastian Hensel(Fanny's son), Felix's son Felix, and Pauline, Paul's eldest daughter who died when she was only 19.
I actually only came up with the idea to go there because of my father asking if I was going to tell Felix was I planned on doing over the summer... I'm a rather frequent guest there.(possibly why it didn't even occur to me to go there)
I think I must have taken about a hundred photos of these graves, but it never gets old for me and I figured I definitely needed photos of them here as well.
I also, as I usually did, left Felix (and Fanny, though I couldn't get a decent picture) pictures.
And here are Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn:
After the graveyard I went to Unter den Linden, one of the best known and fanciest streets in Berlin. Also one of the neatest, possibly one of my favorite places here, but I really love both history and tourists, so it might explain why I like it so much.
Around Felix's time it looked somewhat like this:
And today it looks something like this:
Unter den Linden is home(well, close to home) of the Maxim-Gorki-Theater, which may be better known as the Singakademie
The building was home to the oldest concerthall in Berlin and used by the Singakademie up until the second world war and became the Maxim-Gorki Theater in 1952.
Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn were both members of the Singakademie and the director, C. Friedrich Zelter, was their compositions teacher. Felix conducted a revival of Bach's St. Matthew Passion there and also a number of his own works. The Singakademie was also indirectly (possibly) the reason why Felix ended up leaving Berlin... He got somewhat pissed off when they didn't pick him to direct it after Zelter's death. Yeah, thanks a lot Singakademie. You don't read that on the little information boards about the place. Hmpf.
The place is also freaking tiny, by the way.
Next stop was...
Which I have still have very nice memories of, since it was here I heard Elias the first (and thus far only) time live. Good times, good times.
In the Konzerthaus Felix preformed his music to Antigone and, possibly more importantly, Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz was premiered. More important because, first off, Felix was there and influenced by it and second because Der Freischütz is what got me into opera and classical music in the first place.
Around Felix's time the place looked like this:
And today it doesn't look that different, really:
I really ended up getting lucky with the next place I wanted to visit, because at the Gendarmenmarkt there was this poster-thing:
that somewhat pointed me in the right direction (didn't stop me from getting hopelessly lost on the way there, though).
I'm going to write more about the Jägerstraße in a later post because I didn't actually go in there for... Some reason, don't ask, but I plan to in the near future.
I did get a picture of the place, though:
And there is a plaque on the wall of the building
That reads
The Bankhouse of the brothers Joseph and Abraham Mendelssohn was located in this building since 1815. Over the generations the family Mendelssohn made their business and residential home into a meeting point for artists and scholars. The in 1795 founded bank expanded into the biggest private bank in Berlin in the 19th century. The bank Mendelssohn & co. was liquidated in 1938 due to pressure from the Nationalsozialisten.
There was also a little (well, rather large, actually) board with information about the Mendelssohn family and I did get a picture of that but instead of putting it here I'll just put one littleeee part of it that made me very happy:
As you might have noticed, I kind of have a thing for Paul. Possibly less a thing and more I just love the guy, I'm not quite sure why but oh look I rhymed. No, but honestly, I think he was really neat and I think it's somewhat sad that more isn't said about him, since he did some rather important stuff- so it's nice to see his picture on something and not Felix (nor Fanny). ((nothing against either of them, though)). I honestly want to write something about him one day. Maybe even this summer. Buuut anyway!
My final stop was Leipziger straße 3
OH LOOK A SIGN THIS SHOULD BE-
Crap.
Okay sorry. But it was a... kinda sorta if you squint long walk from there.
The place right now either belongs to or is part of the Bundesrat, I'm not fully sure I just know they had cameras and security guys there, but if you don't look at them the place looks really quite nice.
There's even some guy reading about Felix and Fanny!
This thing about Felix and Fanny (and Abraham even)
It says "The city palais, which the banker Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy acquired 1825, was at this spot. It became a meeting point for art and learning in Berlin of the time. Here his son Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 - 1847) composed, among other things, the Overture to "Midsummer Night's Dream". Here his daughter Fanny Hensel (1805-1847) *married to the court painter Wilhelm Hensel* hosted her famous Sonntagsmusiken"
Annnd that was it for that day. Although, as an -of only personal interest- special treat I found that the Canadian embassy is reaaally close to Leipziger straße 3.
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