German Phoenix: East Berlin's Capital Statement
Fred Stern
When the Berlin Wall came down on that November day in 1989, East Berliners walked west, West Berliners east, and both found two different worlds.
East Berlin was a shambles. The Communist German Democratic Republic did not have funds to demolish and rebuild its crumbling housing stock, except to provide marginal quarters for its labor force. But it did manage to create the broad boulevard originally called Stalin Allee, renamed Karl-Marx-Allee on Stalin's demise. The Communists had envisioned masses of citizens parading on the Allee in march formation, affirming the doctrines of the East on such holidays as the First of May and the day of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Drab, gray buildings confronted West Berliners who entered the sector for the first time. East Berlin had denuded its streets of greenery and trees. On the other hand, citizens of East Berlin streaming west were overwhelmed by the plethora of foods, clothing, and other consumer goods they saw in West Berlin stores and movie houses that offered not the mean, meager socialist fare they were accustomed to. Here was a world of color and wealth, Hollywood and the West. But most East Berliners, if they could afford it, flocked to shoe stores to buy real leatherwear and to discard their ersatz-leather footwear.
To fully appreciate the architectural changes in today's Berlin, one must look back at all that has happened there over the last eighty-some years. In the 1920s, after the end of World War I, Berlin became the capital of the Weimar Republic. For the city, it was an era of cultural brilliance. The theater, cabarets, music, and literature of the period have never been equaled. But economically, Berlin like the rest of Europe, suffered severe downturns. The Third Reich and its Nazi dictatorship took over in 1933. Democratic life in Germany and in Berlin quickly ground to a halt.
With the coming of World War II, the lives of Berliners changed dramatically. Berlin, along with the rest of Germany, suffered bombing and devastation, especially during the last days of the war, when Soviet artillery shelled the city. When Germany was forced to capitulate on May 2, 1945, the victorious allies (the United States, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union) divided Berlin into four zones. The Soviet Union took the eastern part of the city and eventually combined it with the other East German territory they had previously been occupying.
In June 1948, the Soviets sought to eliminate the Berlin zones under Western control, by starving West Berlin: it cut off rail, highway, and water links to those areas of the city. The United States responded with an airlift bringing food, coal, and other vital supplies to the 2 million Berliners under Western control. A total of 2.3 million tons of supplies were flown in on more than 230,000 flights. After 11 months, the American effort bore fruit and the Soviets relented, lifting the blockade.
Over the years, many East Germans fled to the West for a better life. The drain of young, talented, and forward-looking Berliners led the Soviets to try another way of containing the population. In 1961, they erected a wall of steel, concrete, and barbed wire to reduce the numbers fleeing west. The wall, 29 miles in length, kept the East Germans in, the West Germans out. About 800 East Berliners lost their lives trying to escape across the wall. With the collapse of the Soviet system, the wall came down on November 9, 1989, after 28 oppressive years.
Architecturally, Berlin offered on the one hand the pompous architecture of the Nazis, with its boring facades. On the other hand, there were the hapless Mietskasernen (rental barracks) which still house many Berlin wage earners in Berlin's erstwhile East. But all this is changing, or has changed over the years since the unification and the return of Berlin as the national capital of the Bundesrepublik.
The bulk of the building now going on in the unified Berlin is taking place in the region of the former East Berlin. Let's just look at some examples. Places like Potsdamer Platz, Pariser Platz, the area around the Brandenburger Tor, Leipziger Platz, and the Die Museumsinsel (Museum Island) all attest to the health, optimism, and rebirth of Berlin's eastern sector.
This renaissance cannot be measured in architectural terms alone. The human factor, or, shall we say, the youth factor, has to be taken into account as well. More than one-third of Berlin's 3.5 million population is under 30, as are more than 50 percent of its visitors. Berlin's universities provide an education for students from more than 72 countries. The young are, of course, the great "pathfinders" to ethnic delights from pizza to sushi to couscous and all the cuisines in between. You can eat outdoors and indoors, of course, but you can also eat in complete darkness in Berlin's unsicht-bar Dunkelrestaurant.
That the former East Berlin has turned into a shopper's paradise goes without saying, especially in the Friedrichstrasse, one of the city's most luxurious streets that lies between such must-see attractions as Potsdamer Platz, the parliament buildings, and Checkpoint Charlie, the critical point where West and East Berlin met. Two additional venues are also instrumental in turning the former East into a fashion center: the boulevards known as the Kurfuerstendam (or "Ku'dam" in popular parlance) and Unter den Linden (Under the Limewood Trees), which feature some of the most world-renowned stores and names.
