Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T03:01:03.994Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Berlin's Architectural Citations: Reconstruction, Simulation, and the Problem of Historical Authenticity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Rolf J. Goebel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Reunified Berlin's ubiquitous examples of architectural citation—such as the Reichstag, the plans for the Stadtschloß, the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz, the new Hotel Adlon, and the FriedrichstadtPassagen—variously inscribe contemporary architectural styles with allusive reinventions of previous forms and cultural discourses, incorporate remnants of older edifices, or use partial reconstructions for new social purposes. In the process, these projects problematize conventional principles of architectural restoration by dramatizing a productive tension between past and present, between authenticity and simulation, between genuine nostalgia and the sometimes cynical manipulation of historical memory. Relying on the synchronicity of (seemingly) nonsynchronous styles, architectural citation goes beyond postmodern pastiche; such citation signifies Berlin's renegotiation of its identity as the new-old capital by recycling half-obliterated and yet irrepressible traces of urban history within the parameters of international capitalism, Europe-directed national politics, and the rampant tourist industry.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 118 , Issue 5 , October 2003 , pp. 1268 - 1289
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Walter, Benjamin. The Arcades Project. Trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin. Cambridge: Belknap-Harvard UP, 1999.Google Scholar
Walter, Benjamin. Das Passagen-Werk. Ed. Tiedemann, Rolf. 2 vols. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1982. Vol. 5 of Gesammelte Schriften.Google Scholar
Berliner Extrablatt, 14th ed. Bargteheide: Förderverein Berliner Stadtschloß e.V., June 2001.Google Scholar
Berliner Extrablatt, 17th ed. Bargteheide: Förderverein Berliner Stadtschloß e.V., Feb. 2002.Google Scholar
Christoph, Braun. “Über den Bereich Home in die Abteilung Men.” Tageszeitung Berlin lokal 31 Oct. 2000: 22. 14 May 2001 <http://www.taz.de/tpl/2000/10/31.nf/textdruck?Tname=a0184&list=TAZB_ku&idx=1>.Google Scholar
Geist, Johann Friedrich. Die Kaisergalerie: Biographie der Berliner Passage. München: Prestel, 1997.Google Scholar
Klaus, Hartung. “Doppelgesicht: Über die Paradoxien Berlins.” Berlin. Metropole. Spec. issue of Kursbuch 137 (Sept. 1999): 7–36.Google Scholar
Franz, Hessel. Ein Flaneur in Berlin. Berlin: Arsenal, 1984. Rpt. of Spazieren in Berlin. 1929.Google Scholar
“History.” Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin. 7 July 2003 <http://www.hotel-adlon.de/en/hotel/geschichte/index.htm>..>Google Scholar
Hotel Adlon Berlin. Berlin: Hotel Adlon, n.d.Google Scholar
Linda, Hutcheon. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New York: Routledge, 1988.Google Scholar
Andreas, Huyssen. “After the War: Berlin as Palimpsest.” Harvard Design Magazine 10 (2000): 1–5.Google Scholar
Andreas, Huyssen. “The Voids of Berlin.” Critical Inquiry 24 (1997): 57–81.Google Scholar
Fredric, Jameson. Postmodernism; or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke UP, 1991.Google Scholar
Charles, Jencks. Post-modernism: The New Classicism in Art and Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 1987.Google Scholar
Koepnick, Lutz P. “Redeeming History? Foster's Dome and the Political Aesthetic of the Berlin Republic.” German Studies Review 24 (2001): 303–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koepnick, Lutz P. “Rethinking the Spectacle: History, Visual Culture, and German Unification.” Wendezeiten, Zeitenwenden: Positionsbestimmungen zur deutschsprachigen Literatur 1945–1995. Ed. Weniger, Robert and Rossbacher, Brigitte. Tübingen: Stauffenberg, 1997. 151–70.Google Scholar
Siegfried, Kracauer. “Abschied von der Lindenpassage.” Straßen in Berlin und anderswo. Berlin: Arsenal, 1987. 24–29.Google Scholar
Krüger, Thomas, ed. Die bewegte Stadt: Berlin am Ende der Neunziger. Berlin: FAB, n.d.Google Scholar
Brian, Ladd. The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting Urban History in the Urban Landscape. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1997.Google Scholar
Neil, Leach, ed. Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory. London: Routledge, 1997.Google Scholar
Martin, Mosebach. “Spaziergang durch das neue Berlin.” Deutschland Oct.-Nov. 1999: 50–55.Google Scholar
“The Myth of the Centre.” History of Quartier 206. 7 Apr. 2001 <http://www.quartier206.de/historie/body_e.html>..>Google Scholar
Quartier 206: FriedrichstadtPassagen. Berlin: Jagdfeld FriedrichstadtPassagen Quartier 206 Vermögensverwaltung KG, 1994.Google Scholar
Uwe, Rada. “Der Trend zu Passagen hält an.” Tageszeitung-Berlin 2 Aug. 1996: 24. Squat.net. 14 May 2001 <http://squat.net/de/berlin/stadtbau/radataz3.html>.Google Scholar
Schaper, Rainer Michael. Der gläserne Himmel: Die Passagen des 19. Jahrhunderts als Sujet der Literatur. Frankfurt: Athenäum, 1988.Google Scholar
Mathias, Schreiber. “Das verrückte Traumbild.” Der Spiegel 15 Jan. 2001: 182–85.Google Scholar
Siedler, Wolf Jobst. Phoenix im Sand: Glanz und Elend der Hauptstadt. Berlin: Propyläen, 1998.Google Scholar
Strom, Elizabeth A. Building the New Berlin: The Politics of Urban Development in Germany's Capital City. Lanham: Lexington, 2001.Google Scholar
Verein zur Erhaltung des Palastes der Republik e.V. Home page. 22 Apr. 2003. 11 June 2003 <http://www.pdr.kultur-netz.de/verein.htm>..>Google Scholar
Anthony, Vidler. The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely. Cambridge: MIT P, 1992.Google Scholar
Janet, Ward. Weimar Surfaces: Urban Visual Culture in 1920s Germany. Berkeley: U of California P, 2001.Google Scholar