DOCSLIB.ORG

Berlin, Germany HONR 3023

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Berlin, Germany HONR 3023 2nd Annual Honors/CAS City-As-Text Course: Berlin, Germany HONR 3023: Contemporary Cultures of the Western World Cross-listed with AS 3080: International Experience Class meets Fridays, 10:30am-11:20am (201 Old Central) Office Hours: Friday, 11:30-12:30 and by appointment Class travels to Berlin over Spring Break (March 14-22, 2020) open to all Majors; No prerequisites Earn upper-division Gen Ed credit: “H” Humanities and “I” International (pending approval) Overview: In this three-credit hour course (taught by Dr. Frohock, Professor of English and Associate Dean of the Honors College, and assisted by Dr. Steph Miller, English Department and Teaching Assistant Professor in Honors), we will explore the rich culture of Berlin, Germany, through reading, discussion, and international travel. This class will use a City-as-Text curriculum, which means the contemporary culture of Berlin will be our object of study, and will emphasize experiential learning and reflective writing. We will explore contemporary life in Berlin through reading, discussion of topics including globalization and immigration, and numerous excursions and activities aimed at developing interdisciplinary understanding. There are no prerequisites, and the class is open to all majors. Berlin is an exceptionally diverse city at the heart of German history and contemporary life and culture. It has been the capital of Germany since reunification; it was profoundly shaped by the Nazi regime and World War II bombing; and it has a fascinatingly rich cold-war history. Today, it is the home of Germans and immigrants from all over the world; it is renowned for its arts culture, its diverse neighborhoods, and its start-up-friendly business environment. General Education Learning Objectives: This course carries General Education Humanities (H) and International (I) designations. What this means: • It is appropriate for students of all majors and does not require prior knowledge or study of the subject matter. • Using a City-As-Text curriculum, the course provides ample opportunities for analyzing and interpreting the ideas, aesthetics, and values that form and inform society. Class assignments and meetings will focus on experiencing and analyzing the physical and cultural environments that make up the city of Berlin, and thinking through the way in which these environments represent and construct identities. We will also read and discuss literary material about Berlin as a way of understanding its cultural identities, and we will take into consideration powerful historical events that are crucial for understanding the present city. • This course will emphasize how ideas, events, arts, and texts shape diverse individual identities. To give one example, the dividing of Berlin into two halves with a physical wall was an event that deeply marked its identity politics to the present day. The Nazi persecution of Jews and other minorities also left an indelible imprint on cultural identity in the city. Berlin today is an exceptionally cosmopolitan city, and we will explore and develop understanding of how these diverse communities interact and contribute to its current vitality. • During the travel component, students will practice observing closely, listening carefully, and navigating a foreign city with confidence. This will require good communication skills and practical problem-solving abilities. Students will get to experience, understand, and develop respect for diverse people and perspectives. Globalization, immigration, and various political ideologies will serve as important frames of reference as we learn about life in Berlin. • Students will have ample opportunity for critical thinking and writing in this course. Students will give presentations, write reflective essays, and write a substantial research paper. These assignments are designed to teach students how to engage in cultural analysis with sound critical thinking and writing skills. Students receive feedback on writing assignments. Book Order: title Author/editor Original Date Edition isbn cost Pub The Berlin Stories Christopher 1945 2008 New Directions; 978-0811218047 15.97 (256pp): a semi- Isherwood Reissue edition autobiographical account of a young man living in Berlin and experiencing its vibrant subcultures in the years leading up to the rise of Hitler. The Wall Jumper (144 Peter Schneider 1982 1998 U Chicago 978-0226739410 23.00 pp). Tells the stories of Press of people who crossed the wall illegally for various purposes. Stasiland: Stories from Anna Funder 2003 2011 Harper 978-0062077325 15.99 Behind the Berlin Wall Perennial; (288 pp) This book Reprint edition concerns life in East Berlin after the Wall fell in 1989. It is based on interviews of people who cooperated with the East German authorities and those who resisted, and considers the uneasy cultural