Berliner Weisse
Oct. 14th, 2020 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: Berlin Now - The Rise of the City and the Fall of the Wall, by Peter Schneider
"Among German intellectuals you can't have an argument about so much as a recipe without some worked-up gourmet detecting fascist ingredients in it". This is a well-considered essay collection, sometimes humorous and sometimes profound, on post-1989 Berlin. Schneider writes on various subjects. On architecture, topics include the accidental survivor of Potsdamer Platz, Haus Huth, the controversy over the Palast der Republik and its back-to-the-future replacement the Berliner Schloss, and the interminable saga of Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Schneider highlights the history of post-war city planning on both sides, and the apparent result that a building's longevity can be enough to guarantee its preservation, without much consideration of merits. Almost as a corollary, there's a lot on anarchic Berlin nightlife, with history giving the city centre unrivalled empty and derelict spaces. On the more human side, there is writing about the legacy of the Stasi, and how the wider East Germany needs to handle its past of surveillance and informers. A sequence of essays deal with internal migration, immigration and racism, a legacy on both sides of Berlin (the DDR readily admitted workers from Vietnam and communist regimes in Africa), but Schneider is careful to balance the all-too familiar and depressing tales with an uplifting report showing that positive responses are possible. The book draws to a close with writing on Jewish life in contemporary Berlin, the history of the Nefertiti bust, and thoughts for the future.
"Among German intellectuals you can't have an argument about so much as a recipe without some worked-up gourmet detecting fascist ingredients in it". This is a well-considered essay collection, sometimes humorous and sometimes profound, on post-1989 Berlin. Schneider writes on various subjects. On architecture, topics include the accidental survivor of Potsdamer Platz, Haus Huth, the controversy over the Palast der Republik and its back-to-the-future replacement the Berliner Schloss, and the interminable saga of Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Schneider highlights the history of post-war city planning on both sides, and the apparent result that a building's longevity can be enough to guarantee its preservation, without much consideration of merits. Almost as a corollary, there's a lot on anarchic Berlin nightlife, with history giving the city centre unrivalled empty and derelict spaces. On the more human side, there is writing about the legacy of the Stasi, and how the wider East Germany needs to handle its past of surveillance and informers. A sequence of essays deal with internal migration, immigration and racism, a legacy on both sides of Berlin (the DDR readily admitted workers from Vietnam and communist regimes in Africa), but Schneider is careful to balance the all-too familiar and depressing tales with an uplifting report showing that positive responses are possible. The book draws to a close with writing on Jewish life in contemporary Berlin, the history of the Nefertiti bust, and thoughts for the future.