Ernst Kirchner's "Potsdamer Platz" on Display again in Berlin

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 'Potsdamer Platz' at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany. (DPA Photo)
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 'Potsdamer Platz' at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany. (DPA Photo)
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Ernst Kirchner's "Potsdamer Platz" on Display again in Berlin

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 'Potsdamer Platz' at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany. (DPA Photo)
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 'Potsdamer Platz' at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany. (DPA Photo)

In the year 1914, long before his persecution under the Nazis drove him to suicide, Kirchner (1880-1938) created a central work of expressionism: "Potsdamer Platz." A nighttime street scene on Berlin's busiest crossroad, the painting is evidence that the city's world-famous club scene today has its roots in a buzzing nightlife a century ago, the German News Agency reported.

At the same time, the painting already hints at the tragedies still to come, with one female figure dressed in black and a veil, presumably widowed after the onset of World War I. Kirchner's scene is perhaps one of the most significant artworks for the city of Berlin, and, somewhat aptly, it was removed from public view during the coronavirus lockdown that emptied Potsdamer Platz and other parts of the city.

Over several years of renovation, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin did not have walls to hang this work on, but it is now once again bringing this famous expressionist work back for the public, along with four other works by Kirchner.

For Joachim Jaeger, director of the central Berlin gallery, "Potsdamer Platz" is one of the highlights of the "The Art of Society 1900-1945" exhibition, and the collection of the National Gallery," with which the museum is reopening on August 22. The Neue Nationalgalerie was closed at the end of 2014 and has gone through five years of fundamental renovation.

With this iconic building, architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) created a striking museum for 20th-century art in the late 1960s



French Scientists Find New Blood Type in Guadeloupe Woman

A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)
A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)
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French Scientists Find New Blood Type in Guadeloupe Woman

A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)
A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type. (AFP)

A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type, dubbed "Gwada negative," France's blood supply agency has announced.

The announcement was made 15 years after researchers received a blood sample from a patient who was undergoing routine tests ahead of surgery, the French Blood Establishment (EFS) said on Friday.

"The EFS has just discovered the 48th blood group system in the world!" the agency said in a statement on social network LinkedIn.

"This discovery was officially recognized in early June in Milan by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT)."

The scientific association had until now recognized 47 blood group systems.

Thierry Peyrard, a medical biologist at the EFS involved in the discovery, told AFP that a "very unusual" antibody was first found in the patient in 2011.

However, resources at the time did not allow for further research, he added.

Scientists were finally able to unravel the mystery in 2019 thanks to "high-throughput DNA sequencing", which highlighted a genetic mutation, Peyrard said.

The patient, who was 54 at the time and lived in Paris, was undergoing routine tests before surgery when the unknown antibody was detected, Peyrard said.

This woman "is undoubtedly the only known case in the world," said the expert.

"She is the only person in the world who is compatible with herself," he said.

Peyrard said the woman inherited the blood type from her father and mother, who each had the mutated gene.

The name "Gwada negative", which refers to the patient's origins and "sounds good in all languages", has been popular with the experts, said Peyrard.

The ABO blood group system was first discovered in the early 1900s. Thanks to DNA sequencing, the discovery of new blood groups has accelerated in recent years.

Peyrard and colleagues are now hoping to find other people with the same blood group.

"Discovering new blood groups means offering patients with rare blood types a better level of care," the EFS said.