Berlin's history in context

the foreign ministry and the spreebogen complex in the context of the architectural debates

Carol A. Costabile-Heming

pp. 231-247

in: Katharina Gerstenberger, Jana Evans Braziel (eds), After the Berlin wall, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Abstract

As the capital of united Germany, Berlin has sought to navigate a multitude of pasts in its quest to define its image in the twenty-first century. The city's topography provides ample examples of the multiple remnants of the past, which are visible equally in its architectural heritage as well as in its barren spaces. We can read Berlin's topography as a microcosm of twentieth-century German history: countless buildings, street corners, and squares remind residents and visitors alike of the layers of history embedded in the very fabric of the city. Finding ways to acknowledge such remnants from the past were at the forefront of debates about the rebuilding of Berlin following the reunification of East and West Germany and the redesignation of Berlin as the capital of united Germany. The construction of the "New Berlin" attracted considerable attention, not only from architects and urban planners but also from cultural historians and literary scholars.