IN SIGHT BUT OUT OF MIND: 
 
THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEMORY AT THREE ONCE STIGMATIZED SITES 
 

 
 
By
 
 
Stephen Paul Naumann
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A DISSERTATION
 
 
Submitted to
 
Michigan State University
 
in partial fulfillment of the requirements 
 
for
 
the degree of
 
 
Doctor of Philosophy
 
 
German Studies
 
 
2012
 
 
 
ABSTRACT
 
 
IN SIGHT BUT OUT OF MIND: 
 
THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEMORY AT THREE ONCE STIGMATIZED SITES 
 

 
 
By
 
 
Stephen Paul Naumann
 
 
This study
 
explores cultural identity reflected in the urban landscape at three structures formerly 
id
entified with National Socialism

Olympiastadion 
(Olympic Stadium) and 
Siegessäule
 

 
Zamek cesarski
 
(formerly 
Kaiserschloss
 

 
or Imperial Castle). 
My 
analysis
 
is based on 
local and state archival work, as well as the examination of 
literary
,
 
visual 
and media 
sources in bot
h Germany and Poland.
 
I conclude that 
after the structures were 
first used to project meaning from Cold War t
ropes, both 
tourism and the 
enhancement 
of local 
identity 
in the face of European and global influences eventually 
contributed to the shift in 
meaning at these 
spaces 
in both cities. 
 

Zamek cesarski
, a palace first commissioned by German Kaiser Wi
lhelm II, 
became, with its dedication in 1910, a monument to Prussian
-
German imperialism in this multi
-
ethnic Polish
-
German
-
Jewish city. Rededicated by the new Polish republic after World War I, 

se. One of their most prominent 
additions is still visible today: the 
Führerbalkon
, a balcony extending off the front of the 
building for Hitler to watch military parades. After 1945, the partially damaged neo
-
Romanesque 
building was repaired and maintaine
d by the Polish postwar administration, and today serves 
citizens as the multifaceted 

 

physical space surrounding the building has been drastically changed, as a number of Polish 
monuments and memoria

Olympiastadion
 
and the 
Siegessäule
, despite their design and function as sites of German history 
and national memory, are increasingly associated today with the city of Berlin. Both have hosted
 
a number of cultural events: the stadium has maintained its function to this day, while the 
monument was first neglected and decades later became associated with a number of 
popular 
events in the reunified capital. 
 


each structure, I center my work on each site in its post
-
1945 landscape. I analyze the debates on 
whether or not to purge the structures from the urban landscape and examine questions of 
appearance, utiliz
ation and repurposing during the decades of the Cold War. Finally, I describe 

depiction in cultural texts that have also had an impact on the public perception of the 
three 

 
Examining sites with a similar past in 
both 
cities also allows a comparative look at 
memory trends in 
Germany and Poland 

 
two nations where decisions regarding memorialization 
and urban development have been car
efully scrutinized in the public sph
ere.
 
In addition to 
contributing to the growing field of work on the use of public space to establish cultural memory, 
this project demonstrates processes by which even the most meaningful 
cultural associations 
can 
be re
written.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright by
 
STEPHEN PAUL NAUMANN
 
2012
 
 
v
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
To my loving parents
 
 
 
vi
 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
 
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the institutions and individuals for their important 
roles in helping me bring this project to fruition. I received g
enerous funding from the Uni
ted 
States Department of Education in the form of a 
Fulbright Doctoral Dis
sertation Research 
Abroad grant
, The Kosciuszko Foundation, and The Graduate School at Michigan State 
University
 
(MSU)
, who
 
supported my research in Pozna

and Berlin for two 
academic 
years and 
a summer. Additional funding from 

German Studies Program;
 
Department of Linguistics 
and
 
Germanic, Slavic, Asian & African Languages;
 
and College of Arts & Letters supported my 
work with the Polish language for 
several summers in Pozna

 
during my graduate education. I 
am 
indebted to the wonderful teachers, colleagues and friends at The School of Polish Language 
and Culture for Foreign Students at Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU). 
M
r
.
 
Marek G
óralczyk 
in particular 
hel
ped me understand more than any
 
of my books could. 
 
 
Dr. 

le as both friend and mentor, giving me an academic 
home 
in Pozna


Dr. 
Tomasz Mizerkiewicz, a wonderful scholar 
and friend, gave me the oppo
rtunity to share my work with his students on various occasions. 
Mr. 
Janusz Pazder, who knows more about the Zamek than anyone, kept me up to date on the 
latest events 
at 


and scholarly sources on 
the buil
ding. He also
 

Director Henryk Krystek at
 
Archiwum Pa

stwowe w Poznaniu (
State Archives in Pozna

)
 
was 
both kind and welcoming and the archival staff was incredibly efficient and eternally patient. 
The 
scholars and 

Raczy

 
as well
 
as at Instytut Zachodni 
were equally efficient, helpful and supportive. 
vii
 
 
Special thanks to 
Mr. 
Jakub Skutecki 
at 

Special Collections Department 
for sharing his 
digital collection. 

 
Zabytków 

valuable 
visual archives. 
 
 
In Berlin the 
professionals 
at the 
Landesarchiv Berlin
 
were 
unbelievably kind and 
knowledgeable, particularly Ms. Monika Bartszch
, Ms. Monika Fr
öhlich and Mr.
 
Peter Seeme
l. 
Dr. Werner Breunig shared his expertise on the OMGUS archives from post
-
war occupied 
Berlin. 

provided me with a number of fascinating sources. 
The Bundesarchiv staff in Ko
blenz as well as 
those at the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz and the Zentrum für Berlin
-
Studien 
in the Haus Berliner Stadtbibliothek are deserving o
f special thanks as well. 
 
Thank you
 
to Dr. Heinrich Schwendemann 
and Dr. Gregor Thum 
in Fre
iburg, and to Dr. 
Christian Myschor and Piotr Grzelczak in Pozna

 
for their 
invaluable insights, suggestions and 
feedback. 
My dear friends Marko Andric, Johannes Ehrmann, Christian Kerpal and Chr
istian 
Schewe provided me with
 
somewhere 
to stay during my frequent visits 
to Berlin 
and were 
always 
ready 
to kick the footba
ll when I needed to take my mind off work for a couple hours.
 
 
The
 
four members of my dissertation committee 

 
Dr. Patrick McConeghy, Dr. Elizabeth 
Mittman and Dr. Keely Stauter
-
Halsted, and my chair, Dr. George Peters, were always there for 
me
. They helpe
d me explore this interdisciplinary project from their respective areas of 
expertise, and their 
criti
que, encouragement and insight helped me shape the project into what it 
is today. 
I am also grateful to the 
German Studies faculty 
and 
my fellow graduate s
tudents at 
Michigan State University
 
for their ideas
 
and unwavering support
. 
My students
 
and colleagues at
 
Transylvania University, especially Dr. Richard Weber, shared their ideas and 
encouragement, 
and provided me with a wonderful atmosphere for teaching
 
and research 
this year while I 
viii
 
 
finished my writing. 
In addition to speaking to students at AMU, I had the opportunity to share 
my work at stimulating conferences hosted by Purdue University, Vanderbilt University, the 
University of Kentucky, and Centrum
 
Turystyki Kulturowej TRAKT in Pozna

. 
 
Special thanks to 
Mr. Zbigniew Antczak, Pastor Bernhard Felmberg, Mr. Janusz Pazder, 

Szczepanowska for sharing their time and insi
ghts with me in interviews, and to Mr. Dariusz 
Krakowiak, Ms. Anna Piku

Mr. Viktor Pawlowski, Mr. G
ü
nter Schneider, Landesarchiv 
Berlin, Miejski Konserwator Zabytk
ó
w in Pozna

d Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu for 
graciously allowing me to use their visual
 
materials. 
 
 
 
Finally, thank you to my parents and family, who have always been with me throughout 
my travels, and to Agata and her family for
 
g
i
v
i
n
g
 
m
e
 
a
 
home in
 

 
 
 
 
ix
 
 
NOTE TO 
THE 
READER
 
 
Because this dissertation, at least in its initial version, 
has been written for the field of German 
Studies, all German
-
language sources have been cited in the original. Polish
-
language sources 
have been translated into English and the original has been provided in a footn
ote. 
 
In an effort to avoid over
-
translati
on
, 
I 
refer to 
place names 
in
 
their
 
original language, 
particularly for 
the many 
buildings, streets, landmarks and urban sites
 
that are an important part 
of this study
. For place names in Polish and 
other 
languages other than German, I 
have 
provide
d
 
an Eng
lish translation in parentheses immediately following the first instance.
 
I made a few 
exceptions in the interest of readability, referring occasionally to a longer name or institution 
directly in English. In regard to the three structures on which the dis
sertation is based, I generally 
use their current names: Zamek cesarski, Olympiastadion and the Siegessäule. 
When discussing 
specific historical periods when structures or cities had names other than their current ones, I use 
the form used by the prevailin
g political authorities of that respective era. 
 
 
 
x
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
 
LIST OF FIGURES
 
  
 
x
i
i
 
KEY TO 
ABBREVIATIONS
 
  
x
i
v
 
CHAPTER 1
 
 
 
Forgetting the Past: The Rewriting of Collective Memory
 
    
 
1
 
 
I
.
 
  
Introductory Scenes
 
 
 

 
    
 
1
 
 
 
Berlin, May 20, 2011
 
    
 
3
 
 
 
Berlin, July 9, 2006
 
    
 
5
 
 
II. 
  
Methodological Approach to Defining Three Spaces
 
     
6
 
 
 
III.
 
Interpreting Meaning: A Hermeneutic Approach
 
   
11
 
 
IV. Temporal and Global Effects on Collective Memory
 
   
14
 
 
V.   Musealizat
ion and the Promotion of the Local
 
   
17
 
 
VI. Two Paths Diverged: Memorialization and Forgetting
 
   
19
 
 
VII. Comparative Contexts: German and Polish Memory Tropes
 
   
21
 
 
 
CHAPTER 2
 

-
Socialist T
riumph
 
  
 
27
 
 
I. 
  
Introductory Scenes
 
 
 

3
 
   
27
 
 
 
Berlin, May 15, 1939
 
   
29
 
 
 
Berlin, April 20, 1939
 
   
31
 
 
II. Three Sites Appealing to National Socialists
 
   
33
 
 

 
 
 
The Schloss as Symbol of Germa
n Nationalism in the East
 
   
34
 
 
IV. Architecture under National Socialism
 
   
39
 
 
V. 
  

 
   
43
 
 
VI. Public Sentiment before and during the Third Reich
 
   
51
 
 
CHAPTER 3
 
Survival of the Unfit: Bureaucracy and Logistics Trump Postwar Emotion
 
  
 
56
 
 
I. 
  
Introductory Scenes
 
 
 

 
   
56
 
 
 
Berlin, Summer 1945
 
   
59
 
 
 
Berlin, February 15, 1947
 
   
61
 
 
II. 
 
The Value o
f Built Space in Post
-
war Urban Planning
 
   
62
 
 
III. Saved by the Guillotine: A Castle without its Cap
 
   
65
 
 

es?
 
   
74
 
 
V. 
  
The British Military Administration Moves into the Olympic Complex
 
   
76
 
 
VI. The Angel of Victory Survives French Lobbying 
 
 
 
and the Allied Control Council
 
   
79
 
xi
 
 
 
VII. 
Conclusion: Function before Form
 
   
93
 
 
CHAPTER 4
 
Time Heals all Wound
s? The Acquisition of Alternate Meaning
 
  
 
96
 
 
I. 
  
Introductory Scenes
 
 
 
 

 
   
96
 
 
 
Berlin, August 22, 1951
 
100
 
 
 
Berlin, May 1949 / October 1983
 
101
 
 
II. 
 
The Construction of Memory on the 
Tabula Rasa
 
102
 
 
III. Zamek Cesarski
 
104
 
 
IV. Olympiastadion
 
116
 
 
V. 
  
Sieges
säule
 
132
 
 
CHAPTER 5
 

 
From Nationally Forgotten to Locally Remembered
 
146
 
 
I. 
  
Introductory Scenes: Latent Memory and the Physical Presence of the Past
 
 
 
 
Berlin, April 13, 1992
 
146
 
 
 
Berlin, July 24, 2008
 
151
 
 
 
Pozna

, Summer 2009
 
155
 
 
II. 
 
The Invisible Monument
 
158
 
 
III. T
he Acquisition of Alternate Meaning
 
166
 
 
IV. 
Tourism, Globalization and the Role of Local Identity 
 
 
 
in the Twenty
-
first Century
 
168
 
 
V. 
  