state that emerged after the collapse of the DDR (East German Republic). Book of Clouds (209 Chloe Aridjis 2009 2009 Grove Press, 978-0802170569 14.00 pp) focuses on the Black Cat experience of a Mexican girl living in Berlin. Key themes include Berlin’s contemporary immigration, cosmopolitanism, and how Berlin’s dark past contributes its present culture. Travel Our travel to Berlin will occur during Spring Break. During our visit to Berlin, we will go on daily excursions to experience life and culture in Berlin. These sites will be selected to cover historical and contemporary aspects of Berlin culture, and may include: • Reichstag (Parliament). Berlin is the capital of reunited Germany, and we will plan a visit to the Reichstag to tour and learn the fundamentals of how the German people organize themselves socially and politically. We will learn how contemporary Germany is connected internationally and globally through the EU and NATO alliances, for instance. We will also learn about the politics of recent refugee immigration that affects Berlin and Germany generally. • The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial will inform us about how profoundly the Third Reich and its political ideology impacted Berlin and shaped its contemporary politics. We will also learn about and discuss controversies related to this memorial’s design and ways locals and tourists have interacted with the location, as we experience this memorial for ourselves. • Topographie des Terrors Museum (topography of terror): this museum contains information and exhibits that will teach us about the political ideology and systems of oppression that led to the atrocities of the Third Reich during World War II. We will learn about the work of the Gestapo and the SS officers who carried out the orders of the fascist regime. This history informs contemporary German and Berlin consciousness and culture in profound ways, and we will also consider this history in connection with the rise of nationalism in 21st century Germany. • Berlin Wall Memorial: We will learn about the history of the Berlin Wall by visiting the Wall Memorial, where we can view remnants of the wall, a documentary film, and see exhibits about its history. We will learn about Cold War political ideologies and the systems of oppression in place in former East Berlin. We will also visit the East Wall Gallery, a section of remnant wall painted after the fall in 1989. Understanding the history of the Wall is indispensable to understanding contemporary Berlin and understanding the cultural identities and divides that persist thirty years later. • Checkpoint Charlie Museum. This museum focuses on the history of the Berlin Wall and peoples’ many desperate and often ingenious attempts to escape from East to West. Learning about these moving stories during a grim period in history will provide invaluable material for understanding the real human impact that the physical division of the city created and continues to influence. • Schloss Sanssouci (Charlottenburg): this palace exemplifies the of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century aristocratic luxury that informed Germany’s political system of the past. The palace models Baroque architecture and excess, and the extensive gardens demonstrate the enormous wealth and ostentation of the royalist system of government out of which contemporary Germany evolved. Experiencing the palace helps students understand the scale of power and privilege that Frederick the Great enjoyed as the ruler of Prussia before democracies emerged across Europe. • Berlin Neighborhoods or Districts: A mainstay of City-As-Text courses is the exploration and “reading” of city districts or neighborhoods. Students will be assigned to go to different parts of the city, finding their own way using public transportation, to do investigations and reports on the characteristics, resources, and experiences in particular parts of town. Things to observe include: evidence of cultural diversity; nature of shops and/or residences; public art and memorials; greenspaces; ease of access and transportation to and within; socio-economic indicators; and activities of people in the area. Students are encouraged to have conversations with people they meet while exploring city districts. Neighborhoods include: Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Neukölln; Kreuzberg; and Wedding. • As a City-As-Text course, we will take every moment of being in Berlin as an occasion to learn about its cultural features. Students will be encouraged to interact with locals, start conversations, and learn about various perspectives directly from the diverse mix of people who reside in Berlin today. Our historic hotel, our use of the public transportation
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Circling Opera in Berlin by Paul Martin Chaikin B.A., Grinnell College
