OST: Architecture Conflict Occupation
Our perception of Berlin has for decades been influenced by mass media and propaganda. The city has become synonymous with the word conflict. Trashy war films continue to trivialise and glamourise war, rarely exploring the true consequences and aftermath of conflict.
Over the past decade Berlin has gone through a dramatic process of gentrification and has all but swept away the visible signs of past conflict and post war Soviet occupation. The impact of regeneration within Berlin has meant that the boundaries between East and West have become blurred and sanitised to the extent that events which occurred in the 20th century are fast becoming the stuff of history books.
However, beyond the city the ageing population and high unemployment within the regional towns and villages of what was East Germany (Deutsche Democratic Republik) has led to a slower rate of change and development. The architecture still displays scars in the form of bullet holes and extensive bomb damage. There remains an air of decay and loss, areas of wasteland punctuate the landscape. Monolithic apartment blocks with their damaged and aged facades stand opposite deserted factories overrun with fauna and foliage. Abandoned military bases lost within deep forests are slowly becoming reclaimed by nature. The evidence of their former occupants found in the form of discarded uniforms, scraps of wallpaper and photos of a loved one’s abandoned yet still pinned to the back of a door.
Our perception of Berlin has for decades been influenced by mass media and propaganda. The city has become synonymous with the word conflict. Trashy war films continue to trivialise and glamourise war, rarely exploring the true consequences and aftermath of conflict.
Over the past decade Berlin has gone through a dramatic process of gentrification and has all but swept away the visible signs of past conflict and post war Soviet occupation. The impact of regeneration within Berlin has meant that the boundaries between East and West have become blurred and sanitised to the extent that events which occurred in the 20th century are fast becoming the stuff of history books.
However, beyond the city the ageing population and high unemployment within the regional towns and villages of what was East Germany (Deutsche Democratic Republik) has led to a slower rate of change and development. The architecture still displays scars in the form of bullet holes and extensive bomb damage. There remains an air of decay and loss, areas of wasteland punctuate the landscape. Monolithic apartment blocks with their damaged and aged facades stand opposite deserted factories overrun with fauna and foliage. Abandoned military bases lost within deep forests are slowly becoming reclaimed by nature. The evidence of their former occupants found in the form of discarded uniforms, scraps of wallpaper and photos of a loved one’s abandoned yet still pinned to the back of a door.