 
174
 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 
181
 
 
 
 
xii
 
 
LIST
 
OF 
FIGURES
 
 
Figure 1.1
 
Zamek cesarski postcard
 
  
  
2
 
Figure
 
1.2
 
Siegess
äule
 
following 2011 reopening
 
  
  
4
 
Figure 1.3
 
Olympiastadion seen from the Glockenturm
 
  
  
6
 
Figure 2.1
 

ührerbalkon

 
  
28
 
Figure 2.2
 
Olympiastadion in 1936
 
  
30
 
Figure 2.3
 
Siegess
äule
 
with National Socialist flag
s
 
  
32
 
Figure 2.4
 
Three women in front of the Siegess
äule
, 1920
 
  
46
 
Figure 3.1
 
Zamek
 
in the last days of World War II in Pozna

 
 
  
58
 
Figure 3.2
 
Siegess
äule
 
frieze during the 2011 
rededication
 
  
60
 
Figure 3.3
 
Recovery of the 1936 Olympic bell in 1956
 
  
61
 
Figure 3.4
 

 
  
70
 
Figure 3.5
 
England
-
West Germany youth match at Olympiastadion, 1967
 
  
78
 
Figure 3.6
 
Allied military parade 
in front of the Siegessäule
 
  
82
 
Figure 3.7
 
Soviet soldier in fro
nt of the Si
egessäule, 1946
 
  
84
 
Figure 3.8
 
The Oly
mpic complex in winter 1947
 
  
97
 
Figure 4.1
 
Mickiewicz Square in Pozna

 
110
 
Figure 4.2
 
The Enigma memorial
 

 
114
 
Figure 4.3
 
Two National Socialist re
liefs at the Olympic complex
 
128
 
Figure 4.
4
 
U2 con
cert at Olympiastadion, 2005
 
130
 
Figure 4.5
 


 
131
 
Figure 4.6
 
Nostalgic postcard depicting the Sieges
säule
 
134
 
xiii
 
 
Figure 4.7
 
Siegessäule a
nd the Tiergarten from above
 
144
 
Figure 5.1
 
Olympiastadion and it
s new roof from the inside
 
148
 
Figure 5.2
 
Olympiastadion 
Choreo
 
during 2006 World Cup
 
150
 
Figure 5.3
 
Barack Obama speaks in fron
t of the Siegessäule in 2008
 
152
 
Figure 5.4
 
1944 inscription discover
ed in 2010 in Zamek cesarski
 
157
 
Figure 5.5
 
The 
Ehrentafel
 
at Olympiastadion
 
160
 
Figure 5.6
 
Jesse Owens and Sohn Kee
-
chung 
remembered at Olympiastadion
 
161
 
Figure 5.7
 

th
 
anniversary
 
165
 
Figure 5.8
 
Two visitors rela
x in front of Olympiastadion
 
170
 
Figure 5.9
 
Zame
k cesarski with 100
th
 
anniversary poster, 2010
 
173
 
Figure 5.10
 
Zamek cesarski w
ith Polish flag at half mast
 
180
 
 
 
xiv
 
 
KEY
 
TO
 
ABBREVIATIONS
 
 
ARCHIVES
 
APP
 
 

 
BArch
-
B
 
Bundesarchiv, Berlin
 
BArch
-
K
 
Bundesarchiv, Koblenz
 
BArch
-
FA
 
Bundesarchiv, Filmabteilung, Berlin
 
BR
 
 

 
BU
 
 
Biblioteka Uniwersytecka
 
w Poznaniu
, Ad

 
GSA
 
 
Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin
-
Dahlem
 
IZ
 
 

 
LAB
 
 
Landesarchiv Berlin
 
MKZ
 
 

 
MNP
 
 
Muzeum Narodowe w P
oznaniu
 
Stabi
 
 
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz
 
ZBS
 
 
Z
entrum f
ür Berlin
-
Studien, Haus Berliner Stadtbibliothek
 
 
NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS
 
Ab
 
 
Der Abend 
(American newspaper in Berlin, 1946
-
1981)
 
BM
 
 
Berliner Morgenpost
 
BZ
 
 
Berliner Zeitung
 
DU
 
 

 
FAZ
 
 
Frankfurter Allgemeine Z
eitung
 
xv
 
 
Foc
 
 
Focus Online
 
GWlkp
 
 

 
GWyb
 
 
Gazeta Wyborcza
 
HB
 
 
Handelsblatt
 
Ku
 
 
Der Kurier 
(
French 
newspaper in
 
Berlin
, 1945
-
1966)
 
ND
 
 
Neues Deutschland
 
NZ
 
 
Die neue Zeitung
 
(
American 
newspaper in
 
Germany, 1945
-
1955)
 
PDW
 
 

jewódzki
 
Rz
 
 
Rzeczpospolita
 
Si
m
 
 
Si
mplicissimus
 
Sp
 
 
Der Spiegel
 
SpO
 
 
Spiegel Online
 
SpO
-
Intl
 
Spiegel Online International
 
(English language edition)
 
Taz
 
 
Die Tageszeitung
 
Te
 
 
Der Telegraf
 
(British newspaper in Germany)
 
Ti
 
 
The Times
 
Tsp
 
 
Der Tagesspiegel
 
Z
fB
 
 
Zentralblatt 
der Bauverwaltung
 
Zt
 
 
Die Zeit
 
1
 
 
CHAPTER
 
1
 
Forget
ting
 
the Past: 
The Rewriting of Collective Memory
 
Das Vergangene ist nicht tot; es ist nicht einmal vergangen. 
 
Wir trennen es von uns ab und stellen uns fremd.
 
-
 
Christa Wolf, 
Kindheitsmuster 
(11)
 
 
 
I.
 
 
Introductory Scenes
 

, A
ugust 20,
 
2010
 
It was a warm August evening, and a crowd waited with anticipation for the band to take the 
stage. The sun had dipped below the horizon, and the pale sandstone façade now appeared 
brighter than the sky above. Several hundred had crowded inside the ca
stle grounds, where the 
concert would be held in the beautiful Rose Courtyard. 
O
utside the courtyard gates 
many others 
still hoped
 


 
for a mere hundred 
groszy
, about 35 
cents. Headlining was the Spanish flame
nco band, 
elbicho

anniversary celebration.
 
On this day
 

 

 
the Imperial Palace
, originally
 
Königliches Residenz
schloss
 
or Kaiserschloss
 

 
turned 100 years old, and Polish cultural leaders 
had organiz
ed this concert to commemorate the 
1910 visit of the 
German Kaiser
,
 
Wilhelm II
,
 
for 
the dedication of this palace, 
the 
cornerstone of a brand new district designed to elevate the 

1
 
Begin
ning i
n 1939
,
 
the 
castle was
 
redesigned
 

-

Reichsg
au Wartheland

 

 
beginning 
a reign of terror that lasted
 
six years
 
in the region 
and will never be forgotten
.
 
 
                                        
        
 
1
 
Historians use the term 
Hebungspolitik
 

the East, whereby he aimed to present what he felt was a German cultural superiority through 
architecture and urban planning.
 
2
 
 
 
Figure 1.1. A 2011 postcard depicts Zamek cesarski. 
Produced by DDK Edition, Pozna

; 
photograph by Dariusz Krakowiak. 
Used by permission. 
For interpretation of the references to 
color in this and all other figures, the reader is referred to the electronic 
version of this 
dissertation.
 
 
After an energetic concert and a few words by Mayor Ryszard Grobelny and 
Centrum 
Kultury
 

Zamek

 

director,
 
Marek Racza
k
, fireworks lit up the now 
dark sky. Music accompanied the pyrotechnic display 

 


Carmina Burana
. One 
might be
 
tempted to 

the past hundred years at this space, 
if 
stan
ding there, listening to the fireworks pop and bang, 
looking up at the violent flashes of color streak across the sky over the shadowy gray façade of 
the fortress that changed hands four times since Wilhelm was presented with its key.
 
 
C
ommemoration is 
cer
tainly 
an important part of the Polish way of life
, but what could 
cause 
Poles 
to commemorate the symbol of 
G
ermanization
 
in 


?
 

, urging 
Po
les to
 
accept 
the castle 
as their own, 
was unmistakably 

Today, more and more often, this is truly a Polish Zamek, this is our Zamek, this is our 
3
 
 
Centrum Kultury 

Zamek.

 
This is an element of 

 
of which we are genuinely very 

2
 
Has the 
building 
truly 
been 
reconciled with the contemporary 
Polish 
city? Does 
his
 

embracing the Zamek as their own?
 
 
Berlin, May 20, 2011
 
On a sunny day in May, 
members of the
 
Berlin
 
press gather
ed
 
around the base of the Siegessäule 
(Victory Column) 
in the capital

leafy 
Tiergarten. 
On this day, 
after a year and a half of hiding 
behind scaffolding, the 
well
-
known 
Goldelse
 

 

golden Viktoria statue atop t
he column 

 
was 
once again presented to
 
her city
. She 
was 
dressed 
for the occasion in a brand new coat of Schwabacher gold leaf 

 
over one kilogram. The 
monument stands nearly 70 meters high and 
the 
285 steps up the column
 
reward
 
tourists 
with a 
memorable
 
view of the German capital. 
The j
ournalists snack
ed
 
on 
local Berlin 

while bartenders pour
ed
 
them compli
mentary glasses of 
Berliner Pilsner and champagne 
from 
Lutter und Wegner
. A four
-
person accordion ensemble dressed in modest 
fin de siècl
e
 
garb 
played
 
buoyant
 
period 
tunes from a century ago. Before he and 
M
ayor
 
Klaus Wowereit
 
spoke
, 
Carsten Spallek, an economic councilman 
for Berlin
-
Mitte
,
 
first took 
questions from 
a small 
enclave
 
of journalists representing the wide spectrum of the capita

sources. Asked about the c
omplicated past of the monument
, Spallek answered
: 
 


glaube
,
 
dass die Siegessäule eine ganz andere Bedeutung hat. Auch durch die
 
positive Wirkung der Veranstaltungen die wieder drum hier passieren und die 
                                        
        
 
2
 

, to jest nasz Zamek, to 


The speech was given in the Rose Courtyard behind the Zamek following the 
concert, on August 20, 2010. 
 
4
 
 
immer wieder im Bilde sind. Zähl es, es ist die Love Parade, die Fanmeilen, 
Berliner Marathon und CSD
3
...von einem Kriegerdenkmal zu einem Symbol einer 
offenen, toleranten und rei
senswerten Stadt....Das ist eine Sache was auch heute 
gefeiert werden sollte.
4
 
 
Is this plausi
ble?
 

were invested in a painstaking renovation that included cleansing 
of the 
Germania 
mosaic and a new layer of 24
-
karat gold leaf for Viktoria, the goddess of 
victory. The monument 
has been
 
restored 
to 
and preserved in its authentic
 
form. Yet the form is 
not 
that of 
1873 when 
the monument 
was first unveiled as a tribute to Bismarckian expansion 
a
nd Prussian
-
forced Ge
rman unity, but rather
 
the form it was given under Albert Speer 

 
in 
1939
. 
The meaning, as Spallek encourages us, 
however, 
can be changed. 
 
 
Figure
 
1.2. The Siegessäule 
shone brightly 
on Ma
y 20, 2011, when
 
it was reintroduced to the 
press 
following a 17
-
month renovation 
project. 
The allegory of Viktoria and the cannons 
received a new layer of 24
-
karat gold leaf. Photograph by the author.
 
                                        
        
 
3
 
Christopher Street D
ay Parade
.
 
4
 
Press interview, May 20, 2011.  
 
5
 
 
 
Berlin, 
July 9, 2006
 
69
,000 
fans 

. 
An 
estimated 715 million 
watched via television 

 
gathered on the streets of Berlin and throughout 
Germany, certainly in 
both 
France and Italy, as well as all over Europe and throughout the 
world.
5
 
The lasting image of that match 
for all those who watche
d 

 
whether 
Zinedine 

stunning head
-
butt of 
Marco 
Materazzi or the Italian celebration after converting the clinching 
penalty kick 
after extra time 

 
has nothing to do with the stadium itself. Not even 
the 
British 
tabloid 
The Sun
 

 
often eager to use German football
6
 
as an excuse to reference the Nazis 

 
had 
a word
 
to say about
 
the 
National Socialist origins
 
of Olympiastadion
 
(Olympic Stadium)
.
7
 
Instead, the attention was on the teams and players, the 
match and 
result
, as well as an
 
unfortunate exchange between goal
-
scorers Zidane and Materazzi in the 110
th
 
minute.
 
 
Perhaps that is where the attention indeed ought to be at such an event
 
as the World Cup 
final
.
 
Within
 
the context of memory culture, however, the question
 
looms
: Were th
e host 

grounds 

 
stadium included 

 
have been held under 
Denkmalschutz
 
by the Ge
rman government 
                                        
        
 
5
 

260 million. 
<
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/germany2006/results/matches/match=97410064/report.h
tml
> (Last 
viewed 27 September
 
2011).
 
6
 
Throughout this work the term 
football 
is used in reference to European football, or soccer. In 
contrast, 
American football
 
is used to refer to the popular American game that was developed 
later in the United States.
 
7
 
The pape
r that has made frequent Nazi references in topics related to German football instead 

-
Italian final at Olympic 

with Italian striker, 
Alessandro Del Piero, as well as his plans to attend the match in Berlin in support of the Italian 
side. 
<
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/55100/Now
-
its
-
Wonderball.html
>
 
(Last viewed 27 September 2011).
 
6
 
 
since 1966
 
clearly demonstrates a will to protect the memory of t

 
(Kluge, 
Olympiastadion Berlin
 
177)
. 
Does that memory resonate with the public, or is it merely a 
political formality that is out of touch with 
contemporary 
society? 
 
 
Figure 1.3.
 
After completion in 2004 of renovation by Gerkan, Marg and Partner (gmp), which 
included a trademark new roof, Olympiastadion hosted the 2006 World Cup final. Here the 
stadium is shown on the eve of the 2011 final of the DFB
-
Pokal (German Football Assocat
ion 
Cup) between F.C. Schalke 04 and MSV Duisburg. Photograph by the author.
 
 
 
II
.
 
Methodological A
pproach to 
D
efining 
T
hree 
S
paces
 
This s
tudy examines three structures that 
were 
intently 
employed by the National Socialist 
regime as symbols of power and ideology. 
A
n
 
administrative
 
fortress
, a 
grand 
sporting facility 
and a 
pompous 
monument: these three structures 
were all designed to 
further the ideals of
 
German racial and ideological suprem
acy
 

 
in sport, in war and in 
governing newly acquired 
territory
. The structures 
intimidated c
itizens and opponents alike, while furthering the causes of
 
7
 
 
recruitment and propaganda. Military and party demonstrations were held at each site, and under 
the Na
zis 
the three sites were used to represent
 
the 

achievements, power and capability. 
 
Each of the three buildings exists today in the same place and in essentially the same 
form. More surprisingly, 
perhaps
,
 
the sites
 
are 
not shunned, but embraced by
 
citizens in 

and Berlin
, respectively
.
 
How did these three structures manage to survive during and after the 
fall of the Nazi regime?
 
Why do they no longer have the stigma they once had as prominent 
symbols of National Socialism? What happened to th
e meaning at these sites, and what does that 
demonstrate about the meaning of built space in the context of urban culture? 
Pursuing 
answers 
to these questions
 
will lead to 
a greater 
appreciation 
of the tr
ansient meanings of urban space, the 
influences of s
uch changes and the
ir
 
impact on
 
society. 
 