Highlights of the new Berlin
"Crane City"--the New Buildings of Berlin: There is not a single section of Berlin and its numerous suburbs where building and renovation are not now, or will in the near future, be taking place. More than 200 projects, many of considerable size, have been opened to architectural competition in the last six years. The financial groups involved have an important decision-making function in what gets built, but so does the Association of Architects for Berlin. Building awards have been made to both domestic and foreign architects. Among those responsible for important new structures and complexes are Frank O. Gehry of Santa Monica, California; Daniel Libeskind of New York, and Italy's Aldo Rossi. Architects of equal stature, too numerous to name, come from India, Spain, Japan, France, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.
Potsdamer Platz, Berlin's Architectural Showplace: It is tempting to compare the 19-building Potsdamer Platz complex in the center of Berlin with Rockefeller Center. Like New York's showplace, it combines office buildings with entertainment centers and restaurants. A favorite destination for natives and tourists alike, it is an important revenue source. Some 20 architectural firms competed for the prized segments of this project, whose master design was developed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.
Curved facades are common at Potsdamer Platz, as are the multicolored vertical and horizontal strips delineating each floor. The curved appearance of the buildings and the park is another characteristic of Berlin's new construction, conveying a forward-looking attitude, congenial to the city's many young people. In all of Potsdamer Platz, it is evident that the architects gave their imagination full reign to make sure that building designs offer new ideas and eye-popping innovation, both interiors and exteriors.
The Sony Center is the most frequented building of the complex. Grouped around a huge square with elegant cafes, restaurants, stores, and movie theaters, it is the European headquarters of the Sony Corporation. The architect for this important complex was a Chicago architectural firm, Murphy/Jahn Associates. Its principal attraction is a 26-story skyscraper, the glass roof of which creates the impression of a building, tentlike in the sky, anchored by wires and cables. It is an outstanding example of space-age technology.
By far the largest component of Potsdamer Platz is the DaimlerChrysler Project. It comprises the DaimlerChrysler headquarters, the Debis Center, and numerous office buildings and apartment houses. Piano's plan for the center comprises four complete blocks that also house restaurants, stores of all shapes and varieties, and a galaxy of movie houses.
Following the Piano master plan, other architects developed similar or complementary structures. Many of the office buildings have intricately shaped, glass-enclosed balconies that offer exciting views of the city. Good examples of these are found on Berlin's Link Strasse, including those designed by Sir Richard Rogers, the British architect who is well known for the open-glass façade of Paris' Pompidou Center.
A collaboration between a Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki, and Berlin's Steffen Lehmann produced the design of the Berliner Volksbank (Berlin People’s Bank), built between 1994 and 1998. The bank building provides offices for 1,200 employees. It features a park and a three-story bridge linking outside buildings. Renzo Piano and German architect Christoph Kohlbecker are responsible for the Debis headquarters building at the Potsdamer Platz. Its U-shaped planning allows for an atrium encompassing the inner courtyard. The architects provide a steel-and-glass façade for the front part of the building, which is underscored by continuous stone banding and a seemingly endless procession of windows.
A vast array of movie houses and theaters provides entertainment for the throngs on Potsdamer Platz. The 3-D film center is equipped with huge Imax screens. A musical theater named for the film star, Marlene Dietrich, features live performances, but comes into its full glory at the time of the annual Berlin Film Festival. Then it briefly becomes the center of the movie world, together with the Cinemaxx Cinema, which has 19 screens on five floors and a capacity for 3,500 viewers.
Pariser Platz, Berlin's Front Hall: Enter Berlin's Pariser Platz via the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's most famous symbol. It is where Napoleon Bonaparte entered when he conquered the city in 1806. Napoleon had the horse sculptures on top of the gate shipped to Paris as a trophy; significantly, the four sculptures were returned many years later. Here at the Brandenburg Gate was the most poignant meeting place of West and East Berlin, separated by the hated wall.
Damaged during the war years, the Brandenburg Gate has now been fully restored. The British, French, and American embassies are arranged alongside the gate, their external appearance stately but uniform--a result of requirements by governmental guidelines for height uniformity and restrictions as to the number of windows permitted.
By far the most exciting building on Pariser Platz is the DZ Bank (Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank), designed by the California architect Frank Owen Gehry. Gehry was already widely known for his design of the new Getty Museum complex in California and for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, when he was chosen for the bank project. His work often has more of a sculptural aspect than an architectural one, and for DZ Bank, he is strongly leaning in the sculptural direction. The building curves wavelike, with floor-to-ceiling windows and an unusual elongated atrium. The overall effect is one of immense visual excitement.
