DRESDEN (AP).- A modern wedge of glass, concrete and steel rips through a 135-year-old former armory building for the armies of Kaiser Wilhelm I, its silvery shimmer and stark lines contrasting sharply with the neoclassical building that it now bisects. American architect Daniel Libeskind knew when he won the bid to redesign Dresden’s Museum of Military History that he wanted to create a radical departure — something symbolic of Germany’s rigid authoritarian past giving way to the liberal democracy of today. “He said from the beginning that we must transform the building,” said Libeskind’s project leader Jochen Klein, in a preview of the building Tuesday ahead of its official reopening to the public on Saturday. “We needed to give the old building a new meaning.” The theme of contrast is central not only to the euro62.5 million ($85 million) renovation that was started in 2004, but to the exhibitions themselves,