There are hundreds of buildings
 
either built or modified by the Nazi regime that are still 
in existence 

 
some shunned, some functional and others forgotten.
8
 
Fehrbelliner Platz is a 

-
1930s in the 
unmistakable National Socialist style: the uniform, imposing walls of cold, gray limestone. It 
houses a number of different entities today, incl
uding the film division of the Bundesarchiv. Yet 
though the complex housed government
-
controlled offices under the Nazis, they were low
-
profile and the building politically insignificant. Aside from an unflattering aesthetic, the only 
stigma associated wit
h the building is the date on its cornerstone. In other words, from then until 
now, there has been little change in function or perception.
 
The jagged edge of the Kaiser
-
Wilhelm
-
Gedächtniskirche 
clock tower
 
on 

serves today
 
as a constant reminder of the price paid for 
                                        
        
 
8
 
See, for e

Bauen unterm Hakenkreuz. Architektur 
des Untergangs 
(Vienna: 
Promedia
-

guides focusing on fewer, more prominent sights in slightly more detail, such as 
Archi
tecture in 
Berlin 1933 
-
 
1945: A Guide Through Nazi Berlin
 
(Berlin: Lukas
-
Verlag, 2006).
 
8
 
 
waging World War II.
 
Although
 
one cannot look at the church without remembering the war, the 


in the West Berlin 
district
.
9
 
The Detlev
-
Rohwedder
-
Haus 
on 
Wilhelmstraße
 

 

Ministry) 

 
is indeed representative Third Reich architecture that has survived intact. The 
massive building 
has not shed its Nazi associations, however, despite several significant 
functional changes.
 
One explanation may be the fact that the building has been continuously 
linked to authority and politics. 
 
Unlike the complex at Fehrbelliner Platz and the Kaiser
-
Wilhelm
-
Gedächtniskirche,
 
the 
three sites 
in this study were 
intended as 
symbols of National Socialism
,
 
a meaning that
 
was not 
merely happenstancial
: Hitler himself was actively concerned with the design of all three, 
making his own specific adjustments an
d specifications. The 
Kaiserschloss
 
in 

 
was 
originally a palace built to display the authority of the Kaiser 
in the midst of the aggressive 
G
ermanization of a city with a Polish population in the clear majority. Under the Nazis it 
immediately underwe
nt an expensive remodeling and was established as the political seat of 
Gauleiter Arthur Greiser and the Nazi regional administration. Olympi
as
tadi
on
 
and its 
surrounding complex hosted youth and political rallies, promoting the Nazi military through 
sport,
 
and hosted the 1936 Olympic Games, meant to present German fascism to the world and 

Siegessäule 
was dedicated in 1873 as a 


physically moved and its design altered in 1938
-
39
 
under the direction of Albert Speer, intending 

-
Year Reich.
 
                                        
        
 
9
 

district during late Weimar Berlin, see Rudy Koshar, 
From Monuments to Trace
s
 
113 ff.
 
9
 
 
Like the Detlev
-
Rohwedder
-
Haus, the three structures chosen
 
for this study also bore a 
political stigma after World War II, but their connections to politics were deemphasized
 
at some 
point
, which allowed each site to acquire alternate meaning(s). These three once powerful 
symbols have thus survived, and today are
 
not only fully functional but also embraced as 
important icons in the contemporary urban landscape. This study focuses on that transfer of 
meaning.
 
Sociologist 
Jennifer Jordan 
examines 

i.e., 
having no history wort
h noting at all) and those marked and recognized as memorial sites
 
(
15
)
. 
She points out a clear pattern of characteristics that memorial sites have in common before they 
become memorialized.
 




From Monuments to Traces
, 9), among others, Jordan 
devises a formula in which four conditions are necessary for an aut
hentic space to become 
memorialized. Looking at several dozen authentic sites in Berlin tied to the National Socialist 
past 

 
both memorial sites as well as those that have failed to be marked 

 
Jordan has shown that 
the successful
ly
 
memorialized site begi
ns as: (1) public
-
owned space that (2) is not currently in 
use and that (3) possesses meanings that resonate with a broader public audience (4) from whom 

absence of
 


 
With one 
particular 
characteristic 

 
having an advocate or 


 


 
In contrast to the sites Jordan examines
 

 
either marked out for remembrance or held in 
captive obscu
rity 

 
here 
I examine three places caught between multiple meanings and 
10
 
 
memories: the proud and the tragic; the national and the local; 
the political and the aesthetic. 
If 
Jordan investigated whether or not certain authentic sites are 
remembered
, the question I raise is 
whether or not the authentic past of three 
particular 
sites has been 
forgotten
. 
With an eye
 
towards 
the influences and ac
tors involved, 
I explore which (whose) 
memories have
 
prevailed
 
and which 
(whose) have subsided
, 
as well as those 
interpretation
s
 
that might 
survive into the future
. 
Furthermore, I suggest several reasons for these trends.
 
In tracing the meanings of these 
edifices
,
 
I will analyze 
the meaning of each structure in 
the following three categories: its function; its representation (i.e. its implied meaning); and its 
personal or social meaning (i.e. its perceived meaning). 

Olympiastadion
 
functions 
simulta
neously as both stadium and 
Denkmal
. It has never lost its original purpose though 
it 
has 
served many other functions along the way. Zamek cesarski has been royal residence, university, 
(briefly) hospital and administrative center, before now having served
 
nearly 50 years as cultural 
institution under two political systems. The Siegessäule
 
has always been a monument, today 
houses a 
museum
 
exhibit as well, but has in the past decade become every bit as well known as a 
backdrop for various events. All three s
tructures have been well
-
known symbols 

 
first 
of the 
German nation, 
Volk
 
or regime, though now they have 
also 
become popular symbols of their 
respective cities. All three are marketed as popular tourist destinations. 
Each building has 
appeared in a number
 
of fictional and other cultural texts. 
Finally, each in its varying functions 
evokes 
specific personal memories 
and impressions 
to different individuals and groups. I 
explore 

landscape 

 
those 
readings that have emerged, those that have persisted and those that have been lost. I will also 
demonstrate how 
both personal and collective interpretations 
can be influenced or manipulated. 
 
 
 
11
 
 
III
.
 
Interpreting Meaning: A Hermeneutic A
pproach
 
After the Bundestag decided in 
1991 
to move the capital of reunified Germany from Bonn to 
Berlin, 
the once divided city on the 
Spree began to change at an extremely rapid pace
. 
T
he influx 
of ministries and construction projects 
brought both inclina
tions toward 
and hesitations about 

There followed an 
intriguing if relentless 
series of 
architectural debates and controversies over 
what to do with various his
torical spaces
 

 
a series of debates that garnered the attention of not a 
few scholars across many disciplines. 
It was in 
the midst of these debates, in 2001, 
that 
Germanist Lutz Koepnick 
identified
 
the 

e
voke historical legacies and negotiate the challenges
 
of an ever
-
more global future.

went on 
to say 


 

345
).
 
Koepnick 
cites 
Frederic
 
Jameson, 
however, 
who identifies space as allegorical 

 
continuously infused with 
meaning rather than possessing meaning in its form (Jameson 259).
 
Koepnick
 
concludes,
 




10
 
 
Fellow Germanist 
Rolf Goebel, in response to 
what he called 
Koepnick

-
hermeneutic
 

, 
disagrees, arguing 
that there is 
indeed 
value in th




                                        
        
 
10
 

discourses negotiating what a certain building is 
meant
 
to mean, on projective activities that are 

 
12
 
 



 
actualized, 
interpreted, cri

). 
 

page, Goebel encourages us not to abandon hermeneutics in our critique of
 
urban space. Pointing 

fl
â
neur 

Passagenwerk
 

11
 
he establishes the roots of this approach to the cultural 
reading of the urban cityscape already 
in modernism (199). 
 
Goebel disagrees 
with
 

suggestion that built
 
space alone is void of meaning:
 

always call for, and indeed merit, interpretations 
and interrogations that originate from the 

projections, and expectations

 
The sites themselves are worthy of our attention. If 
interpretation is
 
our aim
, we
 
need to 
base this 
not 
solely upon other
 
interpretations 

 
that is, the 
personal
 

 
but also 
consider 
form and function, production and representation.
 
Wi
th the 
following rhetorical questions, 
Goebel 
sums up 
the 
validity and 
importance of what we do as 
cult
ural critics of built space: 
 
How can memory, with its reflexive interrogation or preservation of past moments 
of urban life, legitimately arise in the minds of people visiting or inhabiting 
architectural forms if built space is said to signify nothing in 
itself? How can we 
distinguish between historical simulations and truthful reconstruction, between 
genuine acts of commemorating the past and the touristic commodification of 
tradition, between actual events and their digital (re
-
)presentation, unless we 
e
nvision a cultural studies methodology that, among its many interdisciplinary 
approaches, incorporates determinate readings of architectural intentions, 
historical references, and aesthetic values inscribed in the materiality of streets, 
museu
ms, monuments
, and other sites?
 
(199
-
200)
 
 
                                        
        
 
11
 
Benjam

199). 
The translation of Benjamin is my own. 
 
13
 
 
Memory 
clearly demonstrates the meanings spaces themselves can have, since even a place void 
of politics and unknown to the media 
is capable of conjuring
 
powerful memories, meanings and 
associations. Yet memory can also be man
ipulated. 
It can also change over time. W
hat happens
 
when 
the collective memory is dependent on post
-
memory rather than 
personal memory?
 
Goebel 
urges us to consider all of these things in our assessment 

 
not just the meaning ascribed by a 
given advocate o


 


 
or by the media, an author 
or politician. It is important what the original purpos
e and aesthetic was, just as it i
s crucial for us 

unification. How can we 
study shifts 
in meaning 
if we 
pay no attention to the point of departure?
 
 
 
It is, furthermore, 
not the aim of this study
 
to suggest 
where 
the National Socialist past is 
still visible or whether that past 
ought to
 
be remembered or displayed. 
On the other hand, 
nei
ther 
can that past 
be simply ignored as irrelevant or outdated, 
particularly
 
if the goal is 

 
as it is here 

 
a complete and effective interpretation of a given space.
 
T
he Third Reich has left 
such 
an 
inde
lible mark on all aspects of German culture
 
that it is neither fully possible nor certainly 
welcomed in German Studies to leave that period out of any discussion of twentieth
-
century 
German culture. 
Similarly, no discussion of Poland in the twentieth centu
ry can overlook the 
Third Reich and its effects either. 

eventual reunification, the rise and fall of the Third Reich is at the root of 
nearly every 
cultural 
debate, 
particularly 
in urban architecture
 
and
 
collective memory
. 
 
 
 
 
 
14
 
 
IV
.
 
Temporal and G
lobal 
E
ffects on 
C
ollective 
M
emory
 
Maurice 

of fields. In addition to defining 
the sociological theory of collective memory
,
 
h
e identifies the 
tendency of social groups to connect their values to physical space
: 

their form in some way upon the soil and retrieve their collective remembrances within the 

156). Various
 
groups 

 
whether 
linked by age, class, 
occupation, nationality, ethnicity, gender or shared experience 

 
remember a 
given 
space in 



cuts up space in order to compose, either definitively or in accordance with a set method, a fixed 

6
-
57
).
 
Such spaces are 
what historian 
Pierre 
Nora
 
defines
 
as 
lieux de mémoire
 
(sites of memory)
 

 


 

 
Memory and History

 
 
Conversely, 
however, 

borders for memory itsel
f. 

period when we are unable to represent places to 
ourselves, even in a confused manner, we have arrived at the regions of 
our past inaccessible to 
memory,

writes Halbwachs 
(15
7
)
.
 
Applying
 
this
 
notion
 
to an entire group or generation, there 
are past events no longer accessible to memory. 
If there are, then, 
particular events and histories 
associated with a particular space, they exist as 
memory per se only as long as the 
group 
or 
generation
.
 
But if mem
ory is tied to space, what happens to the space after that memory is no 
longer accessible? 
 
15
 
 
Afterwards those
 
associations are 
once and for all 
trapped 
outside 
what Halbwachs terms 
social memory
, and 
become 
accessible 
only through history, 
or
 

 
as 
Halbwachs
 
terms it 

 
historical memory
.
 
Some seven decades after World War II, only a small portion of the 
population can call on personal memory based on their own experience of this era. Even those 
memories are predominantly those of children, themselves subject 
to many influences then, not 
excluding contemporary ones. The vast majority of us, in the absence of any personal 
recollections of our own, rely on textual and medial representations as well as historical 
accounts. 
 
Halbwachs draws this important distincti
on between 
social memory
 

 
which is 
experienced 

 
and a 
historical memory
 
reliant on historical representations in the form of text, 
media and memorialization. Sociologists Daniel Levy and Natan Sznaider, referring to 
Halbwachs in 
The Holocaust and Memory 
in the Global Age


ly on 

 
The
s
e
 
representation
s
, they point out, 
are
 

-
territorialization of 

30
). 
For Levy and Sznaider, 
memory eventually loses its dependency on a particular 
space. The result is a collective memory that is less authentic, much more fluid, 
and 
reliant on 
the representations of others and on current and ever
-
changing interpretations of those 
representations. 
 
The Holocaust

 
is everywhere today
: 
from college courses 
to pop culture; 
from 
fiction 
to 
memoir; 
from 
oral h
istory archives
12
 


-
h
our 
                                        
        
 
12
 
The University of
 
Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute and the Freie Universität 
Berlin have been working since 1994 to assemble the Visual History Archive, which is made up 
of over 50,000 interviews with Holocaust witnesses. 
 
