Nefertiti in Berlin

What have Marlene Dietrich, Käthe Kollwitz and Nefertiti got in common? They are all famous women from Berlin. But it is the Egyptian Queen that is the most famous of all.

Today she plays an ambivalent role in Germany's capital city: Celebrated as a magnet to attract the public, she brings money into the museum island. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to see her every year. She has changed location many times, and from 2009 it is planned that she should have a room to herself in a newly constructed museum.

"Nefertiti comes": The "New Museum" will house the Egyptian queen from 2009.

In the history of Berlin, Nefertiti is a symbol of the East-West division: The former Egyptian collection which was divided up after 1945, the bust remaining the subject of bitter inner-German conflicts for decades, was brought back together in 2005.

The Berlin tourist associations' advertising shows the bust along with the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Pillar, it was disfigured for the city election campaign and in every souvenir shop you find copies of the bust in more or less recognisable variations in between the bits of the Berlin Wall and Berlin bears. Nefertiti also adorns the advertising of the State Museums' appeal for donations.

"People in Berlin": The poster series on the Museums Island shows Nefertiti and other antiquities.

Is Nefertiti really a woman from Berlin? Her origin as the "Queen from the Nile" is no secret and for many visitors she symbolises the great fascination with Ancient Egypt. The panels in the Egyptian Museum describe her great importance for the kingdom of the Pharaohs. And at the same time she has become a synonym for the capital city, a place she would hardly have chosen to live in. How nice for Berlin.

This overall marketing of the bust is not just proof of the popularity of the Egyptian lady; rather it is symptomatic of thoughtless marketing of cheap stuff. In 2003 the Egyptians took it amiss that she was used with permission of the Berlin Museum as part of a video installation for the Biennial Festival which some considered obscene. The tourist trade advertises with a manipulated view showing her looking up at the Brandenburg Gate - with her one eye, that is now on the wrong side. But here it is more a question of politics than of art: The reputedly most famous woman of the city has to lend her face for somewhat questionable Berlin affairs.

The link below leads you to a typical marketing advertisement of Berlin. Other cases are to be found for example in German press articles.

Berlin - the "Mecca"of art and culture

Nefertiti was manipulated for this Berlin promotion ad: Her missing eye was moved from left to right to make her smiling to the viewers. more

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