This illustration of a Triceratops by Heinrich Harder is one of several animal representations on the outer walls of the Aquarium Berlin. It forms an intriguing contrast to the colourful fishes inside.
Heinrich Harder in Berlin
As I was on a tour on the tracks of the Bauhaus Movement, I didn’t have the time to visit the aquarium. But I became curious about the meaning of the Triceratops. Later, I learned there is more than one depiction of dinosaurs around the aquarium.
For example, a model of an Iguanodon guards the entrance of the building. The Iguanodon and the Triceratops were works created by the German artist and art professor Heinrich Harder.
He was a true expert in depicting creatures of the primal world. At the time of the erection in 1913, these depictions should illustrate the predecessors of the living animals in the aquarium.
After heavy damage during World War II, a new building rose on the foundations of the destroyed one. A reconstruction of Heinrich Harder’s reliefs and mosaic paintings started in 1978. And so you see living sea creatures and depictions of extinct saurians in the same place: the Aquarium Berlin.