16
 
 
documentary film to
 
Quentin Tarantino. 
One
 
question we 
as scholars 
ask ourselves is: Who 
or 
what 
is 
molding 
our perception
 
of th
e Holocaust
? 
My project applies the same question to three 
architectural forms layered with memory that goes back to the Nazis (or further). What do these 

 
Of the sudd
en influx of questions on 

memory

 
in Germany after the fall of the 
Wall and reunification, historian Rudy Koshar writes: 

that a typically German silence about the past had now given way to a preoccupatio
n with 

(
From Monuments to Traces
 
4). That reunification brought with it a renewed focus on 
the past makes perfect sense, since questions about the past and about memory are so strongly 
linked to identity
 

 
something Germans were 
forced 
to think mo
re about after reunification.
 
Hence, if simply on account 

social memory
 
that 
ties a
 
particular space 
to its National Socialist past is evaporating. That memory is giving way to 
personal 
recollection
s
 
of 
events more r
ecent than those from the 1940s. Associations with 
contemporary functions and representations
 
of that space are shared 
by larger
 
portions of the 
population
. If the 
social memory
 
that links these sites first and foremost with the Nazis is
 
on the 
wane
, and i
n addition to that, the globally
-
influenced 
historical memory
 
ceases to associate these 
three sites with their National Socialist past, then the collective memory is undergoing rapid 
change precisely during this generation. 
Personal a
ssociations with the N
azi past 
based on lived 
experience 
are fading. The attempts 
by
 
those still possessing personal memory, 
as well as by 
certain scholars and 

 
on occasion 

 
the media
,
 
to resist this globally
-
driven and locally
-
influenced trend are becoming either less freque
nt or finding less resonance
 
with the current 
generation.
 
Associations with, references to and stories about the Nazi past are by no means 
subsiding: the narrative is still there, perhaps more than ever. But the reality is this: perceptions 
17
 
 
of this histori
cal period are 

 
as with every other historical period before it 

 
becoming 
overwhelmingly based upon 
historical memory
, that is, 
that which 
is portrayed to us through 
historical and cultural texts. 
 
Halbwachs concludes his discourse on memory and space by
 

stable enough to endure without growing old or losing any of its parts
.


ving 

). With
 
the exception of a few minor modifications that I address in 
c
hapter 3, t
he Siegessäule, 
Olympiastadion
 
and Zamek cesarski all appear essentially as they did 
in 1945. In their form 
the structures 
have not changed through time. Yet that may be simply an 
illusion, since form is only one aspect of reading a cultural text. 
 
 
V.
 
Musealization
 
and the Promotion of the L
ocal 
 
Andreas 
Huyssen
 
observes a
 
noteworthy 
trend in 
our 
global society
: an obsession 
to store and 
preserve history and memory
. 
Because of the 
increased speed, boundlessness and temporality 
of 
both 
information 
and media 


Present Pasts
, 
5). 
German philosopher Hermann Lübbe 
wrote 
already in the 1980s 
of 


 
a term 
Huyssen also
 
uses 

 
which essentially signifies the
 
extension of 
museum
-
making into our everyday lives as a method of coping with change (Lübbe 18).
13
 
As a 
result, 
write
s Huyssen, 

called upon to provide a 
bulwark
 
against obsolescence and disappearance, to counter our deep anxiety about the speed of 
change and the ever
-

 
                                        
        
 
13
 
Huyssen quotes Lübbe 
on p
. 22 ff. 
 
18
 
 
This has led to a dra
matic increase 
first of all 
in the quantity of 

information 
available, which 
in turn means increased 
competition 
for attention and perceived relevance
 
of 
that information
. 
One major effect has been that e
ven the local or provincial, if able to 
render 
itself worthwhile in a convincing fashion, has the potential to reach a 
global 
audience. Fervidly 
promoting
 
our 
local histories as universally significant, 
we lobby
 

attention, then immediately for remembrance, often ac
companied by national and international 
funding. Memorializing and musealizing, we knight ourselves protectors against the dangers of 
forgetting, or worse 

 
obscurity. The result can be an information overload: 
seemingly 
everything 
is 
marked in museums and
 
archives of which too few are aware, and fewer actually 
visit; cities adorned with plaques and monuments camouflaged to passers
-
by with modern 
buildi
ngs and commercialism, or with the
 
simple 
over
-
abundance of memorials. As Huyssen 

self is sucked into the vortex of an ever
-
accelerating circulation of 
images, spectacles, events,
 
and is thus always in danger of
 
losing its ability to guarantee cultural 

 
Alongside 
the struggle for relevance, local identity
 
has e
merged to challenge national 
identity
. 
I argue that local identity has played an important role in the redefining of each of the 
three sites discussed here as well. 
The local identities in Berlin and 

are juxtaposed with 
national 
German and Polish identities, respectively. Neither 
the 
local nor 
the 
national has 
completely eliminated the other 

 
they exist alongside one another 
as well as the major global 

not exist without 

-
99). The
 
three 
structures in this study, located in high
-
profile cities 
subject to global and cosmopolitan influences, 
are now endorsed and projected 
much more 
as
 
symbols
 
of the
ir cities 
than 
symbols 
of 
their na
tions. 
 
19
 
 
VI
.
 
Two 
P
aths 
D
iverged: 
M
emorialization and 
F
orgetting
 
The memory of people is of utmost importance for us as humans. Once
 
someone 
die
s
, 
that 
person 
is 
no longer physically present. 
A p
lac
e
, on the other hand, 
differs significantly in that it 
is 
always still physically present
. Even if a building or monument is torn down or modified, the 
physical space still remains. If an event took place, be it historically or personally significant, 
one can still go to that specific space where it happened. Eve
n if absolutely nothing remains 
there from the event itself, people still seek meaning being there 

 
standing on that ground, 
breathing that air, 
observing 
the surroundings and feeling the climate. 
The place still 
lives
 
in a 
certain sense. It still carries
 
particular meaning. 
 
 
We often go to places to remember people. That is, 
essentially, 
what a cemetery is: a 
place to 
remember and show respect to
 
those no longer with us. Memorials function like 

or event
. 
In that sense g
ravestones have much less to do with 
death than they do with remembering. Monuments are the same: they have more to d
o with 
remembering an event than
 
with the event itself. 
 
T
he landscape of the National Socialist past, 
and particularly 
in the 
former capit
al,
 
is 
sprinkled with sites with the potential to remind us of the
 
regime that murdered 
six
 
million 
people in the Holocaust
 
as well as other victims at home and abroad through street violence and 
invasion, racist policy and forced migration, 
not to 
mention
 
the war waged on Europe.
 
Historian 
Brian Ladd 


 
and
 
geog
rapher Karen Till
 
refers to certain 
spaces 
as 

 

 
both 
terms 
fittingly describe 
the Nazi
-
era
 
meaning we ascribe to sites all 
over Berlin as one of several layers of the past
. 

[W]


20
 
 
to feel haunted. We make 
places of memory to get near those gaps and in this way become closer 

 
Jennifer 

made
: 
barring any logi
stical obstacles (property ownership or use), 
they are produced
. 
In my 
investigation of three 
places with 
this common memorial
-
worthy past 
that have been repurposed 
and redefined in completely different ways
, I ask: 
Have the ghosts been driven out of these
 
sites, 
confined to victim memorials and designated Holocaust memory sites? 
 
In 
her
 
monograph 
The New Berlin: Memory, Politics, Place
, 
Till 
presents a thought
-
provoking critique of the myriad questions
 
that have risen out of the gulf between 
fast
-
paced 
urb
an development 
and the memorial
-
minded moral conscience of 
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
 
in the 
post
-
reunification 
capital. 
While she 
centers her work around four sites with
 
links to the 
Nazi past 

 
The 
Topography of Terror, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews 
of Europe, the 
Jewish Museum and the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial and Museum
 

 
Till 

. 
For example, the vast office spaces 
offered by the Detlev
-
Rohwedder
-

eichsluftfahrtministerium, 
were
 
utilized after the Wall fell 

 
first as the headquarters for the Treuhand firm responsible for 
East German
 
privatization, and eventually as the Bundesministerium der Finanzen (Federal 
Ministry of Finance). 
Till explains the 
repurposing of this building
,
 


branches of the Nazi war machine, as follows: 
 

because of the enormous unanticipated expenses of reunification, moving the
 
capital to Berlin, and the economic recession in general. Otherwise, the politicians 
in Bonn wanted to build all new buildings, perhaps in an attempt to ignore the 
historical presence of Berlin. (225) 
 
 
21
 
 
The third chapter of this study 
present
s
 
similar circumstances that led to the preservation and 
repurposing of the three structures. I demonstrate how policy
-
makers in Berlin and 

 
were 
also faced with severe shortages of built space as an economic reality in the immediate years 
after World
 
War II. This was not the only factor 
in their decisions, however
. 
The perceived need 
for political leverage and 
self
-
legitimization 
prompted new leaders to apply the structures to their 
own purposes. 
 
 
VII
.
 
Comparative C
ontexts: 
German and Polish 
M
emory 
T
ropes
 
There 
have been 
time
s
 
when leaders urged 
the public 
to forget history. 
One such time was after 
the Second World War. 
Walter Ulbricht
, the first party secretary of the German Democratic 
Republic (GDR), 

citizen

] memory
,

 
as various 

 

 
though 
certainly monarchic rather than fascist 

 
were 
hastily 
pulled down 
by the newly
-
established
 
authority
.
14
 
In communi
st postwar Poland and in the
 
GDR
, as well as in the Federal Republic of 
Germany
 
(FRG)
, 
authorities could more easily implement ideological changes in the urban 

at that
 
time wished to remember.
 
The 
1993 opening
 
of
 
Szobor Park
 
(
Statue
 
Park
)
 
in Budapest 
may have 
marked an 
interesting trend shift in how we remember. 
Instead of the immediate destruction of the 
monuments and symbols that represented the yoke of Soviet
-
communist oppression, as was the 
case in many other nations, pos
t
-
communist Hungarian leaders gathered the monuments and set 
them up miles outside the city. Today they remind those who visit of the political and aesthetic 
                                        
        
 
14
 
Qtd. in Michael Meng.
 
22
 
 
values of the previous political regime, functioning not unlike a museum. When they were put 
there

 

 
resisting the emotional urge that so often accompanies the spirit of revolution and regime 
change. 
 
Other examples of National Socialist memory from World War II, 
aft
er
 
not 
being 
preserved for years or decades after 1945, now follow this trend 
of renewed preservation 
following a period of 
forgetting and neglect. 
Two e
xamples
 
are 
sites of 

former 
wartime 
residences
:
 
the Obersalzburg in Berchtesgaden and 
the 
Wolf
sschanze 
(known today as 

Wilczy 
Szaniec

 
o

Both were partially destroyed and/or neglected 
after the war, though both have in recent years gained status as authentic historical sites.
 
While 
many histor
ically 
engaged to
urists come to visit and even stay at the sites (each complex features 
a hotel and restaurant), both have also been criticized for commodifying the Nazi past. Whether 
the result of commodifying a historical space or the impulse to musealize 

 
or perhaps bo
th 

 
such places have been brought back from the realm of the forgotten. 
 
This study examines three symbolic sites of National Socialist memory that have been 
preserved, yet 
have 
ne
ver
 
functioned principally 
as memory sites 
since the end of the war. 
I 
show 
how 
each of the
m
 
survived
 
physically during 

common 
political objective carried out in urban planning
. 
I
 
also
 
recount
 
what else has happened 
at each 
site
 
sin
ce the collapse of the Third Reich
, and 
explain 
why they are
 
no longer associated with 
National Socialism.
 
After 
two decades 
of a 
post
-
communist era 
now 
obsessed with remembering, 
how have the 

s
 
of these structures been confronted?
 
 
One important factor to keep in mind is that none of the three site
s is in this study is a 


 
places associated 
23
 
 
with the victims
 
of the Nazi regime
. Such places resonate with a global audience as places that 
need to be preserved out of respect f
or the memory of those who died and for admonishment that 
such tragedies might not be repeated. Perpetrator sites, on the other hand, are more easily 
(though not always) freed from the global mor
al conscience. Economics become
 
a more 
significant factor in 
preserving functional buildings. 
If 
these 
were 
victim sites
,
 
that 
factor 
alone 
might be sufficient to trump economics on the basis of global 
influence.
 
E
xamining 

demonstrate that the same 
phenomenon has 
happened in both Germany and Poland 

 
that is, i
n the post
-
World War II 
context:
 
in a perpetrator nation and a victim nation. World War II 
has 
had 
a more profound 
lasting 
effect on 
the 
national identity 
of each of these nations arguably than
 
any other even
t in 
their rich histories. Yet the two nations 
(collectively speaking) 
are 
situated on 
perfectly 
opposite 
sides of the 
memory 
spectrum in relation to 
World War II 

 
one as perpetrator, the other as 
victim. Both nations are compelled to remember 

 
one motiv
ated by guilt, the other by 
loss. 
The
 
national memory culture 
of both nations has developed 
around the tragic events of that war and 
the Holocaust.
 
The two events
 
form a 
focal point, like a star around which the other events of 
national history and memory 
revolve. 
 
Despite the fact that both nations are juxtaposed to World War II and the Holocaust on 
opposite sides, both have sites that were symbolically used by the National Socialist regime that 
have now completely lost this meaning. This study show
s
 
how 
t
hese sites have
,
 
in fact
,
 
lost 
that 
meaning 
with
in two vastly different contexts of these neighboring countries.
 
 
The politics of memory in the post
-
Cold War era in Central Europe have had a 
surprisingly common influence on the sites in both Germany and Po
land. The two decades since 
the fall of communism have been marked by widespread reconstruction and urban change in b
oth 
24
 
 

 
and in reunified Berlin. Millions of 
marks, 

building projects, urban revitalization, and the preservation of historical sites. 
In both 
cities 
t
hese 
funds have come from
 
municipal and 
local government
s
, 
from the 
federal government, 
and 
(since 2004 in Poland) 
from
 
the European Union.
 
