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

by Brian Ladd

Even the best efforts of the British, American, and Soviet armed forces had not sufficed to wipe Berlin off the map: most of its buildings still stood, reparable if not intact. The photographs and film footage we often see of postwar Berlin understandably focus on the scenes of most utter devastation—which were not hard to find. In a perverse way, those who proclaimed Berlin a total loss were guilty of wishful thinking. They included reformers who had long wished to sweep away the city of Mietskasernen—that is, to correct the errors of nineteenth-century urban development. That reformist impulse was powerfully reinforced by the widespread desire to suppress all possible links to the capital of the Third Reich, whether that desire was motivated by revulsion at the Nazis or by a sense of guilt. Although the ruins were real enough, “zero hour”—and thus a new beginning—was more of a hope than a fact.

Gaza too?