Inventing Berlin: Architecture, Politics And Cultural Memory In The New/Old German Capital Post-1989

Description

This book comprehensively examines post-1989 changes to the symbolic landscape of Berlin – specifically, street names, architecture, urban planning and monuments – and links these changes to concepts of contested cultural memory and national identity in Berlin and Germany in the post-Wall period. The core of the book is made up of an analysis of built space changes in the eastern half of the city before and after the Berlin Wall, flanked by an introduction to the theoretical underpinnings of the topic and a wider interpretation of the events in Berlin in relation to other geographic and historical contexts. It furthermore offers an explanatory model for the phenomenon of the "symbolic foreigner" whereby former citizens of the GDR feel disenfranchised and excluded from today's German society. This book is a valuable resource for researchers, students, and also appeals to a wider, non-academic audience with an interest in both cultural memory and Berlin. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxiii Introduction (Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse)....Pages 1-6 Spatial Symbolism and Politics (Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse)....Pages 7-28 The Politicization of Berlin’s Urban Landscape, 1945–1989 (Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse)....Pages 29-69 Identity, Politics, and the Creation of Consensus (Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse)....Pages 71-85 The Cultural Landscape of the Berliner Republic: Undoing the Socialist Past (Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse)....Pages 87-133 Putting It All Together: Spatial Symbolism, Cultural Memory, Nation-Building, and Berlin’s Urban Development After 1989 (Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse)....Pages 135-171 Conclusion: Current Outlook, Recent Developments, and Wider Relevance (Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse)....Pages 173-182 Back Matter ....Pages 183-197