L

of this built space has been another factor, as each site has been marketed by its respective city to 
attract both tourists and local visitors. In Po

was erected over several decades. This constitutes a desire to put a Polish stamp on a space that 
was built during the 
Kaiserzeit 
as part of a 
G
ermanization effort and subsequently toggled back 
and forth betw
een Polish and German interpretations, each trying to erase the previous 
monuments and marks



 

 

narrative of history during Second World War.
15
 

and disposable at different times. 
 
Levy and Sznaider 
show the 
profound effect 
globalization has 
on the way we develop and 
foster memory. The Holocaust 
was an event so tragic, so widespread and so well
-
documented 
that in the decades since it has affected memor
y in nations all over the globe, 
certainly 
as much 
as anywhere 
in both Germany 

 
as the perpetrator nation 

 
and Poland 

 
as the 
stage on which 
most
 
of the tragedy played out. As societies become
 
more 
global, cosmopolitan values influence 
memory culture in individual nations and cities.
 
Following the pattern of the Holocaust memory 
narrative, g
lobal influence has begun to affect the way nations think,
 
write, build, commemorate 
                                        
        
 
15
 

 
25
 
 
and remem
ber. In short, global influence
, 
according to 
Levy and Sznaider
, 
has an e
ffect 
on 
the 
way nations develop their national narrative
s
 
and the way they form their collective memories. 
 
There may not be a clearer example than that of Germany, the nation with a national guilt 
weighed down by the enormous burden of World War II and the Holocaust. 
Of the dueling urban 
landscapes of East and West Berlin, reconstructing themselves within the d
ark, unavoidable 

rejection of the past, and the difficulties of remembering the future after National Socialism, 
continues to be central to the processes of plac

(43). The blame
-
reflection politics of the divided Berlin have, in the narrative of the 
contemporary memorial landscape, become forever linked to the National Socialist period itself. 
Have the Siegessäule and Oly
mpiastadion been overlooked or neglected? If so, how, if there is 
no overlooking this historical period in Berlin, the city Hitler picked to build into the fearsome 
Reichshauptstadt Germania
? Ladd asks the very important question of whether neglect is the 
same as denial in regard to the National Socialist past.
16
 
 
Poles
, however, have not enjoyed the time that 
some of their fellow Europeans
 
have had 
to form their 
own 
collective memory and tell their national story on a global level. For this 
reason, along wi
th 
a general 
skepticism toward government
 
and outside influence that seems 
almost like a Polish tradition
, 
they 
may be more 
resistant 
to global influences 
on 
their memory 
and their narrative. 
Still r
elatively n
ew 
to
 
post
-
war 
democratic Europe and 
the
 
Europ
ean Union
, 
Poles are 
first 
trying to help their neighbors understand 
their
 
story.
 
This
 
also
 
provides a potential 
source of conflict between national and local memory
 
narratives
.
 
 
                                        
        
 
16
 
Ladd discusses the debates about neglect and denial in memory of the National Socialist past 



Beyond Berlin: Twelve German Cities Confront the Nazi Past
 
(Ann 
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008).
 
26
 
 
 
In the following four chapters I seek to answer the following four ques
tions
: 
The second 
chapter documents h
ow each structure 
was 
imbued with Nazi meaning
 
in design, representation 
and function.
 
The third consider
s
 
h
ow and why each survive
d
 
not only the war, but also the 
regime
-
change and post
-
war politics
 
in both postwar Poland a
nd Berlin under four
-
power 
control, in the British section and in the Federal Republic.
 
The fourth chapter 
discusses various 
sources of alternate 
meaning
 
at each structure
, and 
considers 
why 
certain meanings were
 
successful in remaining linked to 
each 
stru
cture
.
 
The final chapter assesses the state of each site 
today, considering whether
 
each 
space 
is 
still 

 
past, whether it 
is cleansed of this past 
and 
whether 
memory 
is 
contested
.
 
T
he answers to these questions provide 
a gr
eater understanding of 
meaning at these t
hree intriguing urban spaces. They
 
also provide us 
with a pattern to observe this phenomenon in other places and contexts throughout the world.
 
 
27
 
 
CHAPTER 2
 

:
17
 
Three Structures as Billboards of National
-
Socialist Triumph
 

 

 
-
 
Albert Speer on Hitler, 
Erinnerungen 
(94)
 
 
 
I.
 
Introductory 
Scenes
 

 
It had 
been four years since the Nazis
 

Himmler was in town from Berlin to observe the anniversary. There was a military parade in 


 
which 
housed 

administration and held offices for Hitler. Nazi news documentaries show Himmler saluting 

-

Greiser walks direct
ly behind his guest
 
(BArch
-
FA, DW 47/688/1943; EW 37/ Nov 1943)
. 
Despite earlier visits from such Nazi dignitaries as Joseph Goebbels, Robert Ley and Baldur von 
Schirach (Schwendemann
, 
Hitlers Schloß
 
112), historian Catherine Epstein writes that October 
19

-
called 

 

widely
-
known speech of his career, known as the 

been preserved. Speaking first to leaders of the SS and two days later to an as
sembly of Reichs
-
 
                                        
        
 
17
 

The Word 
in Stone: The Role of 
Architecture in the National Socialist Ideology
. Berkeley, CA: The University of California 
Press, 1974.
 
28
 
 
and Gauleiter
, Himmler addressed the ongoing genocide and made concrete reference to the 
murder of the Jews with his
 
now well
-


18
 
Because renovations at the 
castle would not be finalized until December 1943 (Schwendemann 133), the speeches were held 
in t

-
century 
Ratusz (Rathaus or Old Town Hall)
.
19
 
As 

for such rallies 

 
and not the older, Polish Stary Rynek 
(
Altmarkt 
or Old Town Squ
are) 
with its
 
Ratusz

 
removed for the occasion 
(133

-
finished castle was 
the 


 
 
F
igure
 
2.1.
 
The National Socialists
 
stripped
 


                                        
        
 
18
 
Qtd. in Epstein 288
 
19
 


 


location for this meeting. Hotel Rzymski, like Zamek cesarski, was remodeled during the 1940
s 

architectural characteristics. 
 
29
 
 
presiding over military parades on St.
-
Martin
-
Str. (

. Photograph by 
the author. 
 
 

background on the balcony protruding out of the tower from the first
-
floor apartments prepared 

recisely the type of 


 
 
Berlin, May 15, 1939
 
Nearly three years after the Olympic Games, and just a few short months before the Nazis would 
m


 


-


 
was the site of an exhibition football match between the German National 
Team and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. After the Munich Agree
ment in October 
1938, where France and Great Britain signed the Sudetenland over to the Nazis, Hitler 
subsequently seized the remaining Czech lands in March 1939, calling the territory the 

lin the Nazis 


 
the first of many nations 
subjected to the Hitler regime. 
 
 
The reportage for 
Tobis Wochenschau
 
begins with trumpets, followed by a panorama of 
the stadium with a large crowd. Th


technisch ausgezeichnetes Spiel

 
(BArch
-
FA, 
Der Ball ist rund
, track 5).
 


The documentary makes 

scored, instead displaying short bursts of individual effort and one
-
on
-
one engagements 

 
at 
30
 
 
times even violent. These clips of physicality
 

from an emotional and aggressive Olympiastadion crowd. 
 
 

arms to knock the ball down in front of h
im, whereupon he quickly
 
blasts
 
a shot on goal. While 

is 
able to make the save, the 
injustice 
would certainly not have been 

failure 
to blow the whistle on the Ge

echoes
 

Édouard Daladier

 
failure to halt
 
Hitler and the Nazis, who 
with
 
the
 
Czech lands had only just begun to grab for large sections of Europe.
 
 
F
igure
 
2.2. The new Olympic
 
Stadium awaits the 1936 Games. The Podbielski Eiche, a German 
allusion to the ancient Greek olive tree at the temple of Zeus, can be seen just beyond the gate to 
the right. Photograph courtesy of the Landesarchiv Berlin (F Rep 290). 
Used by permission.
 
 
 
31
 
 
Berlin, April 20, 1939
 

th
 
birthday to organize a public parade in Berlin. The 
parade culminated at the Victory Column, which was adorned in red banners bearing the 
swastika. Goebbels set up ten cameramen at different strategic points, thereby capturing the 
event to be played acros

(UFA). 


Selbstbespiegelungen
 

The Victory Column 
was at the center of this military display, a political pep rally for the war Hitler would begin just 
months later with his invasion of Poland. 
Only
 


with footage of their dictator marching through a conquered Warsaw (83). 
The film, writes 
Terveen, serves by docume

nationalsozialistischer Macht
-
 

The Nazis 
capitalized, therefore, on the Victory Column, taking advantage of its strategic location on the 
Ost
-
West
-
Ach
se, the ample open space around it, its imagery of victory and its very name. All of 
this was part of their use of the monument itself as a rally for victory. As the German people 
looked on at that parade 

 
whether from the foot of the column in Berlin or 
sitting in any of 
hundreds of the theaters across the empire from Freiburg to Königsberg 

 
they would note that 
a 
fourth segment of the column held up the original three segments from the respective victories 
under Bismarck, pushing the golden Viktoria eve
n higher into the sky as the Nazis instilled a 
desire for that victory they soon would pursue.
 
 
32
 
 
 
Figure
 
2.3. The Siegessäule was used by the National Socialists to promote their version of 
völkisch nationalism. Here, in 1937, it is adorned with National S
ocialist banners. In 1938 Hitler 
and Speer moved it from this location to the Großer Stern, raised the column 6.5m and rotated 
the angel to face France in the West. Photograph courtesy of the Landesarchiv Berlin (F Rep 
290).
 
Used by permission.
 
33
 
 
 
II.
 
Three 
S
ites 
A
ppealing to National Socialists
 
All three of these historical sites were established during the 
Kaiserzeit
 
and were part of an 
architectural program of German nationalism. The Siegessäule (1873) and the Zamek (1910)
 
were built during the 
Kaiserzeit
 
and the stadium during the Weimar Republic, on the site of the 
original Deutsches Stadion built for the 
planned 
1916 Summer Olympics
 
that never took place
. 
Hence each site had first been conceptualized before the National Socialist regime, which simply 
ada
pted the existing space and/or structure to suit its needs. 
 
When the Nazis came to power, Hitler himself kept a close eye on building and 


 
even in 

 
when he was already occupied with the war. The would
-
be artist and architect 
even submitted his own sketches 
demanding revisions to
 
early drafts of blueprints and building 
plans. Albert Speer and Arthur Greiser, meanwhile, exploited Jewish and Polish forced laborers 
for their projects.
20
 

racist agenda of genoc
ide and Eastern colonization 

 
the essential arm of the Empire that 
combined slavery with murder. The building endeavors of Hitler and Speer 
relied
 
on resources 
primarily from the East 

 
both raw materials and 
forced 
labor. 
 

 
in 1933, the three sites already had plenty of detractors 
who saw the structures as part of a vein of chauvinist, militaristic hubris. That did not change 
under the Nazis. 
As we shall see, e

projec
ts, the structures drew critique from non
-
sympathists and loyal National Socialists alike. 
By 1945, each structure had become a visible and recognizable symbol of Nazi power
 
in its city. 
 
                                        
        
 
20
 
See Jaskot 11
-
46.
 
34
 
 
III.
 

:
21
 
The Schloss as
 
S
ymbol
 
of German 
N
ationalism in the East
 
Wilhelm II saw himself as the extension of the German line of Holy Roman emperors from the 
Middle Ages, a list that included Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa. His obsession with 
Romanesque architecture was an extension of that hi
storicizing sense of self. Historian Matthew 

research trips in the winter and spring of 1890, when he had collected a large number of 
drawings and photographs of hist

 
 
Two of the best examples of Wilhelmine neo
-
Romanesque architecture were designed by 

Kaiser
-
Wilhelm
-


-
consciously sought to 
make the now familiar connection 

99
). Wilhelm also sponsored extensive 

 
(Malbork
), which 
has remained 
the 

complex to the pr
esent 
day
. The German emperor visited the castle over 30 
times between 1891 and his abdication in 1918. Referencing the title page of a 1912 issue of the 
monthly magazine 
Ostmark
,
 
Schwendemann shows the importance of the Marienburg and 

ss to the Germanization movement. The cover depicts a portrait of 
Bismarck as the sun rising in the East, 
while the Prussian eagle spreads
 
its wings over the land 
and the two castles, 
which represent
 
the link 
between 
past and present (24).
 
 
Wilhelm looked 

 
or Posen, as it was called, 
in the same way he saw Straßburg
 
(Strasbourg
) in Alsace on the western frontier. Schwendemann points out the similarity between 
the two cities in the so
-

                                        
        
 
21
 

front page of a special ed
ition of the 
Posener Tageblatt
, vol. 49, No. 389 (21 August 1910). 
 
35
 
 

former 
stronghold of the Hohenstaufen dynasty that Wilhelm began rebuilding in 1899. The castle was a 
way for Wilhelm to link himself to the emperors of the past (38
-
39). This link also explains the 

-
Roma
nesque style, which he saw as the 
Germanic style (41).
 
Wilhelm made three visits to
 
Posen,
 
the royal residence city and center of Germanization 

Ostmarkpolitik
,
 

Volkstumspolitik


Posen
 
was the central place 

 
both practically an
d 
symbolically 

 
for both regimes in the entire region.  
 

both Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria made the trip from Berlin to be in 
attendance for the importan
t event. Historian Christian Myschor documents the three visits of the 
so
-


 
in 1903, 1910 and 1913 

 
and the significant political and 
economic impact 
this
 
had on Germans and Poles alike (27
-
58, 156ff.). The palace was designe
d 

Wilhelm wished the palace to show that this was, in fact, a German city; that German culture 
was a blessing for Poles living in 
Posen
; and that Germany was stron
g and would protect the 
city. The space being dedicated at the western rim 
of the old city center 
was being used to mold 
the current thoughts of its citizens 

 
both Polish and German 

 
and create for them a memory of 
the city as German. This imagined past 
was to ensure a future its German rulers wanted. 
 
