Berlin
misunderstood, Berlin rebel, Berlin manhandled, never stops to fascinate me. Do not go to Berlin with the idea of picturesque surroundings of an old
European capital with its pretty cobbled streets and covered market of the
nineteenth century. In Berlin, all, or almost, was destroyed by World War II.
And the little that remained was then destroyed by the Communists. If your steps
make noise on the streets, it means that you are probably in one of those
neighborhoods rebuilt from scratch and aims to restore a semblance of the old in
the new city. Like Nikolaiviertel, close to Alexanderplatz, with its low houses
full of charm and let hardly suppose that all was built a few decades ago, on
the occasion of the jubilee of the city while celebrating its 750 years on both
sides of the Wall. Berlin, dear friends, is a chameleon city. Where unfolds today a huge empty
space stood 20 years ago the largest House of Culture of East Germany, the
Palace of the Republic, and there is less than 100 years the royal residence of
the Prussian empire, more commonly known Stadtschloss. The baroque building was
dynamited in 1951 by the young German Democratic Republic and the People's
Palace dismantled by the new Federal Republic in 2008. Prussian and communist
past are superimposed in the center of the city, in a quasi-general
indifference, reflects the vast wasteland in front of the old cathedral. Today,
it is question of rebuilding the castle disappeared, or at least its facade, to
give the Museuminseln the neoclassical prestige imagined by architect Karl
Friedrich Schinkel in the nineteenth century.
Built and razed, bombed and rebuilt, the Berlin architecture reflects its (not quiet) history. Capital of a republic, open to European avant-garde movements in the 20s, and field of deployment of the Nazi excesses in the decade that followed, city then cut into four sectors as the cake of victory after 1945 then split in two in 1961 by a "wall of shame" that only fall 28 years later, what remains of it this history in a city that is said to never be condemned and become eternal (Karl Scheffler Ein Stadtschicksal, 1910)? Potsdamer Platz, before place of rendezvous Expressionist artists and Dadaists, today is a huge postmodern place crossed by cars and taxis in a hurry. It is only once a year at the Berlinale, the German international movie festival, that it finds back its role as a mediator between the living creation and the audience. A few kilometers south-east of the city, the airport of Tempelhof, named "tallest building in the world" at its inauguration by Hitler in 1941 is now closed to the public and opened sporadically during major fairs international. The Fashion Addicts have forgotten that where willowy models parade and pose for the photographers, has been written here, more than a half-century ago, an essential page of world history, the Berlin Airlift? And who of the today’s young generation can still imagine that the city's most spectacular East Berlin street, Karl-Marx-Allee, was still in the 80's the place for military parades and organizations for youth masterfully staged by the East German regime? Today, Berlin is said as the "most creative" city of Europe and as expatriate, I'm wondering. What will be reminded of the recent past of the city within a few years? Entered in the school history books, the city has a new look for the twenty-first century, smoother and acceptable. Certainly, the experience of daily Berlin might suggest that the city takes its rank with Paris or London. Cultural metropolis, it attracts thousands of tourists who queuing in front of 170 museums. But appearances can be deceiving, and if you move away from the center to the periphery, the traces of the wall are still visible: flea markets on supermarket car parks, chip stalls a bit dirty, dusty storefronts and outdated, the time seems to have stopped in the former East Berlin. But to have the chance to enjoy this show, you must leave the beaten track of the city, facing its long avenues and endless monotony of the long rows of prefabricated housing. For how long now will this transitional phase, where the past, if begins to disappear, still is visible for those who’s looking for it? Work began last spring on the Castle Square (Schlossplatz), also known as Marx-Engels-Platz in the early 90s. And the unthinkable might yet happen: the residence of the Kings of Prussia will rise from the ashes in a baroque jewel designed by an architect of the twenty-first century. Let’s hope this second birth does not come only to appease Berlin memories but also allows the debate of the possible manipulation of history by the architecture.
Built and razed, bombed and rebuilt, the Berlin architecture reflects its (not quiet) history. Capital of a republic, open to European avant-garde movements in the 20s, and field of deployment of the Nazi excesses in the decade that followed, city then cut into four sectors as the cake of victory after 1945 then split in two in 1961 by a "wall of shame" that only fall 28 years later, what remains of it this history in a city that is said to never be condemned and become eternal (Karl Scheffler Ein Stadtschicksal, 1910)? Potsdamer Platz, before place of rendezvous Expressionist artists and Dadaists, today is a huge postmodern place crossed by cars and taxis in a hurry. It is only once a year at the Berlinale, the German international movie festival, that it finds back its role as a mediator between the living creation and the audience. A few kilometers south-east of the city, the airport of Tempelhof, named "tallest building in the world" at its inauguration by Hitler in 1941 is now closed to the public and opened sporadically during major fairs international. The Fashion Addicts have forgotten that where willowy models parade and pose for the photographers, has been written here, more than a half-century ago, an essential page of world history, the Berlin Airlift? And who of the today’s young generation can still imagine that the city's most spectacular East Berlin street, Karl-Marx-Allee, was still in the 80's the place for military parades and organizations for youth masterfully staged by the East German regime? Today, Berlin is said as the "most creative" city of Europe and as expatriate, I'm wondering. What will be reminded of the recent past of the city within a few years? Entered in the school history books, the city has a new look for the twenty-first century, smoother and acceptable. Certainly, the experience of daily Berlin might suggest that the city takes its rank with Paris or London. Cultural metropolis, it attracts thousands of tourists who queuing in front of 170 museums. But appearances can be deceiving, and if you move away from the center to the periphery, the traces of the wall are still visible: flea markets on supermarket car parks, chip stalls a bit dirty, dusty storefronts and outdated, the time seems to have stopped in the former East Berlin. But to have the chance to enjoy this show, you must leave the beaten track of the city, facing its long avenues and endless monotony of the long rows of prefabricated housing. For how long now will this transitional phase, where the past, if begins to disappear, still is visible for those who’s looking for it? Work began last spring on the Castle Square (Schlossplatz), also known as Marx-Engels-Platz in the early 90s. And the unthinkable might yet happen: the residence of the Kings of Prussia will rise from the ashes in a baroque jewel designed by an architect of the twenty-first century. Let’s hope this second birth does not come only to appease Berlin memories but also allows the debate of the possible manipulation of history by the architecture.
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