Structures of Memory
Subtitle: Understanding Urban Change in Berlin and Beyond (Cultural Memory in the Present)
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: April 12, 2006
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780804752763
Subjects: European history: postwar, from c 1945 -; Urban communities; Social Science; Land use; Sociology; Germany; Public Policy - City Planning & Urban Dev; Sociology - Urban; Social Science / Sociology / Urban; Berlin; City planning; Memorials
Description: "In many different parts of the world people cordon off sites of great suffering or great heroism from routine use and employ these sites exclusively for purposes of remembrance. The author of this book turns to the landscape of contemporary Berlin in order to understand how some places are forgotten by all but eyewitnesses, whereas others become the sites of public ceremonies, museums, or commemorative monuments. The places examined mark the city's Nazi past and are often rendered off limits to use for apartments, shops, or offices. However, only a portion of all "authentic" sites--places with direct connections to acts of resistance or persecution during the Nazi era--actually become designated as places of official collective memory. Others are simply reabsorbed into the quotidian landscape. Remembering leaves its marks on the skin of the city, and the goal of this book is to analyze and understand precisely how." -- Publisher's description