Siedler, Fest, and Boddien all conceded that a rebuilt palace would lack authenticity, but they denied that the concept had any relevance. Siedler noted that Unter den Linden today is a row of counterfeit buildings, some (like the Opera House) damaged and rebuilt more than once. “The architectural history of Berlin, like that of Europe, is a history of counterfeits”—whether Goethe’s house in Frankfurt, the campanile in Venice, or the so-called crown prince’s palace on Unter den Linden, which was totally destroyed during the war and then rebuilt from scratch twenty years later by the East
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