A study of the ways Berlin has been depicted in cinema and the ways its architectural transformations inform our understanding of the city and its memories.
Concerned with the connection between the built environment and the passage of time, Reframing Berlin uses film locations in the city to reveal the influence that urban transformation has on memory-making. Covering the city’s history since the beginning of cinema, the book proposes the term urban strategy to understand the range of consequential actions taken by politicians, developers, and other powerful figures to shape the nature and future of buildings, streets, and districts. Organizing these strategies from demolition to memorialization, the authors study the ways these actions forget or recall aspects of place. Using cinematic representations of Berlin as an audiovisual archive, the study details how the city has adjusted to its traumatic twentieth-century history through architectural transformations. Two dissimilar case studies frame each strategy, indicating that an approach that works for one building may not be sufficient for another.
Foreword
Kathleen James-Chakraborty
Introduction
Berlin: The Remembered City
Urban Memory
Urban Strategies
Memory in Berlin
Filmstadt Berlin
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Demolition
New Reich Chancellery
Palace of the Republic
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Temporary Installation
Escape Tunnels
Wrapped Reichstag
From Scratch: New Construction
Sony Center
Spreebogen
Business or Pleasure?: Disneyfication
Checkpoint Charlie
Berliner Stadtschloss
Cycle of Life: Mutation
The Berlin Wall
Potsdamer Platz
Prosthetic Limbs: Supplementation
The Reichstag Dome
Berlin Olympic Stadium
Frozen in Time: Suspension
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Topography of Terror
On the Move: Relocation
Grand Hotel Esplanade
Victory Column
Survival Instinct: Adaptation
Berlin Techno Clubs
Berlin Bunkers
Altered States: Appropriation
Berlin TV Tower
Neue Wache
My Precious!: Preservation
The Brandenburg Gate
Berlin State Opera
Once upon a Time: Memorialization
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Stumbling Blocks
Conclusions: Berlin: Remember When
Berlin Lessons
The Global Context
Filmography
Bibliography
Index
Christopher S. Wilson is an architecture and design historian at Ringling College of Art + Design in Sarasota, Florida, USA. He is also the scholar-in residence of the non-profit Architecture Sarasota.
Gul Kacmaz Erk is a senior lecturer in architecture at Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. She is also the founding director of CACity (Cinema
and Architecture in the City), Collaborative Research Group.
