Abstract
This chapter frames the later discussion of post-Wall urban development by presenting and discussing spatial symbolism, ideology, and the politicization of Berlin’s urban landscape during the Cold War. This chapter covers the significant waypoints in the development of architectural discourse in the divided city, including Stalinallee in East Berlin and the IBA 1957 in West Berlin in the 1950s, the redesign of Alexanderplatz and the central ensemble in the 1960s, the construction of the Palace of the Republic in the 1970s, and the celebration of the city’s 750th jubilee in the 1980s. This chapter additionally goes into detail about the central role of housing in both halves of the city, the political instrumentalization of housing typologies, and the development of architectural discourse and propaganda during the Cold War on both sides of the Wall—discourses which had a significant effect on these same built spaces after 1990.
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Notes
- 1.
First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).
- 2.
Second Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).
- 3.
For example Lenhart (2001, p. 52).
- 4.
Who was inspired, as already mentioned, by the reconstruction and modernization of Arnimplatz in East Berlin.
- 5.
Hans Stimmann , in the foreword to the first edition of “Stadterneuerung in Ost-Berlin, vom ‘sozialistischen Neuaufbau’ zur ‘komplexen Rekonstruktion,’” which was published as part of the IBA 1987 , made mention of the fact that these parallels were known in professional circles, but that the then-Berliner senator for construction deemed an exhibition about the parallelisms and breaks between the urban development on the two sides of the city in the course of the IBA 1987 “not even worth discussing” (Stimmann 1985, p. 2).
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Dellenbaugh-Losse, M. (2020). The Politicization of Berlin’s Urban Landscape, 1945–1989. In: Inventing Berlin. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29718-3_3
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