To understand just how brutal and unnatural the division of the city was, it is necessary to take a closer look at the city of Berlin itself. And to understand the city of 1961, it will become apparent why, we must dive a bit deeper into its history.
After becoming the capital of the newly-founded German Empire in 1871, Berlin witnessed an immensely rapid growth. Its population skyrocketed from 931,000 in 1871 to 3,734,000 in 1910 to 4,300,000 in 1939. Its new political role had made it an attractive location for new industries, businesses and culture. Poor working-class suburbs like Rixdorf (Renamed to Neukölln in 1912) or Wedding, and wealthy ones like Charlottenburg, Wilmerdorf or Steglitz emerged and gradually grew together with Berlin proper, which until then had its western city limit at the Brandenburg Gate, now located directly in the city centre.
Vibrant urban life concentrated itself among several urban centres; Alexanderplatz in the historic centre of Berlin, Potsdamer Platz to its southwest, and the New West at the intersection of the then-suburbs of Schöneber, Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf. Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Platz were mostly heavily frequented traffic junctions – in fact, Alexanderplatz was the busiest square in the world in its heyday – and boasted expensive stores, hotels and nightclubs. The New West only emerged in the early 1900s, when new high-profile cafés, theatres and warehouses (the Kaufhaus des Westens, Warehouse of the West remaining the largest warehouse in continental Europe) opened along the Kurfürstendamm or Ku’damm, a major street in proximity to the Berlin Zoo, west of Berlin proper. It became mostly a centre of cultural and artistic life of the urban bourgeoisie.
In 1920, the major suburbs were incorporated to the city of Berlin itself, making the population hit the 4 million mark, which to this day it has not reached again. The 1920s became Berlin’s golden years, with its cultural significance eclipsing even Paris and London. Germany’s biggest contemporary authors and artists lived and worked here, and the Babelsberg film studios produced legendary cinematographic classics such as Nosferatu, Metropolis and The Blue Angel.
Socially, Berlin remained in turmoil since the days of industrialisations. The working class suburbs and boroughs were strongholds of Social Democrats and Communists, mostly because of the pitiful living conditions many workers had to endure. In Wedding, some tenements had up to six courts, and for a while Rixdorf was the most densely populated town in the world. These conditions only slowly improved, in particular when the National Socialists came to power and intended to remove Communist breeding grounds.
Speaking of the Nazis, their plans for Berlin, particularly Albert Speer’s megalomania, are well-known. Only very few building projects were actually started, mostly in the government quarter. Today, a few Nazi buildings can still be seen in the city, including the Tempelhof airport (the third biggest building in the world by square metres), the Olympic Stadium and the former ministry of aeronautics, now ministry of finances. Hitler’s dream to create a city that could compete with ancient Athens or Rome was however fulfilled in a macabre way. Like ancient Rome, Berlin lay in ruins in 1945.
Berlin’s destruction was concentrated to the city’s centre, around the government quarter. The heaviest hit boroughs were Mitte, Charlottenburg, Tiergarten, Wedding, Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain – these were affected by strategic bombing. Nevertheless, nearly every part of the city suffered heavy destruction at least from the house-to-house fighting in the final days of the War. When the fighting was finally over, the city was so devastated that an American soldier remarked it could not possibly ever be rebuilt. Especially the three aforementioned centres of Alexanderplatz, the New West and mostly Potsdamer Platz were levelled. The population of 4,3 million in 1939 had been reduced to 2,8 million.
Nevertheless, reconstruction began. First, the city was cleared of rubble by the so-called “rubble women” (Trümmerfrauen). It was a lot of rubble, by contemporary estimations 60 million cubic metres, amounting to 15% of all of Germany’s post-war rubble. It was turned into a number of Schuttberge, or rubble mounds, with the 115 metre high Teufelsberg in Grunewald forest being the biggest. Incidentally, the NSA installed a listening station of major strategic importance on Teufelsberg during the Cold War.
Authorities managed to revitalise Berlin, obviously under the impression of division. While it was still one city, East German authorities rebuilt the area around Alexanderplatz into its representative centre (with many Stalinist buildings along the Karl-Marx-Allee), while western authorities turned the New West in to the “Western world’s showcase”, heavily funding new building projects here. Potsdamer Platz was not rebuilt, because it lay in the border area of western and eastern sectors, and it turned into a strange wasteland in the heart of the city. By 1961, living standards in both parts of Berlin had again improved, even if ruins and facades pierced with bullet-holes were still a common sight. The Wall did not halt this process of regeneration, but it did steer it into new, curious directions.
