The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape

by Brian Ladd

After the war its large size and intact state—in contrast to the rest of Wilhelmstrasse—made the building attractive to the new East German government. A dozen ministries were given office space there, and it was renamed the “House of Ministries,” which it remained until 1990. In it was held the ceremony in 1949 officially establishing the German Democratic Republic. A mural along the building’s north loggia commemorates this event. The building’s importance as a center of government also made it a center of attention during the East German uprising in 1953: striking workers marched to the House of Ministries to present their demands for economic and political reforms. Not surprisingly, the GDR chose to leave no trace of that day. On the uprising’s fortieth anniversary, therefore, the building’s new masters dedicated a commemorative plaque. The plaque was mounted on a pillar directly in front of the GDR’s mural. The building is thus marked by competing memorials of the GDR rather than any reference to its original use. Proposals for a plaque remembering the terror bombing planned here—of Guernica, Warsaw, Rotterdam, and Coventry—have come to nothing.