Contested Memories: Divided and United in Berlin
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Contested Memories: Divided and United in Berlin Gerti Wilford Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for an MPhil in Social Anthropology Goldsmiths College, University of London 1 I hereby certify that, except when explicit attribution is made, the work presented in this thesis is entirely my own. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................ 5 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 7 List of Illustrations ...................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................... 10 Introduction ................................................................................................... 10 Memory and its vicissitudes ........................................................................... 10 Berlin as modern conundrum ........................................................................ 14 Fields of Memory ............................................................................................ 17 ‘Last Orders’ .................................................................................................... 22 Was this a revolution? .................................................................................... 24 The Consequences: winners and losers .......................................................... 25 The past as future: Questions for research .................................................... 26 Berlin as context for the research .................................................................. 28 The Chapters ................................................................................................... 30 Outline of a Methodology .............................................................................. 35 Formal and Informal Interviews: Research Activities .................................... 37 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................... 44 The challenge of uniting what was divided: A Review of the Literature ........ 44 Aims of the chapter......................................................................................... 47 History, Narratives, Memory .......................................................................... 48 Transitional processes following transformation .......................................... 51 Uncertainties and Consequences in East Germany ....................................... 54 Processes of Transition and Transformation in Post-socialist States............ 59 The cost ........................................................................................................... 61 Time and Spatial Markers: The East German Experience .............................. 65 Critical Events in History................................................................................ 67 Inner Exile – pathway to Identity? .................................................................. 70 Contested Memories and ‘Aufarbeitung der DDR’......................................... 73 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 75 Chapter 3 .................................................................................................... 76 The House for Others: Glimpses through a Fractured Lens .................... 76 A hidden past .................................................................................................. 81 A Voyage into the Past and back into the Future ........................................... 84 The new Past is hidden- we only remember the Old ..................................... 87 A Neighbourhood enterprise “from the bottom up” ...................................... 91 The Tour of the House .................................................................................... 97 The Self-Help Contact Centre ......................................................................... 98 The Intergenerational Project Bureau and Photo Archive ............................99 The Neighbourhood House and ‘moskito’ ................................................... 100 The Art Gallery, F 92...................................................................................... 103 The Workshop, hive of creativity ................................................................. 106 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 107 Chapter 4 .................................................................................................. 108 The Square: an ethnographic exploration of a place in time ....................... 108 The Square ......................................................................................................111 The Kiez and its history. ................................................................................ 115 3 Multicultural and class divisions .................................................................. 121 The Pfefferwerk Empire and Neighbourhood-building ............................... 123 Urban regeneration – A better future? .......................................................... 125 Continuities and Change: Local Voices ........................................................ 126 ‘Leute am Teute’ ............................................................................................. 131 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 135 Chapter 5 ................................................................................................... 138 One Nation – two People: An incomplete Revolution .................................. 138 New Starts – Old Skills ................................................................................... 138 Stories of the past for the future .................................................................. 140 Letti’s story .................................................................................................... 143 An Epilogue? ................................................................................................. 150 Gains and Losses in the Lives of the ‘Others’. ............................................... 151 Gender issues ................................................................................................. 152 Selma’s Story .................................................................................................. 154 New Voices .................................................................................................... 169 Contested memories in 2009 ......................................................................... 171 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 174 Chapter 6 ................................................................................................... 176 The Past in the Future: Ghosts Revisited ............................................... 176 The Anti-Racist Campaign in Berlin 2006/7 .................................................. 177 Fighting Windmills or Monsters? ................................................................. 184 A visit to the local High School in February 2007 ......................................... 190 Memorials and counter monuments ............................................................ 194 Racial tensions in the East............................................................................ 196 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 202 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 204 Building Bridges and laying Anchors ............................................................ 211 Outcome of the research ...............................................................................214 References ................................................................................................. 219 APPENDIX ................................................................................................. 237 Appendix 1 ................................................................................................ 238 Appendix 2................................................................................................. 241 Appendix 3 ............................................................................................... 242 4 Abstract This thesis explores the legacy created by the process of unification of the formerly divided city of Berlin. It is a micro study of a local community- based organisation in the East of the city, where primarily local people from East and West Berlin had set up a Neighbourhood Centre, using as their model existing neighbourhood houses in the West of Berlin. This micro- study is located in the context of global and localized processes that contributed decisively to the final collapse of the East German State. The research explores how the often cataclysmic changes and ruptures in their customary life and work affected citizens, especially women, following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent unification with West Germany in 1990. Women played a crucial role in the everyday life and management of the organization