36
 
 

Kaiserschloss are to be interpreted as representative of four distinct purposes, each promoting the 
German 
Hebungspolitik
 
m
eant to elevate German culture as superior: the Schloss to legitimize 

Akademie to create and nurture a national identity through German art and science; and the 
Ne


22
 
 
A special edition of the nationalistic 
Posener Tageblatt
 
was printed for the occasion. Its 
pages are rife with 
völki
sch
-
nationalist
 
thinking

Emanuel Ginschel, adorned the front page: 
 
Heil Kaiser Dir und Deinem Haus!
 
Heil unsrem Burggebieter!
 
In Friedenszeit, im Kampfgebraus
 
Sind wir des Schlosses Hüter.
 
 
Stolz grüßt dies 
Zeichen deutscher Macht
 
Weithin am Warthelande,
 
Der Kaiserherrschaft Glanz und Pracht
 
Zeigt es dem Posner Lande.
 
 
Stets wird es künden Deine Gunst
 
Für unsrer Ostmark Ringen,
 

 
Wird Dank und Ruhm Dir bringen.
 
 
Die Siedler,
 
Tausende an Zahl,
 
Die Du hierher gerufen,
 
Sie fühlen näher allzumal
 
Sich nun des Thrones Stufen.
 
 
                                        
        
 
22
 
For more on 
Hebungspolitik
, see Christoph 
Schutte, 
Die Königliche Akademie in Posen 
(1903
-


(Ma
rburg: Verlag Herder
-

Architektura a 

 

 
37
 
 
Getreulich hielten stets die Wacht
 
Wir an bedrohter Stelle,
 
Nun hat sie stärker uns gemacht,
 
Des Deutschtums Zitadelle.
 
 
Sie künde kühn auf immerdar,
 
Daß 
deutsch ist diese Erde,
 
Und daß der Hohenzollern
-
Aar
 
Sie treu beschützen werde.
 
 
Und jedes künftige Geschlecht
 
Erinnere sie aufs neue:
 
Wie Zollern hier schuf Wohlstand, Recht,
 
Wie dankbar deutsche Treue.
 
 
Gott schütze, die gehn ein und aus
 
Im Schloß am 
Warthestrande,
 
Gott segne unser Kaiserhaus
 
Und alle deutschen Lande!
 
 
 

castle, as the text is full of nationalistic antagonism. The first
-
person pronoun 
unser
 
appears 
twic
e, while the adjective 
deutsch
 
is used five different times. The palace is even called a 

a 
beacon of 
Deutschtum

r, Tausende an Zahl

summoned to Posen 

rewarded for their hard work and sacrifice: they would live in an imperial residence city, and be 
protected by the house of Hohenzollern. 
 
 
As for the P
olish citizens, who made up nearly 65% of Posen province in 1910 (Hagen 
324), the palace was meant to demonstrate the strength and superiority of their German Kaiser 
and his state. Of course there was much opposition among 


auth
ority in general, and to the Kaiserschloss
 
and
 
Kaiserforum in particular, as it was 
representative of the oppressive, often hostile, Prussian
-
German regime that had been 
38
 
 
suppressing their language and culture in Greater Poland for well over a century. Thos
e in 

 
aspired with others in Warsaw, Vilnius and the East (subjects of the Ru
ssian Empire) and 
those in Krako
w, Lviv and Galicia (controlled by the Austro
-
Hungarian Empire) to rise up and 
restore the Polish state. Decades of strategic commemorations 
as well as work through 
education, the Catholic Church, literature, language and the arts had been building the national 
movement.
23
 
In 1918, that dream of many would come to fruition with the founding of the 
Second Polish Republic, spurred on in large part
 
by the Greater Poland Uprising in Posen 
province 

 
remembered 
by many 
as the only successful uprising in Polish history. 
 
Ginschel 
refers to 
memory in stanza seven
 
of his poem
, claiming that every future 
generation will remember the House of Hohenzollern
 
for bringing
 
prosperity and rights to the 

 
in his view 

 
previously uncivili
zed city. Indeed, the Imperial P
alace was also a play on public 

well as the future. 
 
Th
ere is no mistaking the political purpose of this space. While the city and territory had 
already in 1795 been claimed politically as Prussian (and hence, German), with the Kaiserschloss 
and Schlossviertel the Germans were claiming the city 
as 
culturally
 

under Wilhelm II were hardly more appealing to Polish residents at the time than the building 
was during the Nazi occupation. Whereas Greiser was only able to occupy the finished castle for 
a mere 14 months before the city fel

anchored a district that changed the shape of the city and also adorned every image of an 
aggressive campaign of 
G

 
                                        
        
 
23
 
For an excellent ac


Commemorations and the Making of Modern 
Poland
.
 
39
 
 
IV.
 
Architecture under National Socialism
 
For Adolf Hitler, arch
itecture served as a concrete expression of his beliefs. Political historian 
Robert Taylor points to its roots in right
-

völkisch
 

 
(
The Word in Stone 
1).
 
When the Nazis seized power in 1933, they imp
osed an 
ideology 
based on ideas 
that had been developing for decades
.
 
The ideology 
incorporated the 
völkisch 

 
culture, 
art and 

-

 
Hi
tler developed a
 
fascination
 
for 
the architectural ruins of
 
once mighty emp
i
res 
such as 
Egypt
, Babylon, Greece and Rome, believing that their greatness has been preserved in their 
enduring architecture
 
(Fest, 
Hitler
 
782ff.)
. He spoke of 
this 
architecture a


 

ordered Hitler
 
(Holtorf)
. This phrase is no subtle reminder of the power he saw in architecture. 
W
hat
, then,
 
was the history or message
 

buildings? 
 
One of the aspects was that of 
a legacy through architecture
, as Taylor demonstrates
. 

Ruinenwert
 

-

In a word, Speer wanted to 


er 69). 
The material used for the 
face of Olympiastadion was 
Muschelkalk
 

 
a shellbearing limestone
 
meant to give the 

elements with direct correlation to ancient Gre
ek architecture:
 
40
 
 
Neben der Kampfbahn, dem stadion, lagert sich das Maifeld als forum mit der 
Langemarckhalle als templon, die Freilichtbühne als theatron, die 
Reichsakademie als gymnasion, das Haus des deutschen Sports als prytaneion und 
das öffentliche Er
holungsgelände als palästra. Und selbst der heilige Ölbaum am 
Eingang zum Tempel des olympischen Zeus, von dessen Zweigen ein Knabe mit 
goldenem Messer die Siegeskränze abschnitt, hat seine Wiederkehr gefunden in 
der deutschen Eiche, die heute am olympisch
en Tor die Eintretenden grüßt. 
(Rittich 67
-
68)
24
 
 
The inclusion of all these places and their connection to ancient Greece is unmistakable. Even 
the German 
Eichbaum
 


 
The 
Ruinenwert 
theory raises an interesting question for the postwar decisions regarding 
preservatio


 
deny 
Hitler his intended 

wishes. The architectural critic Julian Rose argues, therefore, that by continu
ing to use 
Olympiastadion, for example, Berlin is denying Hitler his desired legacy of the ruin (89). 
 
While the 
Ruinenwert 
theory applied to the future, in the present Hitler and Speer 
designed state architecture to have an imposing impression on citizens
 
of the Third Reich. Their 
intent was to intimidate opponents 

 
both domestic and foreign 

 
as well. Speer himself 
admitted, after having served his 20
-


25
 

 
Reichskanzlei, for example, accomplished the 

which diplomats and guests of state had to make to the reception hall, did not fail in its effect
.

Czechoslovakia
n president Emil Hacha, he writes, was one of the first to feel this intimidation 
when he signed over control of his country to Hitler in 1939 (
141
). 
 
                                        
        
 
24
 
Qtd. in Petsch, p. 133.  
 
25
 
Qtd. in Scobie, p. 40. 
 
41
 
 
The 
effects of
 
National Socialist architecture 
were not limited to
 
those of an 
ideological 
or 
psychologic
al 
nature 
on citizens and opponents. The building program 
relied
 
on the efforts of 


 

 
by the 

precisely the passion of building that was structurally related to the criminal capacity of the SS to 
carry out state policy in the forced
-
labor concentration 

 
Jaskot has shown the significant impact Nazi architecture and urban planning also had on 
political policy and strategy in the East. Several camps were strategically placed near stone 
quarries and brick work factories 

 
sites
 
that would capitalize on the labor to drive production of 

minister during the war, the SS had to consult him regarding expansion and geographical 
location of t
he camps (Schwendemann 125). Fighting labor shortages in the face of his grand 
building plans for Hitler in Berlin, Speer acquired approval from Hitler himself to mobilize 
Czech workers and Soviet prisoners
-
of
-
war for his building projects and personally a
cquired an 
additional 15,000 Czech workers from Reinhard Heydrich after a 1941 visit to Prague (99). Of 
600,000 total inmates in the Nazi concentration camp system by the end of 1944, 
Schwendemann, in a 2005 feature article in 
Die Zeit
, attributes 480,000 
of them 

 
a staggering 
80% 

 

It was National Socialist building aspirations that drove an expanding forced labor system, which 
in turn quickly developed into the syst
em of work and death camps at the disposal of Nazi 
leaders who laid out plans for the Final Solution at the Wannsee Conference in 1942. 
 
42
 
 
The National Socialists also made a clear ideological connection between 
Sport
 
and 
Krieg
. Both required a physical 
Kamp
fgeist
, both were fought on behalf of the 
Vaterland
, and 
both were meant to prove the mythical doctrine of Arian physical, genetic and racial superiority. 
The Langemarckhalle with its
 
77
-
meter
-
high Glockenturm accounted for this connection at 

hssportfeld. Located across the Maifeld from the stadium, the hall and tower were 

The hall was built to honor the fallen in World War I, but functioned as a type
 
of death cult 
particularly to make an impression on the youth who visited. Naming the hall for a group of 
students who died at Langemarck in World War I, the Nazis 
glorified
 

for the Reich. Children watched and took part in large athletic and martial exhibitions on the 
Maifeld outside. 

Mißbrauch des Sports für eine menschensvera

Hitler and the Nazis manipulated the enjoyment of sport and the virtue of competition both to 

 
The vertical image of the Glockenturm
 
fil
led the single gap in the stadium and formed the 
geographical culmination of the Ost
-
West
-


Sport 
and 
Krieg
, the Ost
-
West
-
Achse was itself conceptualized for more 
than just athletes.
 
Anthony 
Read and 
David 

Triumphialis not just for sporting heroes but also for German armies returning victorious from 

 

gh 
its enlarged centerpiece at the Großer Stern, where war was immortalized in the martial column 
of victory. When the column was moved there in 1938 and 1939, it was also raised and the traffic 
43
 
 
circle widened, accounting for increased visibility and a pre
sence that persists to this day. The 
axis continued along the Siegesallee, lined with statues of military heroes, through the 
Brandenburger Tor and into the historical center. It was in front of the Brandenburger Tor that 
the axis was to intersect with the
 
Nord
-
Süd
-
Achse, along which many of the new buildings to be 

the Nord
-
Süd
-
Achse, though the Ost
-
West
-
Achse remains an accurate visual testimony to 

lans for his vision of a future Nazi world capital. 
 
 
V.
 

lueprints
 
T
he nationalist past stemming from the Kaiserreich
 
at each of these three sites allowed 
Hitler to 

 
German 
people. Yet in all three cases the existing form was not enough to satisfy his architectural desires. 
In each case Hitler rejected the design of the original structure in favor of his own vision. His 
architects Albert Speer and Franz Böhmer along w
ith the brothers Werner and Walter March 
were forced to adjust 
their designs 




 
each edific
e serving the National Socialist ideology in both form and 
function. 
 
Albert Speer spends a long chapter of his autobiography describing in detail the vast 
urban construction plans he and Hitler had for the design of central Berlin. With their completion 
i


 
a 
metropolis he envisioned for 10 million people. New structures were to include the 
Volks
halle, a 
44
 
 
massive, neoclassical dome
d structure
 
over 2
00 meters in height
,
 
t
hat was 
meant to hold 
more 
than 
150,000 people for political speeches and that would have dwarfed the adjacent 
Brandenburger Tor and Reichstag; a triumphal arch over twice as tall and nearly four times as 

and 
extensiv
e railway stations at the north and south 
ends of the Nord
-
Süd
-
Achse. 
 
Because of
 
this the Siegessäule was moved to its current location at the Großer Stern
 
and 

was
 

involved in the remodeling of the Wilhelmine monument. 

 
Selbst der Funkturm blieb... erhalten und die Siegessäule, die unseren 
Neubaup
länen im Weg stand, nicht beseitigt; Hitler sah darin ein Monument 
deutscher Geschichte, das er, der stärkeren Wirkung wegen, bei dieser 
Gelegenheit sogar um eine Säulentrommel erhöhen ließ; er zeichnete dazu eine 
noch erhaltene Skizze.... 
(154)
 
 
 

 
purposes
 
were far different 
from those found in
 
the architecture of Prussian 
militarism and German superiority we see in the Zamek and the Siegessäule 

 
an architecture 
already offensive to neighbors in places like Poland and France. He downplayed element
s 

into his own office, and re
-
erecting next to the Siegessäule the monuments to 
the politician
 
Bismarck
 
and the military generals
 
Roon and Moltke, but erecting no monument to Wilhelm I or 
any other Kaiser. 
Speer recalls Hitler mocking the Prussian architecture for being, of all things, 

Staate

154
).
 
Hitler fundamentally changed the look of not only the monument itself, but the Großer 
Stern and the boulevard as well. Their visual appearance and urban layout today is purely the 
45
 
 
result 


three segments 

 
adorned with corresponding cannons taken as war booty fr
om each opp
onent 
and now preserved in gold 
leaf 

 
commemorated the victories against Denmark, Austria and 
France, respectively, the fourth segment was to bear a symbolic meaning as well: victory in the 
war Hitler was preparing to wage with the rest of Euro
pe. Speer thereby formed a monumental 
paradox 

 
commemorating an achievement not yet attained. 
 
