out of ground zero:
case studies in urban reinvention
“Berlin: Film and the Representation of Urban Reconstruction since the Fall of the Wall.”
Hubertus Siegert and Ralph Stern
ockman, joan [ed]. new york: prestel verlag, 2002.
an introductory essay and interview with the director of berlin babylon, hubertus siegert, explore the post-reunification schemes in berlin, concentrating on the areas depicted in his film. stern writes: “As anyone familiar with the debates concerning the rebuilding of Berlin is aware, these sites and the buildings arising out of them were by no means neutral objects of economic speculation or artistic aspiration. Rather, they were frequently embroiled in heated ideological conflicts – concerning the relationship of the past to the present, traditionalism to modernism, globalism to regionalism, communism to democracy, the two of these political systems to fascism, and memory and identity to erasure and eradication” (119).