Aesthetic Unification in Post-Socialist East Berlin by Courtney Glore Crimmins a Dissertation
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Ruin, Restoration, and Return: Aesthetic Unification in Post-Socialist East Berlin by Courtney Glore Crimmins A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Germanic Languages and Literatures) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Professor Andrei S. Markovits, Chair Associate Professor Julia C. Hell Associate Professor Andrew H. Herscher Associate Professor Johannes von Moltke © Courtney Glore Crimmins 2012 To my family ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am foremost indebted to the support of the members of the Department of German Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan, including in particular, my advisor and committee chair, Prof. Andrei S. Markovits, who has guided, encouraged, challenged, and inspired me since first speaking with him as I applied to the program. He has been an invaluable teacher and mentor, quickly returning thoughtful comments and feedback on my drafts of this work to me. I am thankful for the role his intellectual voracity has played in my academic life. I am grateful as well for the guidance and support Julia C. Hell and Johannes von Moltke have given me during my tenure as a graduate student, especially in preparing me for researching and writing this dissertation. Andy, Julia, and Johannes have each been extraordinarily generous in offering me critique in my work, and challenging me to think and write critically and with high expectations. I thank Andrew Herscher for becoming a member of my committee, and graciously participating in the defense during his sabbatical. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support the department and the Rackham Graduate School have provided me in the form of a Regents Fellowship and two departmental scholarships to allow me to study and write. I thank as well the entire German graduate faculty for the remarkable intellectual climate they create for us as students and budding colleagues, and I thank the graduate students with whom I shared this experience. In addition, I am thankful for the departmental administrative support iii provided over the years by Marga Schuhwerk-Hampel, Kate Ballentine, and Jennifer White. In researching this dissertation, I appreciated tremendously the assistance of the staff at the Bundesarchiv and Landesarchiv in Berlin and the wonderful resources available at the New York Public Library, where I spent most of my early days writing. I thank too my friends and family in Germany, particularly my cousin, Nicholas Cole Farrell, for his hospitality as I researched the archives in Berlin. I am grateful for the openness over the years with which with my friends Janne Schulz, Sebastian Wolschke, and Dr. Stefanie von Dahlern have shared their experiences of growing up in East Germany with me, and the frank stories (and newspaper articles!) Dr. Gerd and Sigrun Dorow have shared with me about their life in the GDR as well. I am truly grateful for their friendships and for the many dinner conversations we have had about East Germany. Finally, I thank my family for their unwavering support and encouragement. My parents, Drs. James and Barbara Glore, have been cheering me on for as long as I can remember. I cannot thank them enough for taking me to Germany on vacation as a child, and then supporting my many summers at Concordia Language Village’s Waldsee camp, and my decision to continue studying German in college and beyond. I thank them for encouraging me to follow pursuits, which often led me miles away from them. And, for the perhaps hardest task, I thank my mom for editing this resulting thesis. My husband, Brian, has been a phenomenal support and sounding board, offering critical insight and perspective on my research. He generously helped to edit my work and has simply been an invaluable partner in all ways. My daughters, Mikaela and a baby to be born soon, iv have been an amazing motivation and joy. I thank my in-laws, George and Ellen Crimmins, for their encouragement while I wrote my dissertation as well as their standing offers to babysit. I dedicate this work to my family. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii List of Figures viii List of Abbreviations with English Translations x Abstract xii Introduction 1 PART ONE: THE SOVIET WAR MEMORIAL IN TREPTOWER PARK 20 Introduction: What Remains 20 Chapter One: The Origins and Design of the Memorial 23 Tiergarten 25 Pankow 27 Treptow 30 Design and Intent of the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park: Constructing a New Post-War Narrative 35 Chapter Two: Reception in the GDR 60 Ritualizing the Memorial Space 67 Memorial as Text: Writing a National Master Narrative 71 1911, 1918…1947: Treptow as Socialist Gathering Point 74 Visualizing Heimat 80 Feminized Heimat / Feminized Nation 84 Return to the Premodern 88 Nature 90 Redemption 93 Chapter Three: After the Wall 95 1990: Good Neighbors, Partnership, and Cooperation 99 Public Use of the Memorial in United Berlin 108 Framing History 112 Center and Periphery in Tallinn and Vienna 120 Tallinn: Moving the Bronze Soldier 120 Vienna: De-luminating the Red Army Monument 129 Conclusion 144 vi PART TWO: THE SCHLOSSPLATZ 146 Introduction: Demolitions and Recuperations 146 Chapter Four: Defining the City Center 149 Defining the City Center 154 Creating the Center; Defining Unification 156 Kurfürst Friedrich der II. “Der Eisenzahn” (Elector Frederick the Second, “The Iron Tooth,” 1440–1470) 156 Joachim I “Nestor” (1499-1535); Joachim II “Hektor” (1535-1571) 161 Friedrich Wilhelm, der Grosse (1640-1688); Friedrich III (crowned in 1701 Friedrich I König in Preußen) (1688-1713): “Schlüter and Preußen” 165 Completing the Visual Context: Schinkel and King Friedrich Wilhelm III (1786-1797) 174 1848: König Friedrich Wilhelm IV and Revolution 179 Demolition and Modernity: Wilhelm II (Last King in Prussia, 1888–1918) 181 9. November 1918—14:00: Wiederkehrsmoment. Place of Return. 183 Post-1918: The Schloss in the Landscape of the Weimar Republic 189 Air raids and Palace Bombings: The Stadtschloss during World War II and the Nazi Period 192 Chapter Five: Realignments and Reconstruction 195 Post-War Realignments 195 Rubble and Ruin; Leere and Lehre: Defining a New City Center 203 Building a Palace of the Republic: Re-unifying the City Center 208 The International Expert Commission “Historical Center of Berlin” 224 The Hand of Man: Dismantling the Palace of the Republic and Preparing for its Predecessor 232 Conclusion 240 Conclusion 243 The Berlin Wall 244 Hitler’s Bunker 250 New Topographies 254 Beyond Berlin 256 Appendix 262 Bibliography 264 vii LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1. Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten. 26 Fig. 2. Soviet War Memorial in Berlin’s Schönholzer Heide, Pankow. 29 Fig. 3. Map of Treptower Park Soviet War Memorial grounds. 36 Fig. 4. Triumphal Arch: Entrance to Soviet War Memorial from 37 Puschkinallee. Fig. 5. Text on top of triumphal arch. 38 Fig. 6. Mutter Heimat at end of entrance corridor. 41 Fig. 7. Profile of Mutter Heimat upon approach from park entrance. 42 Fig. 8. Mutter Heimat. 42 Fig. 9. Approach to main memorial site. 44 Fig. 10. Kneeling soldier at left flag. 45 Fig. 11. Bowed soldier on inside of pylon. 46 Fig. 12. Soviet Soldier in distance of main memorial grounds. 48 Fig. 13. Soviet soldier with child. 49 Fig. 14. Bas-relief, sarcophagus 1. 51 Fig. 15. Bas relief, sarcophagus 8. 56 Fig. 16. Final Stalin quote, sarcophagus 8, German. 57 Fig. 17. Front view of FDGB memorial stone. 77 Fig. 18. Side view of FDGB memorial stone. 77 Fig. 19. Informational Sign, at right, just inside triumphal arch. 114 Fig. 20. Original informational sign just inside triumphal arch; close-up. 115 Fig. 21. Original three informational signs near Mutter Heimat statue. 117 Fig. 22. Bronze Soldier, Tallinn. 121 Fig. 23. Red Army Monument, Vienna. 131 Fig. 24. Red Army Monument, Soldier. Vienna. 132 Fig. 25. Red Army Monument at night behind Hochstrahlbrunnen; 141 Arribas’s lighting design. Vienna. Fig. 26. Plan from Berlin-Cölln from Johann Gregor Memhardt, 1652. 158 Fig. 27. Detail: Kurfürstliches Schloss (A) and Lustgarten (B). 159 Fig. 28. View of the Schlossplatz around 1750. 169 Fig. 29. Zeughaus (right) and Neue Wache (left). 170 Fig. 30. Model display of Stadtschloss, Lustgarten, Berliner Dom, 177 Schlossbrücke, and Zeughaus from south. Fig. 31. Model display of Unter den Linden facing west around 1900. 179 Fig. 32. Damage to west façade of Stadtschloss and cupola around 203 February to March, 1945. viii Fig. 33. Palace of the Republic demolition process, January 2007. 233 Fig. 34. Palace of the Republic skeleton and Berlin Cathedral, January 234 2007. Fig. 35. I.M. Pei’s Entrance to the Deutsches Historisches Museum. 235 Fig. 36. East side of Stella’s proposal for the Stadtschloss reconstruction. 239 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS ADN Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst (General German News Service) BAK Bundesarchitektenkammer (Federal Chamber of German Architects) BAS Befreiungsausschuss Südtirol (Liberation Committee of South Tyrol) BBR Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung (Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning) BMU Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety) BRD Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany) BStU Der Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (Federal Commissioner for the Documents of the State Security Service [Stasi] of