In addition, when reassembling the monument at the Großer Stern, Hitler had the column 

rmanent westward stare 

 
directly toward the conquered enemy in France. National Socialist architectural annals define the 
new positioning as such: 
 
Das Gesicht der Siegesgöttin ist nach Westen gewendet, dorthin, wo die 
entscheidenden Siegen des Zweiten Re
iches erfochten wurden. Sie streckt den 
Siegeskranz in die Richtung, aus der viermal die siegreichen Truppen durch das 
Brandenburger Tor feierlich einmarschiert sind. Sie blickt zugleich den Gästen 
des deutschen Volkes entgegen, welche auf der neuen Festst
raße von Westen her 
ihren Einzug in die Reichshauptstadt halten. 
(Stephan 245)
 
 

to Versailles 

 
the place where the last German Empire had been founded in 
1871 and 
subsequently dissolved in humiliating fashion in 1918.
 
The Großer Stern was wide
ned by nearly two thirds to 200 meters
, making an imposing 
impression and setting it as the centerpiece of the Ost
-
West
-
Achse in the midst of the Tiergarten. 
The sides
 
of the granite pedestal were extended outward on each side to create a broader base, 
and the column was flanked by four new neo
-
classical guard houses outside the traffic circle, 
which provide access to the middle of the circle via underground tunnels. Th
e four houses are 

46
 
 
was widened to 50m and ten lanes leading to Brandenburger Tor. The widening of this avenue 


 
completed alre
ady in April 1933. It was dedicated with a 
military parade on April 19 

 

 
 
Figure
 

location in front of the Reichstag before i
t was moved 
beginning 
in 1938. Photograph courtesy of 
the Landesarchiv Berlin (F Rep 290).
 
Used by permission.
 
 
 
47
 
 
* * *
 
As with the prominent war monument from the Bismarck era, Hitler had a direct hand in the 
design of Olympiastadion as well. 
He was not at
 


Writes Speer: 
 
Von der Besichtigung kam Hitler zornig und erregt in seine Wohnung, wohin er 
mich mit Plänen bestellt hatte
. Kurzerhand ließ er dem Staatssekretär mitteilen, 
daß die Olympischen Spiele abzusagen seien. Ohne sei
n
e Anwesenheit könnten 
sie nicht stattfinden, da das Staatsoberhaupt sie eröffnen müsse. 
Einen solchen 
modernen Glaskasten würd
e er jedoch nie betreten. 
(94
) 
 
 
Speer then rectified the situation by drawing a sketch that night, which both Hitler and, later, the 

omitted the gla
ss partitions altogether (94
). 
 
Werner March
 
describes the meeting he and his brother Walter had with Hitler on 

for the Olympic grounds, the result of many months of work, only at the end to himself 
sketch a 
few bold lines onto the
 
design
, rendering the
ir
 
plans obsolete and outlining his own demands for 

the inclusion of 
a 
marching ground next to the stadium 

 

center. 

-
Stadion und dieses 
Aufmarschgelände zu einem einheitlichen Ganzen so zu verbinden, daß beide A
nlagen in eine 

201
). 
The brothers March eventually 
designed the enormous Maifeld, a space larger than eleven full football 
fields
, and placed it not 
only in line with the stadium on the Ost
-
West
-
Achse, but a
lso viewable from within the stadium. 
Not unlike the recent trend with American baseball stadiums built since 1990, where a gap is 
48
 
 

had a gap in the seatin


 
* * *
 
Hitler likewise took an interest and involvement in the design of his Deutsches Schloss in 

sonally approved certain plans, such as the Führerbalkon
 
added to the clock tower 

26
 
In fact, proposed changes to the façade, such as the balcony 
addition, were first done in plaster on the building itself, photographed and 
sent to Hitler for 
approval. The renovations entailed changes to the façade and extensive alterations to the interior. 

Großer Saal
, was stripped in 
favor of the cold,
 
sober
 
Nazi interior 
design with its straight edges and symmetry. 
Fascist 
art was 
added as well, including a frieze depicting allegories of war and peace
 
situated
 
above the main 

 
One of the most noticeable changes 

 
inside and out 

 
was the c
onvers

two
-
stor

 
on the first floor and 


ncluding the Führerbalkon
 
extending out of his 
study in the clock tower precisely where the apse of the chapel had been. In addition, 
accommodations were included on the ground level for four SS
-
Leiter and a unit of 
50 men to 
accompany Hitler 
on his visits
 
(Böhmer, MKZ, 1201/2/60)
.
 
                                        
        
 
26
 
Pazder states in the 
Gazeta Wyborcza 


-
 

-
 


 
49
 
 

often showed no regard for utility or historical 
preservation, unless they served his ideological interests
. He arbitrarily razed functional 
buildings for being in the wrong style or simpl
y for standing in the wrong place. Urban planning 

was immune to the destruct
ive whims of National Socialism:
 

fell victim to Hit


27
 
 
* * *
 

reminding us
 
that completion was indeed the exception rather than the rule
: 
 
Those parts of the scheme that were realized, such as the Olympic avenue, 
certainly carry the imprint of such a totalisation, but there too the city is a site of 
paradox. While National Socia

-
spaces, 
it neither achieved a total clearance nor came to construct in full the capital of 
capitals. (22
-
23) 
 
 

fr

intimidating white model that Hitler spent hours so intently studying seem quite foreign to those 
familiar with the modern German capital. 
According to the architect, H
itler would often repeat: 


(156).
 
As a result of plans that were only partially carried out, Berlin has been left with a 
number of challenging spaces evoking this dark period of German history. Even though only the 
                                        
        
 
27
 
Tra
nslation is that of the author. 



 
50
 
 

ound impact on 

along the East
-
West Axis, the 
former 
as its centerpiece and the 
latter 
its very origin with the 
Glockenturm, Langemarckhalle and Marathontor. The S
iegessäule and Olympiastadion are no 
longer perceived in that context as they once were (or as once intended), but both stand precisely 

-
west 
artery through the modern
-
day metropole. It is important not to overlook these two focal points 

receive in terms of this past. What has happened with these two sites since 1945 demonstrates
 

 
 


,
 
Hitlers Schloß
 
119). A Nazi documentary film from 1942, entitled 
Posen 

 
Stadt im Aufbau
, 


in the 

throne room. 



Wilhelms des Zweiten: von Grund auf im Innern erneut, wird er zum Sinnbild und Ausdruck 
dessen was heute Posen und darüber hinaus den ganzen Warthegau mit jungem Leben erfüllen: 
Gauhauptstadt Posen, Herzkern des neuen Deutschen O

 
(BArch
-
FA, K 25240).
 
In reality, the castle was the seat of the murderous Nazi administration under Gauleiter 
Greiser. Hitler went further than Kaiser Wilhelm II had: not only was this palace to symbolize 
51
 
 
the strength and authority of the German emp
ire. It was also to represent German racial 
supremacy, 
which the Nazis used to justify
 
the horrifying crimes committed against Jews, Poles, 
Russians, Sinti and Roma, and all other racial, political and social opponents.
 
 
VI. 
 
Publ
ic S
entiment before and du
ring the Third Reich
 
There was a fair measure of negative sentiment among the public reception of the three 
structures 

 

a popular anecdote about the castle during its c
onstruction under Wilhelm II. The anecdote 
satirizes the enthusiastically nationalist German mayor, Dr. Ernst Wilms, vis
-
à
-
vis Polish citizens 
in 
Posen
. Wilms, while monitoring progress on the building of the Kaiserschloss, was impressed, 
even baffled, by 
the zeal of one particular Polish worker, and asked him why he was so 


 

, then Poland will rise from the dead


28
 
 
A cartoon from a 1910 issue of the satirical newspaper 
Simplicissimus
 
depicts the brand 

-
advised effort to 
endear the latter to the German language and cu
lture
 
(Si
m
, 15/23 [5 Aug. 1910], 388)
. 
Drawn by 
Thomas Theodor Heine, t
he caricature
 
shows a man offering a model of the Kaiserschloss to a 
boy standing in a stubborn, disinterested pose. The man represents the German administration in 

population (Ha
gen 324). 

                                        
        
 
28
 
Translation is that of the a
uthor. 


 
52
 
 

Michel, aber wenn Sie mir versprechen, fleißig Polnisch zu lernen, will ich Ih
nen versprechen, 

Si
m
, 15/23 [5 Aug. 1910], 
388). 
 
In its first decades during the 
Gründerzeit 
the Victory Column was known as the focal 
point of the nationalist 
Sedantag
 
military parades that celebrated German expansion an
d 


defeat in a long 
and bloody World War I cast a negative light on the military monument. In 1921 there was an 
unsuccessful 
attempt by a small group of ra
dicals to blow up the 
monument
. 
 
Walter Benjamin treats the monument specifically on a few pages of his 1932 memoir 
Berliner Kindheit um Neunzehnhundert
. He subtly though clearly expresses his displeasure with 
the ritualistic 
Sedantag
 
holiday and its military parades. 
He lament
s the French defeat, with 


The artwork in the portico reminds him of 
images of eternal
 
suffering from 

Inferno
 
(20). Benjamin opens his vigne


reference to the aforementioned calendar page, he playfully 
also 

or, at the very leas


18
). In the months after the 
end of the Second World 
War
, the monument still stood tall 
if
 
somewhat 
out of place
 
in a 
city that was a sea
 
of ru
bble. It 


 
some perhaps in an attempt at irony
 
(see
 
Figure
 
3.7)
. 
 
The original Deutsches Stadion was built for the 1916 Olympic Games, which 
were 
canceled
 
on accou
nt of the First World War. 
After 
the 
1936 
Games were 
then 
awarded to Berlin 
53
 
 
shortly before the Nazis came to power, Hitler utilized the 
decision as an 
opportunity for 
greater 
international 
recognition and respect
. Many were critical 
of a Berlin Olympics in the months and 
weeks prior 
to the Games in August. The United States, after contemplating boycott as a protest 
to Nazi racist practices, finally decided to compete just weeks before the event. Though the 
Nazis went to great lengths 
to present themselves favorably to their international guests 

 

-
scale Jewish persecution for the 
first half of August 1936 

 
German citizens were surely not fooled. German
-
Jewish journalist 
and
 

Tagebücher
, describing 
the 1936 Olympics in a tone of disgust: 
 
Die Olympiade, die nun zu Ende geht, ist mir doppelt zuwider. 1. als irrsinnige 
Überschätzung des Sports; die Ehre eines Vol
kes hängt davon ab, ob ein 
Volksgenosse zehn Zentimeter höher springt als alle andern. Übrigens ist ein 
Neger aus USA am allerhöchsten gesprungen, und die silberne Fechtmedaille für 
Deutschland hat die Jüdin Helene Meyer gewonnen (ich weiß nicht, wo die 
gr
ößere Schamlosigkeit liegt, in ihrem Auftreten als Deutsche des Dritten Reiches 
oder darin, daß ihre Leistung für das Dritte Reich in Anspruch genommen 
wird)....Und 2. ist mir die Olympiade so verhaßt, weil sie nicht eine Sache des 
Sports ist 

 
bei uns mei
ne ich 

, sondern ganz und gar ein politisches 
Unternehmen. 
(122
-
23) 
 
 

other nations and promoting themselves as a peaceful nation, despite the fact that in two weeks
 
the Jewish persecution would begin anew, with greater strength (123
-
24). He quotes a friend of 

diese ungeheure Prunk in Berlin bei den Olympiabauten, als ob wir im 
Golde schwimmen 

 
und 

(127
-
28).
 
 
After the war had begun and the Zamek was undergoing its renovations as Deutsches 
Schloss and the seat of Nazi authority in the so
-

became unpopular with ma
ny Germans as well as Poles. In fact, it drew the ire of even some of 
54
 
 


memorandum 
in January 1943 demanding work on the castle be stopped in favor of building 
apartments, so frustrated were they by the sparse housing situation in
 
Posen
 
(128).
29
 
The 

Pointing out that Hitler was not once mentioned in the letter, Schwendemann argues that the 
letter
-
writers knew very well he was ultimately responsible for the Schloss renovations, but shied 
away from ope
n critique of the dictator (128
). 
 
The Zamek thus ca
me to symbolize a waste of material and money, especially late in 
1943 when it still was not finished and the war had begun to turn in favor of the Allies. The 

had not yet 
made an 
app
earance at his 
Posen 


who nonetheless kept the project going, may have entertained thoughts of
 
the Schloss as a 
temporary Reich Chancellery 
(243; 


kriegswichtig
, the project continued to be funded after the 

end, Hitler never 
saw 
the castle
 
in person
.
 
Both scholars agree that what the Zamek demonstrates from this era are the unchecked 
extravagance and arrogance of the regime. 

Schloß bis heute dokumentiert, ist nicht 
der 
spartanisch lebende 
Feldherr 
Hitler in seinen 
militärischen Hauptquartieren...sondern vielmehr der Diktator, der hemmungslos Geld und 


                                        
        
 
29
 

43II / 1022, 49.
 
55
 
 
biographer offers a similar assessm

exposed Nazi hubris and its illusions in the East. Although meant to be an imposing symbol of 

(243).
 
Furthermo
re, all three structures were not only (re)built and introduced by the National 
Socialists 

 
each had explicit instructions from Hitler as to exactly how they were supposed to 
look. Plans for modifications of the Deutsches Stadion
 
from 1913 were thrown out
 
because 
Hitler wanted a brand new stadium that adhered to his stylistic requirements based on the ancient 
Greek model and that included a large adjacent field for marching and demonstrations. Speer 

deled Victory Column with the 
additional fourth segment to the pedestal, mocking the Prussians for being thrifty instead of 

sending the architect sketches with 
his own demands of how the interior and exterior should 
look. 
 

these modifications preserved. It is worth noting that post
-
1945 renovation efforts have aimed 
primaril
y to preserve the buildings as they looked 
after
 
Nazi
-
era modifications 

 
and often even 
to clean and restore them to this prior form. This detail is certainly worth our attention, and will 
be addressed in the fourth and fifth chapters. First we will see h
ow these sites survived the end of 
the war and the years afterwards.  
 