    Circling Opera in Berlin By Paul Martin Chaikin B.A., Grinnell College, 2001 A.M., Brown University, 2004 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Program in the Department of Music at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island May 2010 This dissertation by Paul Martin Chaikin is accepted in its present form by the Department of Music as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date_______________ _________________________________ Rose Rosengard Subotnik, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date_______________ _________________________________ Jeff Todd Titon, Reader Date_______________ __________________________________ Philip Rosen, Reader Date_______________ __________________________________ Dana Gooley, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date_______________ _________________________________ Sheila Bonde, Dean of the Graduate School ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Deutsche Akademische Austauch Dienst (DAAD) for funding my fieldwork in Berlin. I am also grateful to the Institut für Musikwissenschaft und Medienwissenschaft at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin for providing me with an academic affiliation in Germany, and to Prof. Dr. Christian Kaden for sponsoring my research proposal. I am deeply indebted to the Deutsche Staatsoper Unter den Linden for welcoming me into the administrative thicket that sustains operatic culture in Berlin. I am especially grateful to Francis Hüsers, the company’s director of artistic affairs and chief dramaturg, and to Ilse Ungeheuer, the former coordinator of the dramaturgy department. I would also like to thank Ronny Unganz and Sabine Turner for leading me to secret caches of quantitative data. Throughout this entire ordeal, Rose Rosengard Subotnik has been a superlative academic advisor and a thoughtful mentor; my gratitude to her is beyond measure.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded for Personal Non-Commercial Research Or Study, Without Prior Permission Or Charge
    Hobbs, Mark (2010) Visual representations of working-class Berlin, 1924–1930. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2182/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Visual representations of working-class Berlin, 1924–1930 Mark Hobbs BA (Hons), MA Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of PhD Department of History of Art Faculty of Arts University of Glasgow February 2010 Abstract This thesis examines the urban topography of Berlin’s working-class districts, as seen in the art, architecture and other images produced in the city between 1924 and 1930. During the 1920s, Berlin flourished as centre of modern culture. Yet this flourishing did not exist exclusively amongst the intellectual elites that occupied the city centre and affluent western suburbs. It also extended into the proletarian districts to the north and east of the city. Within these areas existed a complex urban landscape that was rich with cultural tradition and artistic expression. This thesis seeks to redress the bias towards the centre of Berlin and its recognised cultural currents, by exploring the art and architecture found in the city’s working-class districts.
    [Show full text]
  • Encounters with Otherness in Berlin: Xenophobia, Xenophilia, and Projective Identification
    Encounters with Otherness in Berlin: Xenophobia, Xenophilia, and Projective Identification CONTRIBUTIONS BY ZARTOSHT AHLERS ‘18 ELENA ANAMOS ‘19 LEILA BEN HALIM. ‘20 WILLIAM GREAR ‘20 SYDNEY JORDAN ‘19 EMILY KUNKEL ‘19 NATE LAMBERT ‘20 ALEXIA MARTINEZ ‘20 APRIA PINKETT ‘20 IRMA QAVOLLI ‘20 ALAA RAGAB ‘20 RAINA SEYD ‘19 YANG SHAO ‘20 SAM VALLE ‘19 SADIE VAN VRANKEN ’19 : EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BORNEMAN © 2017 Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies With special thanks to the Department of Anthropology, Princeton University. COVER PHOTO: “There was a big hot air balloon that we passed that said “politics needs a worldview” in German. I liked this message. It was a comforting first impression.” - Emily Kunkel TABLE OF CONTENTS PROFESSOR JOHN BORNEMAN APRIA PINKETT ’20 Introduction . 3 German Culture: The Most Exclusive Club . 44 ZARTOSHT AHLERS ’18 German Culture in Three Words: Beer, Currywurst, and Money . 62 Leopoldplatz . 7 Bergmann Burger: There’s No Place Encounter With a Turkish Like Home . 79 Immigrant at Leopoldplatz . 12 Ich Spreche Englisch . 85 Movement . 25 So Loud . 88 IRMA QAVOLLI ’20 ELENA ANAMOS ’19 An Unexpected Conversation . 17 Cultural Belonging: Belonging: Body Language Childbearing and Channel Surfing: in a Conversation on Foreignness . 23 A Reunion with My Family . 40 A Market Conversation . 48 An Encounter Over Ice Cream Food . 69 in Leopoldplatz . 71 The Language Barrier in Hermannplatz . 83 ALAA RAGAB ’20 JOHN BENJAMIN, LANGUAGE INSTRUCTOR Let’s Test You for Explosives Residue! . .19 Arab is Better, Arab is More Fun . 28 Language: Change in Global Seminars . 82 Germans Nice or Nein? .
