Construing Berlin
Jörn Scheer
Abstract
The capital city of Prussia since the 13th century, Berlin became the
capital of then unified Germany only in 1871. It has seen the heyday of
Imperial Germany, was not affected much by World War I, became the centre
of the first German democracy - the "Weimar Republic" - in the Roaring
Twenties, was Hitler´s metropolis in the Thirties, and payed the
price by near complete destruction during the firestorms of World War II.
And then it became The Divided City for 44 years. 10 years after The Fall
of the Wall, the Federal Government of Bonn has moved to the old/new capital
just now. This multifaceted history has provided ample grounds for controversial
constructions of Berlin and the Berliners, abroad as well as in Germany
it-self.
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