'Urban Berlin - Memories of a City', in Stadtkolloquium 2015 Annual Workshop (UCL, London, 30-31 March 2015). (original) (raw)

‘Germany is full of ghosts’, and Berlin in particular is a city constructed by layers of history and memory. As the city that shows most deeply the scars of the twentieth century, Berlin has struggled to re-create an architectural identity post-1945. The recently started replica-rebuilding of the Palace (raised to the ground by the Soviets in 1950) is just one example of the unusual approaches the city has taken. Concepts of authenticity and purpose are questioned in creating a palace for a country without a monarch. The opening of the Berlin Wall Memorial, with its reconstructed death zone also shows an attitude to the past that is caught somewhere between museum and Disneyland architecture; local residents are confronted once again with overlooking the Wall. At a time when West Berlin was removed from maps of East Germany, there were mass clearances of nineteenth century tenement blocks in favour of sixties satellite housing estates that made a complete break with history. In the late 1960s, history was once again promoted, partially in extremes – for example, in the reconstruction of the medieval town centre at Nikolaiviertel. The discord between urban planners and local residents is exemplified in Berlin. The city’s urban landscape is layered with multiple histories and memories and the debate regarding how to deal with this past is constant. This paper intends to investigate some of the approaches to urban space, which have focused on one element of Berlin’s past, in order to construct a particular urban narrative.