If it is true, as Emerson affirmed, that “It never was in the power
of any man or any community to call the arts into being,” that “they
come to serve his natural wants, never to please his fancy,” then
Berlin offers in her new National Gallery a fine illustration of this
theory. In 1841 King Frederick William IV engaged the architect Stüler
to draw a plan of a building, after the style of a Corinthian temple,
which should inclose a fine room, serviceable as a lecture hall for the
University, an exhibition hall for pictures, or a public audience room.
They determined to locate this building just back of the Royal Museum,
on the so called “Museum Island.” The king died before his plan was
developed. In March, 1861, the Swedish consul, J. H. W. Wagener died in
Berlin, leaving as a legacy to the state his collection of pictures,
which was known in the city as the “Wagener Collection,” which occupied
several rooms in the “Kunst Akademie.” In these same rooms every two
years was held the exhibition for German artists, accompanied with the
never ceasing regret that the accommodations were so poor. So necessity
originated the idea of utilizing the “Corinthian Temple,” then about
to be built, not for a “city hall,” according to the intention of
Frederick William IV, but for an “art museum,” exclusively for German
art. The thought of such a magnificent temple for their future works
inspired all ambitious German artists, for it was understood that
whenever anything superior was produced it should pass into the public
possession, thus rendering the sale of great works possible, and
establishing a connection between the artists and the State—a plan
which was advocated years ago by Herman Grimm.
After it was decided to use this building for a gallery, Stüler
occupied himself with the necessary architectural changes which he only
completed a short time before his death. The corner stone was laid
on the 2nd of December, 1867. The work advanced slowly, and was, of
course, interrupted by the Franco-Prussian war. After the victories it
was resumed, and grew as rapidly as all buildings did in that memorable
year of 1871, when it was scarcely possible to secure a dwelling in the
German capital.
It stands a grand monument to German taste and genius of the 19th
century, and very appropriately contains on its proud front the simple
inscription: