Arrivals and Departures: Travelling to the Airports of Berlin

Abstract

Memories of foreign cities are often tied to the experience of crossing thresholds on the ways in and out of the urban domain: these are both generic and personal. When one recalls a first encounter with Rome, the arrival in Roma Termini after 30 hours of train travel through snowy Europe may stand forth with a surprising detail and clarity. Conversely, the memories of particular departures frame the mnemonic image of a particular stay. Spontaneously leaving Paris together with a friend whom you were simply accompanying to Gare du Nord presents itself as such an unexpected event. It communicates with many later departures, all of which inform the general experience of Paris and other metropolitan cities. Consciously or not, both arrivals and departures become memorial thresholds of human lives within a global urban network.