Berlin: Architectural Narratives of Identity

Paper Summary:

This paper deals with the redevelopment in Central Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall through the lens of architecture. The writer stresses that redevelopment projects like the one in Berlin should strive to reflect an accurate national past; they should be constructed with architecture that is composed of balanced narratives. At the same time, the projects afford Germany the ability to move forward through fashioning Berlin as the economic and cultural capital of Europe. The paper concludes with suggestions for redevelopment processes.

From the Paper:

"While the capital's move back to Berlin was contentious, it was representative of a prevailing desire in German society to reassert the German nation as a world power. The architecture of the Spreebogen claimed to recall Germany's Golden Age in the late 19th and early 20th century and to eschew National Socialist designs. Germany saw itself as a victim as well as a perpetrator. It had suffered under the reign of the Soviet Union since the 1940s and could finally again assert its national legitimacy. It desired a capital district that would recall historic successes under leaders like Otto von Bismarck. Nonetheless, it has proved nearly impossible to ignore the National Socialist history in the capital district."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Capital Idea: Return to the Reichstag." Newsweek Magazine.. Vol. 118, Issue 1. 7/1/1991
• Friedrich, Thomas. Wo die Mauer war. Beuermann GmbH: Berlin. 2003.
• Ladd, Brian. The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape." University of Chicago Press: Chicago. 1997.
• Ladd, Brian. "Shrine, Stage, or Marketplace? Designing Public Space in the New Berlin." Berlin: The New Capital in the East. A Transatlantic Appraisal. ed. Frank Trommler. American Institute for Contemporary German Studies: Washington D.C. 2000. pg. 37-49.
• "The Memorial." Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Website. English Version. http://www.holocaust-mahnmal.de/en/thememorial. (16 December 2006)

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