Less well-informed tourists may have been confused by the posters that were hung in the courtyard of the Berlin City Palace on Thursday.

What is that boxy building that you want to remember in weekend events?

When should this Palace of the Republic have stood here?

The mighty brick walls, the columns, capitals and balustrades that you can see in the wide courtyard of the Schlueter seem to prove the duration and continuity over the centuries.

Became Berlin folklore

It's not as if you don't encounter the predecessor of the castle replica when you visit the Humboldt Forum.

But the spirit of the palace's past is quiet and unobtrusive.

In the museum shop it appears as a design object, lights are attached to the ceiling, like the hundreds that hung in the Palace of the Republic.

You can buy them, 3895 euros each.

She doesn't know exactly why the lamp is so expensive, says the saleswoman, probably because of the complex production of the balls with air bubbles enclosed in the glass.

There is also the Palace floor lamp for 369.95 euros and the table lamp for 349.95 euros.

In the souvenir shop, which is called Concept Shop here, the memory of the Palace of the Republic, which opened in 1976 and was demolished between 2006 and 2008, has become part of hip Berlin folklore.

There's also a techno corner, with t-shirts,

Two mugs from the milk bar

In the building itself, twelve objects from the Palace of the Republic are distributed, which was the seat of the People's Chamber of the GDR, but also an event location and meeting point, with a bowling alley, disco, bars and restaurants.

One encounters the objects unexpectedly, for example, next to the entrance to the restaurant there is a display case with two stainless steel mugs, in which iced coffee was served in the milk bar.

They look out of place, the baroque castle dummy, itself only a built memory, has buried the much more recent past under its massive walls.

Nothing else was the plan.

But now the Humboldt Forum, which opened a year ago, wants to evoke the spirit of the palace again.

It starts at the weekend, on the wall of a new restaurant there is now a wall relief from the palace that had been packed away, bowling alleys are being set up in the Schlueterhof, old TV films are being shown.

All this is the prelude to a multi-year engagement with the Palace of the Republic, its architecture and use.

It's a bold project.

The more the building, which many miss in Berlin, is mentally brought back, the more paradoxical it will seem that this is necessary at all.

It could still exist.

There is already an initiative aimed at rebuilding the Palace of the Republic.

She accepts donations.