Leipziger Platz: Bordering on the Potsdamer Platz, this location enjoys a 250-year history. It is scheduled for completion by 2005, and will be dominated by an octagonal building that will take up in part the area formerly occupied by a large department store (Wertheim). Twelve buildings are scheduled for Leipziger Platz. Originally, a border tower of the Wall was located here, but all parties agreed to move it a few feet and let it continue to serve as a historical monument. Stores, cafes, restaurants, and a greensward are to be included in the final plans. A circular arc at the center of the complex is to fan out and connect four different roads.
Karl-Marx-Allee: Not much has been done with this enormously wide thoroughfare. It is one of the most important reminders of the DDR (German Democratic Republic), but for the moment it is to stand "as is." The severity of its structures betrays its Soviet origin, but for the moment no one seems prepared to alter with it.
Alexanderplatz: Here stands the former "Palace of the Republic," one of the most preeminent buildings of the DDR, cheek-by-jowl with the Berlin Cathedral. The classic profiles of buildings facing it emphasizes its shabby iron-and-brown-glass trimming. Building funds are in short supply right now but will no doubt be tapped when the powers that be decide action needs to be taken.
The Museum Isle and Other Art Structures: An extensive new program is set to revitalize the Museumsinsel, a combination of five museums that is located in the former East Berlin and that will hopefully reopen in 2008-09. The second museum in the group, the Bode Museum, will reopen as early as 2006. The Old National Gallery reopened in 2001. It devoted itself entirely to nineteenth-century art. Its glass-covered main entrance (in the manner of the Louvre), as well as a centralized subway net, will do much to revitalize the entire area. Six thousand years of cultural history will be accessible in this new museum complex upon its completion.
Important collections are flocking to the new Berlin, including the much-admired Flick Collection. This private collection of a prominent industrialist, features many outstanding examples of classical modernism and contemporary art. Helmut Newton, the world-famed photographer, is moving his collection to Berlin this year as well. But perhaps the most exciting happening in Berlin in the art arena is the current display of the treasures of New York's Museum of Modern Art, while it undergoes renovation and expansion, to an excited viewership at the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery). According to the Berlin newspapers, the lines are endless, with many people waiting up to four hours to view MOMA's treasures.
All of these shows have a natural impact on the gallery scene in Berlin Mitte. Here, there are almost as many galleries as restaurants.
The Reichstag: The German parliament building has weathered many turmoils, not least of which was its burning in 1933, said to have been organized by the Nazis. It retains only its original shell, but the interior has been reworked by British architect Sir Norman Foster, who also provided a new glass cupola with intriguing lighting that permits day-and-night operation and commands a four-mile view. Directly accessible to visitors, it provides thousands daily with a panorama not only of the city but of surrounding parks and countryside.
The distinctions between East and West Berlin have not been eliminated by any means. The western part of the city remains more glamorous, more cosmopolitan, while the eastern part, still recognizable through some residue of rubble, is more diverse, has a greater youth population and, if one looks carefully, shows the anguish of the war years in its bullet-pocked walls.
Among older people in the former East, the "nostalgia" for being taken care of by the state, which provided a safety net of jobs and security, is not likely to fade, and they must make their accommodation with the present. Unemployment in Berlin stands at 18 percent--more than 50 percent greater than the national average. While Berlin's debt has reached $64 billion--small by U.S. standards--it is nevertheless formidable for an area with 3.5 million inhabitants. Berlin is still not where it wants to be--namely, being the capital city of Europe--but it is trying.
Paris has the charm Berlin never possessed, London the comfort of a rich economic tradition, and Rome the art and aura of the Renaissance. But much was hoped for in terms of May 2004 when 10 new countries from Eastern Europe joined the European Union. By thus taking Berlin off the eastern fringe of Europe, it is thought that it will do much for its prestige and increase the flow of affluent visitors.
Over the years, Berlin's two sectors, East and West, will merge into seamlessness. This will contribute mightily to the reappearance of Berlin as a world-class city of commerce, industry, and art.
Fred Stern has explored the creative efforts of artists and
writers worldwide. His work has appeared in Euopean and Asian
publications as well as on artnet.com. He writes a bimonthly
column on the arts for Commuter Week and is a frequent
contributor to The World and I. He has given courses
on
American writers and has taught poetry and creative writing
at
the Institute of New Dimensions. He has lectured widely on
these topics. A volume of his verses is scheduled for
appearance in 2006 under the title Corridors of Light.
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