After becoming the capital of the newly-founded German Empire in 1871, Berlin witnessed an immensely rapid growth. Its population skyrocketed from 931,000 in 1871 to 3,734,000 in 1910 to 4,300,000 in 1939. Its new political role had made it an attractive location for new industries, businesses and culture. Poor working-class suburbs like Rixdorf (Renamed to Neukölln in 1912) or Wedding, and wealthy ones like Charlottenburg, Wilmerdorf or Steglitz emerged and gradually grew together with Berlin proper, which until then had its western city limit at the Brandenburg Gate, now located directly in the city centre.
Vibrant urban life concentrated itself among several urban centres; Alexanderplatz in the historic centre of Berlin, Potsdamer Platz to its southwest, and the New West at the intersection of the then-suburbs of Schöneber, Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf. Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Platz were mostly heavily frequented traffic junctions – in fact, Alexanderplatz was the busiest square in the world in its heyday – and boasted expensive stores, hotels and nightclubs. The New West only emerged in the early 1900s, when new high-profile cafés, theatres and warehouses (the Kaufhaus des Westens, Warehouse of the West remaining the largest warehouse in continental Europe) opened along the Kurfürstendamm or Ku’damm, a major street in proximity to the Berlin Zoo, west of Berlin proper. It became mostly a centre of cultural and artistic life of the urban bourgeoisie.
In 1920, the major suburbs were incorporated to the city of Berlin itself, making the population hit the 4 million mark, which to this day it has not reached again. The 1920s became Berlin’s golden years, with its cultural significance eclipsing even Paris and London. Germany’s biggest contemporary authors and artists lived and worked here, and the Babelsberg film studios produced legendary cinematographic classics such as Nosferatu, Metropolis and The Blue Angel.
Socially, Berlin remained in turmoil since the days of industrialisations. The working class suburbs and boroughs were strongholds of Social Democrats and Communists, mostly because of the pitiful living conditions many workers had to endure. In Wedding, some tenements had up to six courts, and for a while Rixdorf was the most densely populated town in the world. These conditions only slowly improved, in particular when the National Socialists came to power and intended to remove Communist breeding grounds.
Speaking of the Nazis, their plans for Berlin, particularly Albert Speer’s megalomania, are well-known. Only very few building projects were actually started, mostly in the government quarter. Today, a few Nazi buildings can still be seen in the city, including the Tempelhof airport (the third biggest building in the world by square metres), the Olympic Stadium and the former ministry of aeronautics, now ministry of finances. Hitler’s dream to create a city that could compete with ancient Athens or Rome was however fulfilled in a macabre way. Like ancient Rome, Berlin lay in ruins in 1945.
Berlin’s destruction was concentrated to the city’s centre, around the government quarter. The heaviest hit boroughs were Mitte, Charlottenburg, Tiergarten, Wedding, Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain – these were affected by strategic bombing. Nevertheless, nearly every part of the city suffered heavy destruction at least from the house-to-house fighting in the final days of the War. When the fighting was finally over, the city was so devastated that an American soldier remarked it could not possibly ever be rebuilt. Especially the three aforementioned centres of Alexanderplatz, the New West and mostly Potsdamer Platz were levelled. The population of 4,3 million in 1939 had been reduced to 2,8 million.
Nevertheless, reconstruction began. First, the city was cleared of rubble by the so-called “rubble women” (Trümmerfrauen). It was a lot of rubble, by contemporary estimations 60 million cubic metres, amounting to 15% of all of Germany’s post-war rubble. It was turned into a number of Schuttberge, or rubble mounds, with the 115 metre high Teufelsberg in Grunewald forest being the biggest. Incidentally, the NSA installed a listening station of major strategic importance on Teufelsberg during the Cold War.
Authorities managed to revitalise Berlin, obviously under the impression of division. While it was still one city, East German authorities rebuilt the area around Alexanderplatz into its representative centre (with many Stalinist buildings along the Karl-Marx-Allee), while western authorities turned the New West in to the “Western world’s showcase”, heavily funding new building projects here. Potsdamer Platz was not rebuilt, because it lay in the border area of western and eastern sectors, and it turned into a strange wasteland in the heart of the city. By 1961, living standards in both parts of Berlin had again improved, even if ruins and facades pierced with bullet-holes were still a common sight. The Wall did not halt this process of regeneration, but it did steer it into new, curious directions.
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