Mind the Gap

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Often they are hidden by temporary walls covered in historical photographs and educational text. Sometimes they are more visible, shielded only by a makeshift fence. And occasionally they are exposed for all the world to see. I am referring to Berlin's empty lots.

I didn't really notice them when I first arrived. Most cities have some open, undeveloped spots, often where a building or two have been torn down. And I imagine that Berlin had many more of them in the period immediately following re-unification. One just has to look at all the construction that went on in the nineties, filling up much of the empty space that had been left with the dismantling of the Wall and the security zone around it. Potsdamer Platz, anyone? Yet, twenty years later, with a little close attention, it is apparent that the scars of the Wall are not completely healed - and it's not always clear whether they should be.

I suppose it was not too surprising that once the Wall had symbolically fallen in November 1989 that many would want to not only make it fall for real (the so wall-peckers began hacking and chipping away almost immediately!) but even make it disappear. Who would want such a painful, ugly reminder of separation? Indeed, very little of the Wall remains; just scattered fragments, such as the East Side Gallery I mentioned in an earlier entry. Only now, twenty years later, some are some starting to say: "Hey, wait a minute! We should preserve what's left as a memorial, a remainder, so it doesn't happen again." There's even a reconstruction of the Wall's full system - main wall, raked sand path, flood lights, dog path, watch tower, secondary wall, etc. - where the original cut through part of a cemetery. Nearby a beautiful earthen walled Chapel of Reconciliation, surrounded by a wheat field, occupies part of the remaining blank space. The city is also creating a brick line that follows the original, winding path of the Wall, even in areas that have been rebuilt.

And it's not just the zone where the Wall cut through the city. What do you do with war-damaged/destroyed buildings? Do you stay true to the original or create something completely new? Can you compromise, and make a hybrid structure? Perhaps you just leave it as is?

The tension, I suppose, will never quite go away.

What do you leave as memorial space? The No Man's Land around Checkpoint Charlie, perhaps? What do you rebuild? And how? Leipziger Platz, which essentially abutts the highly redeveloped Potsdamer Platz, Sony Center and all, consists of about half completed buildings and half scaffoldings covered in tarb printed with windows and walls, illusions of what are intended to fill the gaps in the urban fabric. Over on Museum Island, right across from the Berliner Dom, there's a jarring stretch of scrubland where the Palast der Republik once stood (and which had been, in turn, built on the ruins of the Kaisers' residence, the Stadtschloss). Apparently the plan is to construct a new Stadtschloss, but for what purpose remains unclear. For now there's no building whatsover going on; only wooden paths criss-cross the lot, providing views of foundation stones and weed-filled exposed basements.

To build, or not to build? That seems to be the highly politicized question in Berlin.

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