    [Show full text]
  • Federal State of Berlin 2011 Cultural Funding Report
    the place to be EPORT R BERLIN 2011 CULTURAL FUNDING BERLIN 2011 CULTURAL Federal State of Berlin 2011 F FEDERAL STATE O FEDERAL STATE Cultural Funding Report Publisher: The Governing Mayor of Berlin Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs Kulturförderbericht-Titel_Englisch_12-1-25.indd 1 31.01.12 17:42 Federal State of Berlin 2011 Cultural Funding Report Publisher: The Governing Mayor of Berlin, Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs Preface Art, culture, and the creative community are among Berlin’s key resources. The large number of leading insti- tutions, creative communities, international figures and organizations based in Berlin have made the city the “place to be” for the contemporary arts at both a national and international level. Interest in Berlin and the city’s cultural policies continues to grow in Germany and abroad. The present report offers an overview of the various cultural funding programmes in Berlin to both interested visitors and citizens of this lively metropolis. This concise report offers insights into the core aspects of cultural funding in Berlin. Constant change is a defining feature of Berlin’s cultural landscape, and painting a complete picture of this constantly evolving artistic and cultural metropolis with its diverse cast of organizations, communities, individuals and locations is, perhaps, an impossible undertaking. Given these circumstances, the report endeavours to provide an overview of the major frameworks rather than an exhaustive account of the countless cultural funding programmes in Berlin. Further information on institutions which receive funding through our programmes is available in the appendix to this report, and on the Cultural Affairs website as noted within the text.
    [Show full text]
  • Zeus in Exile: Archaeological Restitution As Politics of Memory
    Working Paper Series, 13 Zeus in Exile: Archaeological Restitution as Politics of Memory S.M. Can Bilsel Working Paper #13, Fall 2000 Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies [email protected] (609) 258-5180) The Zeus Altar of Pergamon in Berlin Overshadowed by the debates on the Holocaust Memorial or the fate of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of archaeological collections in Berlin nevertheless poses an international problem. The question is, in a way, analogous to the current sensibilities about the future of memory, as it was called by a recent conference at Princeton University. How will the past will be framed and commemorated in a reunified Germany; what constitutes the cultural heritage of the new Berlin Republic? As Berlin assumes the role of the capital, both official and popular approaches to memory of the recent past gain a vital importance. Curiously, an internationally recognized effort on the part of the federal government to commemorate the victims of the Nazi regime goes hand in hand with a systematic repression of the more recent East German past. As the American-style malls and corporate headquarters of the Postdamer Platz, once the busiest center of Europe, celebrate the victors of the Cold War, the institutions of the East German Republic are being erased from the city. New Berlin will be a city of memory, as evident in its memorials and museums. Yet it will also remain a site of amnesia and forgetting. This paper will discuss Berlin’s contested Zeus Altar and its role as a collectively negotiated construct of memory.
    [Show full text]
  • Berlin Travel Guide
    BERLIN TRAVEL GUIDE Made by Dorling Kindersley 29. March 2010 PERSONAL GUIDES POWERED BY traveldk.com 1 Highlights Berlin Travel Guide Highlights Brandenburger Tor & Pariser Platz The best known of Berlin’s symbols, the Brandenburg Gate stands proudly in the middle of Pariser Platz, asserting itself against the hyper-modern embassy buildings that now surround it. Crowned by its triumphant Quadriga sculpture, the famous Gate has long been a focal point in Berlin’s history: rulers and statesmen, military parades and demonstrations – all have felt compelled to march through the Brandenburger Tor. www.berlin.de/tourismus/sehenswuerdigkeiten.en/00022.html For more on historical architecture in Berlin (see Historic Buildings) restaurant and a souvenir shop around a pleasantly Top 10 Sights shaded courtyard. Brandenburger Tor Eugen-Gutmann-Haus 1 Since its restoration in 2002, Berlin’s symbol is now 8 With its clean lines, the Dresdner Bank, built in the lit up more brightly than ever before. Built by Carl G round by the Hamburg architects’ team gmp in 1996–7, Langhans in 1789–91 and modelled on the temple recalls the style of the New Sobriety movement of the porticos of ancient Athens, the Gate has, since the 19th 1920s. In front of the building, which serves as the Berlin century, been the backdrop for many events in the city’s headquarters of the Dresdner Bank, stands the famous turbulent history. original street sign for the Pariser Platz. Quadriga Haus Liebermann 2 The sculpture, 6 m (20 ft) high above the Gate, was 9 Josef Paul Kleihues erected this building at the north created in 1794 by Johann Gottfried Schadow as a end of the Brandenburger Tor in 1996–8, faithfully symbol of peace.
