Cinema and Berlin's Spectacle of Destruction: The 'Ruin' Film, 1945-50 Author(s): Ralph Stern Source: AA Files, No. 54 (Summer 2006), pp. 48-60 Published by: Architectural Association School of Architecture Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/29544634 Accessed: 26-03-2019 08:47 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Architectural Association School of Architecture is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to AA Files This content downloaded from 95.183.184.51 on Tue, 26 Mar 2019 08:47:31 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cinema and Berlin's Spectacle of Destruction The 'Ruin' Film, 1945-50 Ralph Stern The new reality. The sign of our time is the ruin. She surrounds our life. She lines the streets of our cities. She is our reality. In her burned-out fagades blooms not the blue flower of the Romantics but the demonical spirit of destruction, collapse and Apocalypse. The ruin is the outer sign of the inner insecurity of the people of our age. The ruin lives in us as we live in her. She is our new reality, one which wants to be designed.