Images of Berlin at the End of History
In the post-historical period there will be neither art nor philosophy, just a perpetual caretaking of the museum of human history.
–– F. Fukuyama, The End of History
The devastation of Berlin's urban form and social systems in the 20th century, and subsequent deconstruction of it history, have been so total and so devastating that redeeming the city's wholeness is a monumental challenge for urban planning. Even if Fukuyama is right about history having ended with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the conscience of history will continue to foment in Berlin for some time to come.
In March of 2003, sixteen graduate students from the School of Policy, Planning and Development visited Berlin as part of an international development and planning laboratory/workshop (led by Professor Tridib Banerjee), to collaborate with students from the Technische Universitat Berlin on the redevelopment of Berlin's Templehof Airport. Although we were researching context for a specific project, it was not long before our collective documentation began to reveal the city's contradictions, historical ironies and startling transformation beneath the development juggernaut.
For the foreseeable future, it is almost certain that Berlin will have no respite for the "caretaking" of its "museum of history." Rather, as these photographs and maps attest, the story of Berlin's torment and subsequent redevelopment has given birth to an entirely new host of tensions: between the banality of shopping malls and the artifice of reconstructed monuments; between the ghosts of nationalism and the quest for authenticity; between globalization and cultural continuity; between condemnation and redemption.
The Berlin laboratory/workshop and this exhibition were supported by grants from: The Checkpoint Charlie Foundation of Berlin; The USC Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBEAR); The Lusk Center for Real Estate; and, the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development.