    [Show full text]
  • Download File
    Inclusive National Belonging Intercultural Performances in the “World-Open” Germany Bruce Snedegar Burnside Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2020 © 2020 Bruce Snedegar Burnside All Rights Reserved Abstract Inclusive National Belonging Intercultural Performances in the “World-Open” Germany Bruce Snedegar Burnside This dissertation explores what it means to belong in Berlin and Germany following a significant change in the citizenship laws in 2000, which legally reoriented the law away from a “German” legal identity rooted in blood-descent belonging to a more territorially-based conception. The primary goal is to understand attempts at performing inclusive belonging by the state and other actors, with mostly those of “foreign heritage” at the center, and these attempts’ pitfalls, opportunities, challenges, and strange encounters. It presents qualitative case studies to draw attention to interculturality and its related concepts as they manifest in a variety of contexts. This study presents a performance analysis of a ceremony at a major national museum project and utilizes a discursive analysis of the national and international media surrounding a unique controversy about soccer and Islam. The study moves to a peripheral neighborhood in Berlin and a marginal subject, a migration background Gymnasium student, who featured prominently in an expose about failing schools, using interviews and a text analysis to present competing narratives. Finally it examines the intimate, local view of a self-described “intercultural” after- school center aimed at migration-background girls, drawing extensively on ethnographic interviews and media generated by the girls.These qualitative encounters help illuminate how an abstract and often vague set of concepts within the intercultural paradigm becomes tactile when encountering those for whom it was intended.
    [Show full text]
  • Essay Competition
    Essay Competition 25 Years Fall of the Berlin Wall Are you interested in the Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989? Do you see a link between the Fall of the Berlin Wall and other events and issues, both global and domestic? Have you travelled to Germany and Berlin and have something to tell? If so, be creative and write an essay about ONE topic of your personal choice from the list below. For a better overview, the list of topics is divided into four major areas. Other than the required length of your paper, there are no restrictions of how you want to go about the topic. You may choose a more formal or a more personal approach. You may include research literature or express your own vision. Essays will be evaluated based on their originality, creativity, imagination, and the ways in which they put forward compelling arguments. Three campus-wide winners will be chosen by a jury of professors and be awarded attractive monetary prizes: $300 for 1st prize, $150 for 2nd prize, and $100 for 3rd prize. All participants will be invited to join us during campus events and will receive an honorary mention and a small gift. Winners will be announced in November. Length of Paper: 2500 words maximum Submission Deadline: October 24, 2014 Submit electronically to all committee members: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Committee Members: Wolfgang Lueckel (German), Don Salisbury (Physics), Rod Stewart (Philosophy) For questions please contact [email protected] For more information about the Fall of the Wall Campus Weeks: www.austincollege.edu/fall-of-the-berlin-wall http://www.germany.info/fallofthewall www.facebook.com/GermanCampusWeeks Made possible by a generous grant from the German Embassy in Washington, D.C.
    [Show full text]
  • 2008 Creative Industries in Berlin
    Development and Potential ndustries in Berlin 2008 I Creative 2008 CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN BERLIN Development and Potential European Union Co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund 2008 CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN BERLIN Development and Potential Content Preface 1 Introduction 4 1.1 Terms and terminology policy 4 1.2 Creative industries and cultural policies 6 1.3 The complexity of an enabling industry 9 1.4 Education and training in the creative professions 11 1.5 Internationality 14 1.6 Creative industries as a policy field since 2004 15 1.7 Creative industries as a challenge for public policy 20 2 Economic significance of the creative industries for Berlin 22 2.1 Overview 22 2.2 Print media and publishing 28 2.3 Software development/games/telecommunications services 34 2.4 Advertising 39 2.5 Film, television and radio 44 2.6 Art market 51 2.7 Music industry 57 2.8 Architecture 63 2.9 Design industry 67 2.10 Performing arts 73 2.11 Women in the creative industries 77 2.12 Creative Industries in the context of promoting culture 80 3 Income dynamics and forms of work in Berlin‘s cultural and creative professions 86 3.1 Introduction 86 3.2 Supporting data and approach 89 3.3 Results 92 4 Urban development and the cultural and creative Industries 102 4.1 Introduction to the spatial dimension 102 4.2 Basis of data and methods 104 4.3 Locating creative enterprises 107 4.4 Interpretation of business distribution throughout urban space 113 4.5 Creative industries accelerate urban transformation processes 127 5 The most spheres of activity
