HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE: THE THANKSGIVING BOARDS IN THE HUMBOLDT FORUM BERLIN
In the newly built Berlin Palace, porcelain honorary plaques made by the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin honor civic commitment and commemorate the donors who made the reconstruction of the historic building possible. Discover the exciting path from the factory to the castle.
In the capital, KPM Berlin porcelain is part of the cityscape in many places. 500 memorial plaques on the walls and facades of Berlin's houses commemorate outstanding personalities and special institutions in the city. Since the opening of the Humboldt Forum, the hand-made porcelain plaques of thanks and honor have also honored the civic engagement that made the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace possible.
The Humboldt Forum in the newly built Berlin Palace is designed as a modern center for art, culture, science and education in the heart of Berlin. It wants to be dedicated to the dialogue between the world's cultures and to look at historical and current issues from different perspectives. 45,000 private donors financed the restoration of the exterior and the reconstructed facade in the inner courtyards to the tune of 105 million euros.
14 individual porcelain plaques in Portal III under the dome commemorate the castle patrons who donated a million or more euros. Attached to the side walls, they consist of a relief portrait made of KPM porcelain, the donor's name and a thank you text that was individually coordinated with the donor. Two donors decided against portraits and instead chose sunflowers and roses as motifs.
The stonemason and sculptor Frank Kösler made the models for the honorary plaques first in clay and then in plaster. The working forms were made by hand in the KPM Berlin model workshop. After several test castings and the extensive post-processing of the panels, they dried in the drying oven at 70 degrees. This removed the moisture from the porcelain mass and prevented the plates from bursting during the fire. Only then did the two-day firing take place at 1,300 degrees, a lower temperature than usual. A test fire showed that the panels could crack at higher temperatures.
