Berlin as a Conduit for the Creation of German National Identity at the End of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The rebuilding of Berlin during the last decade of the 20th century has thrown up issues of how politics, history and place are linked in the formation of German national identity. The often-used territorial facet in creating a nation is placed here in a very specific urban context. Berlin as Germany's new capital has been marketed as a complete and reinvented city with new opportunities that became available due to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. The country as a whole has relied on the historical elements of the city as well as its modern architectural developments, which are found across the urban landscape of Germany's capital, to represent an evolved, mature state post-reunification. This paper presents an investigation into how Berlin has been used to articulate different notions of German national identity in the past decade. What follows is an analysis of Berlin and its architecture in terms of the processes behind, and the results of, urban development, rather than an aesthetic examination of how building styles can reflect and generate feelings of nation and national identity. The role of the élite in society, politics, architecture and planning is paramount in this investigation, examining the manipulation of certain facets of Berlin's recent urban development. Although not unitary, the élite takes the lead in presenting arguments and plans for the regeneration of historically specific sites in the centre of Germany's capital.