    [Show full text]
  • Berlin – City of Design
    Berlin – City of Design Content Page Design from Berlin offers a great variety of educational and career training opportunities. Creative potential for the future 1 Last, but not least, Berlin’s more than 1,300 Berlin is one of the up-and-coming Euro- designers make the city the designer cap- Design from Berlin – Trendsetting, pean cities in many different fields of ital of Germany. Many new companies international and awarded 4 design.This fact was recently acknowledged joined over the last few years. In order to Not only for experts – when Berlin was appointed a UNESCO benefit from this creative atmosphere, Trade fairs and showrooms 10 “City of Design” and thus admitted into even large enterprises, such as Volkswa- From photographic art to industrial the worldwide operating Creative Cities gen AG, have transferred their design design – Museums and exhibitions Network. In contrast to established design departments to the region. in Berlin 14 metropolises, such as Paris, Milan or Lon- Fashion design, graphic design and media Networking and support – don, the inspiring nature of Berlin is based design often merge with product and fur- Berlin Creative Industries Initiative 18 on an atmosphere of transformation, pro- niture design. Such synergetic develop- gress and constant change. Futuristic ments are represented by companies like architecture meets functional residential MetaDesign, ART+COM, Plex and Moni- buildings, and re-established industrial teurs. areas contrast luxury shopping streets.The Berlin is connecting design and manufac- antagonistic coexistence of countless turing of products with the development small studios and agencies, large business of marketing strategies, the discovering of and design-oriented shopping centres niches and trendsetting innovations.With distinguishes the German capital from an overall turnover of € 1.4 billion, the other cities.
    [Show full text]
  • Urban Memory and Visual Culture in Berlin Framing the Asynchronous City, 1957-2012
    CITIES AND CULTURES Simon Ward Urban Memory and Visual Culture in Berlin Framing the Asynchronous City, 1957-2012 978-90-8964-853-2 Urban Memory and Visual Culture in Berlin Framing the Asynchronous City, 1957-2012 Simon Ward Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: Bauwochen exhibition tour of the urban motorway between the Funkturm and Jakob-Kaiser-Platz, at the ‘Nordwestbogen’ bridge in Charlottenburg. 9 September 1962. Photograph: Karl-Heinz Schubert. Courtesy of Berlin Landesarchiv Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press. isbn 978 90 8964 853 2 e-isbn 978 90 4852 704 5 doi 10.5117/9789089648532 nur 670 © S. Ward / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2016 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. The cathedral leaves its locale to be received in the studio of a lover of art ‒ Walter Benjamin Berlin has a lot of empty spaces… I like the city for its wounds. They show its history better than any history book or document.
    [Show full text]
  • Reinventing Traditionalism: the Influence of Critical Reconstruction on the Shape of Berlin’S Friedrichstadt
    Reinventing Traditionalism: The Influence of Critical Reconstruction on the Shape of Berlin’s Friedrichstadt by Naraelle Barrows Senior Thesis Art History, Comparative History of Ideas University of Washington Introduction The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 transformed the central neighborhood of Mitte, formerly the heart of the Prussian and Weimar capital, into an area on the outskirts of both East and West Berlin. The southern part of this neighborhood, called the Friedrichstadt after its builder Friedrich Wilhelm I, was split almost perfectly in half by the new boundary (see map, Figure 1, next page). Thus relegated to the borderlands of both East and West, the Friedrichstadt remained largely untouched and dilapidated for the bulk of Germany’s separation. In the 1980s a few building projects were pursued by both sides, but the biggest change came after German reunification and the Berlin Wall’s removal in 1990. The decision a year later to move the capital back to Berlin from Bonn made Mitte once again the center of the capital of Germany, and the whole city experienced a tumultuous period of rebuilding, earning Berlin the title of “biggest construction site in Europe.”1 This flood of building projects and real estate speculation in the early 1990s quickly caused city planners to recognize that an overall guiding vision was needed if Berlin was to become anything other than a playground for ambitious architects. To provide a set of guidelines for rebuilding, Berlin planners and a close-knit circle of theorists and architects implemented, using various political channels, the approach of “Critical Reconstruction.” Developed during the previous two decades by theorist and architect Josef Paul Kleihues, this planning concept advocates a combination of new and restored buildings to create an urban environment that draws on historic forms in order to embody, according to its proponents, the true essence of the 1 From 1949 to 1990, Berlin served as the capital of East Germany.
    [Show full text]