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

by Brian Ladd

In 1920, Scheffler was one of several critics asked by a newspaper to respond to the question, “How will Potsdamer Platz look in twenty-five years?”—that is, in 1945. Scheffler submitted an imaginary debate that included this vision: The buildings on the square will be ravaged, robbed of their usable materials; they will be ruins. The broken pavement will be overgrown with grass and bushes. No streetcars will run, a car will be seen but rarely, and only a few people will creep about timidly. The square will swarm with rats and mice from the neglected Tiergarten. Once a day a train will arrive in the station, and a handful of travelers clutching thin valises will scurry into the city, followed by the threatening eyes of the rabble living in the ruins. At night no lights will shine.30 Scheffler, the prophet of flux, was playing with ideas. Modernism did not cause the destruction of Potsdamer Platz, but the early modernists could contemplate transfiguration and destruction with an equanimity not possible after 1945.