Almost exactly 30 years ago, the debate began in Berlin about an experiment that most people were actually convinced would fail: the palace scenery inaugurated on July 1, 1993 in front of the already closed Palace of the Republic. The aim was to advertise the replica of the facades of the Berlin Palace that was blown up in 1950 on the orders of the SED. The Hamburg merchant Wilhelm von Boddien initiated this project – until then an unknown palace enthusiast who has since become a figure in Berlin history. No meal more expensive than that with the Boddien fundraiser was blasphemed back in the 1990s. On Sunday he celebrates his 80th birthday – and if the circumstances were different, it would probably be a first-class social event.
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