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Leipziger-Strasse. BERLIN. Section 4. 125
lumns, contains a representation of Borussia with the various mini¬
stries ; on the attic are figures of the working and military classes.
The ten allegorical figures on the wings are from designs by Pfann-
schmidt, Dennert, Meisen, Uechtritz, and Calandrelli. The house
has seats for 218 members. Admission, see p. 38.
Nos. 132-135, on the left side of the street, is *Wertheim's Em¬
porium, erected by Messel in 1897-1904, an excellent type of the
modern German warehouse (comp. p. 51). The facade of the building,
which covers about 18,000 sq. yds., is 590 ft. long and consists
of granite pillars ornamented with metal work, from which projects
a limestone colonnade on the Leipziger-Platz, with the bear-fountain
by Gaul. The interior well repays a visit; visitors need not make
any purchase. The E. glass-covered hall contains a statue of In¬
dustry by Manzel. Refreshment Bar. — At No. 124, at the cor¬
ner of the Wilhelm-Str., is the office of the New York Mutual
Insurance Co., built in 1885-86 by Kayser & Von Groszheim, with
mosaics of six great towns.
At the corner of the Mauer-Str. is the Reichs-Postamt, or
Office of the Postmaster General (PI. R, 22), a handsome edifice in
the Italian style, erected in 1871-73 and enlarged in 1893-98. — In
the corner-wing, above which rises a group of giants holding aloft
the terrestrial globe, is the —
*Imperial Postal Museum, containing a collection of ob¬
jects illustrating the development of postal and other means of
communication. The various rooms open off an inner court, which is
decorated with sculptures. Above the entrance is a bust of Emp.
William II., flanked by figures of Industry and Peace, by K. Begas.
In side niches are figures of Science and Traffic, by Wenck. Above
are six realistic bronze figures representing different methods of
communication. In the centre is a marble statue of H. von Stephan,
the postmaster-general (d. 1897; comp. p. 171). Adm., see p. 39.
A label is attached to each exhibit.
Ground Floor. In the rooms round the inner court are models of
German Post Offices. Rooms 4 and 5, on the left, contain letter-boxes,
signs, etc. Traversing these, we reach the *Historical Department, con¬
taining pictures, casts, and models representing the Bystems of communi¬
cation adopted by the ancients and in the middle ages, as well as the
Sostal system of the 16-18th centuries. The entrance wall of Room 6 is
evoted to the ancients. Room 7. German and Scandinavian objects,
including Germanic bronze chariots, reconstruction of a Scandinavian
chariot copied from fragments found in the Dejberg morass, viking's ship,
plank roads, etc. Model of the Santa Maria, the vessel in which Columbus
made his voyage of 1492. On the walls are miniatures illustrating the
methods of writing and forwarding messages and letters during the
middle ages; by the window, writing materials, wax tablets, and 15th
cent, letters. On the window-wall of Room 6 are letters, guidebooks,
MS. newspapers of the 16th cent., and pictures of the 16-18th cen¬
turies; postman's bag of the time of the Thirty Years' War; autograph
postal decrees of Frederick William I. and Frederick the Great; models
of travelling carriages. — The remaining rooms illustrate the Germain
Postal System of the 19th Century. Models of vehicles, (beyond the