A study of the ways Berlin has been depicted in cinema and the ways its architectural transformations inform our understanding of the city and its memories.
Concerned with the connection between the built environment and the passage of time, Reframing Berlin uses film locations in the city to reveal the influence that urban transformation has on memory-making. Covering the city’s history since the beginning of cinema, the book proposes the term urban strategy to understand the range of consequential actions taken by politicians, developers, and other powerful figures to shape the nature and future of buildings, streets, and districts. Organizing these strategies from demolition to memorialization, the authors study the ways these actions forget or recall aspects of place. Using cinematic representations of Berlin as an audiovisual archive, the study details how the city has adjusted to its traumatic twentieth-century history through architectural transformations. Two dissimilar case studies frame each strategy, indicating that an approach that works for one building may not be sufficient for another.
By:
Christopher S. Wilson,
Gul Kacmaz Erk
Imprint: Intellect Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Height: 244mm,
Width: 170mm,
ISBN: 9781789386875
ISBN 10: 178938687X
Series: Mediated Cities
Pages: 412
Publication Date: 29 June 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword Kathleen James-Chakraborty Introduction Berlin: The Remembered City Urban Memory Urban Strategies Memory in Berlin Filmstadt Berlin Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Demolition New Reich Chancellery Palace of the Republic Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Temporary Installation Escape Tunnels Wrapped Reichstag From Scratch: New Construction Sony Center Spreebogen Business or Pleasure?: Disneyfication Checkpoint Charlie Berliner Stadtschloss Cycle of Life: Mutation The Berlin Wall Potsdamer Platz Prosthetic Limbs: Supplementation The Reichstag Dome Berlin Olympic Stadium Frozen in Time: Suspension Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Topography of Terror On the Move: Relocation Grand Hotel Esplanade Victory Column Survival Instinct: Adaptation Berlin Techno Clubs Berlin Bunkers Altered States: Appropriation Berlin TV Tower Neue Wache My Precious!: Preservation The Brandenburg Gate Berlin State Opera Once upon a Time: Memorialization Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Stumbling Blocks Conclusions: Berlin: Remember When … Berlin Lessons The Global Context Filmography Bibliography Index
Christopher S. Wilson is an architecture and design historian at Ringling College of Art + Design in Sarasota, Florida, USA. He is also the “scholar-in residence” of the non-profit Architecture Sarasota. Gul Kacmaz Erk is a senior lecturer in architecture at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. She is also the founding director of CACity (Cinema and Architecture in the City), Collaborative Research Group.
