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2024 is a big year for Cyprus — with a painful anniversary (Turkish invasion and division of the country 50 years ago) and a happy anniversary (joining the EU 20 years ago). But the reopening of the Cyprus Hall in Berlin overshadows both events.

What is 50, what is 20 years compared to a few millennia? The island in the eastern Mediterranean has been populated for tens of thousands of years. In the middle of the third millennium BC, Cyprus took a firm place in European prehistory, and its cultural heyday began in the middle of the second millennium BC.

This period can be recreated in Berlin. A few days ago, the Cyprus Hall in the Neues Museum on Museum Island was officially opened. It is the largest and most important collection of Cypriot antiquities outside Cyprus.

Important enough to let two ministers of culture open the event. The Cypriot Minister of Culture Vasiliki Kassianidou and her German counterpart Claudia Roth gave the opening speeches.

Roth was moved “how objects from a world long gone by can be so close to us” and fascinated by the multicultural character of the diverse influences from all countries with which Cyprus had intensive connections due to its location on three continents. She also praised the extremely close cooperation between Cyprus and Germany on a cultural level. “The Cyprus Hall allows us to travel back in time to 2500 BC — and resurrects a world long gone by. ”

Since Minister Vasiliki Kassianidou is an archaeologist herself, she could not hide her enthusiasm. Here you can get an insight into Cypriot archaeology and ancient culture and learn more about the island and its thousands of years of history.

More than a thousand exhibits tell about it. One of the highlights of the collection is the statue of Aphrodite with a dove from Dali. Cyprus is considered the birthplace of the beautiful goddess. A “suction cup”, a type of precursor to drinking straws, is also worth seeing. The ancient straw principle originated in Cyprus at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC.

After Matthias Wemhoff, Director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, Andreas Scholl, Director of the Antiquities Collection, Anton Gass, curator of the Cyprus Collection, and Stephan Schmid, Professor of Classical Archaeology at Humboldt University, had given a lively introduction to the topic, the Cypriot Ambassador spoke about Berlin Maria Papakyriakou, expressing their thanks in impeccable German. “I can't stress enough how grateful, delighted and moved I am for the event.” The event was a matter close to her and her staff at the relatively small embassy. The collection should contribute to becoming more friends with Cyprus.

Commenting on the division of the island as a result of the Turkish invasion in 1974 — more than a third of the territory has been occupied since then — the ambassador said: “We have a duty to leave our children a reunited home. ”

Numerous ambassadors attended the event, which was organized by the “HXOS Choir Berlin” under the direction of Stelios Chatzictoris was framed with Cypriot and Greek songs in the incomparable acoustics of the Neues Museum.

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