56
 
 
CHAPTER 3
 
Survival of the Unfit: Bureaucracy and Logistics Trump Postwar Emotion
 

 
cultural
 

 
-
 
Paul Jaskot (9)
 
 
I.
 
Introductory Scenes
 
 

 

Catholic 

renowned art historian and 

30
 
was also a leading voice on architectural matters in 

participants in the discussion for speaking purely from emotional sentiment when calling for the
 


31
 
looming in the Polish cityscape, he was not in favor of tearing down the palace 
altogether, but wanted rather to remodel it and use it for the postwar city, n
amely by providing a 
home for the Polish university that had been housed there until 1939. The scholar explained this 

-

32
 
(in keeping 
with the stereotypical characteristic of
 
his city) winning out over his natural and emotional soul 
                                        
        
 
30
 
Translation by the autho


 
31
 


off 682.
 
32
 



zachowania gmachu na cele naszego 

 
57
 
 
as an art historian (681). By lobbying to keep the palace itself, his voice was clearly set against 
popular opinion, as citizens responded overwhelmingly to an article on the topic with appeals to 
the new authorities to tear down the palace (
681
).
 
One architectural change Dettloff did call for, however, was the lowering of the 74
-
meter 

hreatening fist of German pride

 
(
681
).
33
 
Its tower dominated 


 
that 
Wilhelm II desired when he commissioned the palace
 
(682).
34
 
Even this advocate of keeping the 
palace 

 


 
demanded the tower be lowered so that 
he c
ould win 
support for 
the bui
lding itself 
to 
be 
preserved and 
utilized (see
 
Figure
 
3.1).
 
 

Caeterum censeo, palatium esse delendum!


destruction of the 

ending each speech with the now famous words (
681
). The Romans eventually did take revenge 
on Carthage, leveling the city and famously sprea
ding salt on the ground to prevent anyone or 

towards German authorities and toward the sandstone castle seen as a German entity 

 
built not 
in Berlin, Bayern or Thüring
en, but in their own city (Dettloff 681; GWlkp [1945], 11, 12, 13).
 

Its proud, pointed clock tower was 
reduced
 
to tw
o
-
thirds of its original height and
 
a 
simple, 
flat 
ro
of introduced just above the four
-
sided clock. A few smaller turrets were shortened as well. 
Though there had been some war damage to the top of the tower, Pazder reaffirms that the tower 
                                        
        
 
33
 

 
34
 
Translation by the author. 



 
58
 
 

 

Zamek cesarski 

had been 
carried out on the tower, city authorities eagerly moved 
their 
offices 
into the building, and a new home for party headquarters was quickly erected next 
door. The mayor calculatedly chose the of
fice formerly designed for Hitler as his own (Pazder, 

 
 
Figure
 

February 1945. 
Here a Soviet tank is visible on the street.
 
While the Zamek eventually was 
spared, the clock tower 

 
perceived by Poles as a symbol of German domination 

 
was lowered 
by nearly one third its height. 
Photograph by Z. Zielonacki, courtesy of Miejski Konserwator 

 
Used by permission.
 
59
 
 
 
 
Berlin, Summer 1945
 
As World War II finally drew to a close in Europe in the spring, and the victorious powers drew 
up the map of Berlin into four respective sections, the grounds with both the Siegessäule and 
Olympiastadion fell to the British administration. French official
s petitioned to have the former 
blown up, but their repeated arguments at the conference tables of numerous Allied 
administrative committees would fall on deaf ears. As a consolation to the French, however, 
British authorities allowed them to fly their fla
g atop the Victory Column until 1949. Still not 
wholly satisfied, however, the French took matters into their own hands. 
 
Four two
-
meter by twelve
-
meter bronze reliefs on the sides of the base of the column 
depict the victorious Prussian
-
German troops in e
ach of the three Wars of Unification from 1864 
to 1871, as well as the return of the victorious troops to Berlin (
see
 
Figure
 
3.2). One of the reliefs 

victory arch to p
roclaim their own triumph. The Siegessäule with its art 

 
and this frieze in 
particular 

 
pointedly
 

proclaiming
 
which nation 
had ultimately prevailed in
 
a long, dueling history between
 
the two 
rivaling neighbors. Earlier Napoleon had taken the 
Quadriga
 
back to Paris with him from atop 
the Brandenburger Tor. Then, before commissioning the Siegessäule following the Franco
-

all of Mirrors, a 
location chosen to humble the French in return.
 
Later, after World War I, Versailles was again 
chosen as the place where the treaty was signed that humiliated the Germans.
 
Shortly after World War II ended, and before the Allied Control Co
uncil met to discuss 

60
 
 
from their places on the base of the Siegessäule and took three of them back to Paris (Alings, 
Vom Geschichtsbild
 
111;
 
Matthias Braun 67). Only
 
the frieze displaying the Prussian
-
led 
German victory over the Austro
-
Hungarians at Königgratz 

 
a pan
-
German matter of no political 
concern to the French 

 


bouts for decades thereafter. Both Reinhard Alings and Matthias 

ve the 
monument destroyed (111; 67
). Regardless of the decisions that were to come on the fate of the 
en
tire monument, the French acted on their own accord to remove at least the most explicit 
element of Prussian and Nazi hubris from what they felt was 
one of 

monument
s
. 
 
 
Figure 
3.2. 
Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit 
(third from l.
)
 
and economic councilman Carsten 
Spallek (second from l.) 
presented
 
a symbolic 
golden key for
 
the Siegessäule 
to 
leaseholder 
Monument Tales Verwaltung GmbH 
after
 
the completion of renovation in May 2011. They stand 
in front of 
the 
frieze 
depicting
 
the Prussian victory over Austria
-
Hungary in 1866. This was the 
only frieze not taken by the French after World War II. Photograph by the author.
 
61
 
 
 
 
Figure 3.3. The original 1936 Olympic bell was buried after the war near where it fell when the 
Glockentur
m was collapsed by the British in 1947. The bell was located and excavated in 1956. 
It is currently on display on the south side of the stadium. A replica hangs in the reconstructed 
Glockenturm. Photograph courtesy of Landesarchiv Berlin.
 
Used by permissio
n.
 
 
Berlin, February 15, 1947
 
The stadium, still standing, was almost immediately used for further sporting events, but one 

-
ton 
Olympic
 
bell hanging from the 76
-
me
ter
-
high Glockenturm, positioned directly across the vast 

in 1947, 
British authorities 
found the bell had a huge hole blown through it with antiaircraft ammunition, 
believed 
to be either a misguided shot at an aircraft or an act of vengeance 
on the bell itself 
carried out 
at the end of the war (Kluge, 
Steine beginnen zu reden 
84). The face of the bell has 
two emblems: one side shows the Brandenburger Tor and the other the Nati
onal Socialist 
62
 
 



Two swastikas are 
imbedded into the latter slogan, which the Nazis used to u
rge Hitler Youth stationed at the 
stadium to fight to their death in the last days of the war. The large hole is directly under the year 
1936.
 
After the tower was demolished in February, in May 1947 the bell was lowered into a pit 
to the west of the stadium across the Maifeld (see Figure 3.3). By burying it, the British sought to 
protect it from precisely that fate which befell the Siegessäule fr
iezes. The Nazi bell was kept out 
of sight for visitors to the stadium as well as for members of the British military based at the 
Olympic complex. 
 
 
II. 
 
The V
alue of 
B
uilt 
S
pace in 
P
ost
-
war 
Urban
 
P
lanning
 
After the traumatizing air raids and brutal stree
t combat
 
in 1945
, many buildings in central Berlin 

-
frame of the original structure, 
open and charred, standing, perhaps even sagging or leaning against its neighboring edifice. 
Others were a 
mass of bricks and dust, piled in front as well as sprayed across the street into 

buildings were uninhabitable; in the Old Town estimates of destruction reach 75% 
to 80% 

-

-
173; Schwendemann 167
-
168). In 
Berlin, between one
-
third and one
-
half of the entire city, and up to two
-
thirds of the city center 

162).
 
63
 
 
When the three structures in this study, however, survived the war, they represented an 





Ghosts
 
141). 
More generally, can any building simply shed its 
negative meaning in favor of rea
ppropriation? 
The physical presence of the three structures in 
this study was apparently so oppressive, in fact, that the need was felt to remove an ideologically 
tainted, visible element from the face of each of them. In each case it was deemed necessary 
that 
some measure of retribution be carried out on the outward appearance of these symbols 
themselves to legitimize maintaining them as part of the urban cityscape.
 
In the case of the Zamek, its dominating clock tower was decapitated, a recompense for 
Pole
s against the symbol of Prussian
-

French stripped the Siegessäule of its humiliating friezes depicting the triumph of their German 


proudly declared the start of the so
-


structure levied a certain retaliation against that for w
hich the buildings themselves had stood. 
 
Curiously, in two of the above cases the element removed was connected not to the Nazi 

commemorated victories in the Prussi
an
-

tower was built by Franz Schwechten for Wilhelm II in 1910. The Nazis only changed the 


balcony. For 
many
 
Pole
s
, the 74
-
meter clock tower was not so much a symbol 
64
 
 

abrupt regime change, the gradual process of restoring order and a decidedly anti
-
German 
se
ntiment in 1945 
were all factors that led 
to the removal of unwanted visible elements at these 
sites.  
 
Once the three elements were removed, life went on and the structures became the 
backdrop for new historical events 

 
some such events specifically stag
ed, others happening at 
those sites by chance. Coupled with time and a social atmosphere of looking forward past the 
trauma of the recent war, the structures silently faded into the background 

 
or at least out of the 
political spotlight. The
se
 
edifices sl
owly lost the stigma they had in 1945, when the war was still 
fresh in the minds of the public as well as new political leaders.
 
Chapter 4 will focus on the new events that took place at each space. This chapter first 
demonstrates how in each case 

 
with t
he exception and at the expense of one key physical 
element 

 
each structure survived not only the war itself, but 

 
and perhaps more surprisingly 

 
the immediate postwar years under respective new administrations. The dire need for functioning 
buildings a

people identified with the Nazi regime. In answer to his own question, cited above, Ladd writes: 


play a key role in the preservation of both the palace and the stadium. Both the British occupying 

inherited examples of 
modified German impe
rialist and National Socialist architecture
. 
Even the 


 
Germans 
and Allies alike 

 
as a rare historical heirloom in the smoldering city center.
 
 
65
 
 
III.
 
Saved by the 
G
uillo
tine: A 
C
astle without its 
C
ap
 

city against the building. Few Poles were satisfied with the prospect of the 74
-

clock tower dominating the skyline 
of a city that was in ruins after a brutal German occupation, 
and had lost the towers from two of its oldest and most important landmarks 

 
the 
sixteenth
-
century 
R
atusz (Old Town Hall) and the 
K
atedra
 
(C
athedral) that dates back to the beginnings of 
both t
he city and the Polish state in 
the tenth century (Pazder 215
-
16). Hence, 
its own
 
dominant 
physical presence
 
immediately threatened the 

future. Ironically, however, it was 
precisely
 
this dominant presence 

 

practical and economic 
worth 

 

 
On February 1, 1945, the Red Army battled the Nazis for several hours at the Zamek 
before taking complete control of the castle on February 2 (Schwendemann 158). The batt
le for 

d
 
for three weeks, culminating i

-
century 
Prussian military 
Fort Winiary or 
Zitadelle (Cytadela
)
 
on February 23 (Kubiak and Olszewski 22 
ff.). 
As demonstrated in the previous chapter, t
he castle 
represented the persistence of the Nazi 

(
see
 
53
-


. For several weeks 
the 
Zamek 
was used as a 
military 
hospita
l 
and held 
German prisoners of war. One such prisoner, 


In his autobiography he 

erstand es offensichtlich auch während des totalen Krieges, feudal zu 

 
66
 
 
 
When, on February 8, the Polish engineer Feliks Maciejewski was named mayor of the 

authorities as a reminder of Prussian
-
German dominance and Nazi brutality, th
e 35
-
year
-
old 

-
occupation cityscape. Just two weeks 
after being appointed, Maciejewski not only promised to tear down the Zamek, but to accomplish 

he city council unanimously agreed 



intentions with a news brief on March 2, following it up the next day with a front page editorial 


 



 
Symbol of Teutonic 

 

 

destruction, criticizing the palace as a product of Prussian militaristic hegemony built with 
French war repar
ations from 1870
-

department, in an August 1945 report urging the city council to limit destruction during 


 
first
 


 


35
 

urbanistic and aesthetic requirements should be the deconstruc
tion of unsightly and invidious 

4
).
36
 
                                        
        
 
35
 



niemiecki, tak obcy duchowi polskiemu, egzystuje jeszcze, a nie ma przeciwwagi w budowlach i 


 
36
 



Kredytowego, Ubezpieczalni 
67
 
 
 
Another 




he blame for its destruction to Hitler and the Germans, thereby 


 
but our 

-
influenced political stance i
s 



selves to discredit all 
Germanic history in the region 

 
not just National Socialists, but Prussians, Austrians, Teutonic 
Knights and the Holy Roman Empire as well (APP, 471/1025, 60).
 
 
Polish 
head of state 

ed a parade on 
Plac Stalina (Stalin Square, the future Plac Mickiewicza) and spoke to a crowd in front of the 
Zamek. Bierut already had his intentions for rebuilding the city. Comparing it to the 
resilient 

m and loyalty and vowed to restore it to its 
forme

i
e
rut did not mention the sandstone backdrop for his 

context. His listeners might easily have envisioned a new building there, especially given the 
recent language in th
e press. 
 

approval of the regional council of the voivodeship (
wojewódstwo
) or province, which 
essentially was an extension of the government in Warsaw. The mayor submitted a
 
motion to 
destroy the Zamek, inquiring as to the jurisdiction and ownership of the building. On June 12, 
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                    
 


 
68
 
 

belonged to the national treasury and the city had no authority 
to tear it down (GWlkp [1945], 
104). Citing several legal statutes from the 

 
going back to 1928, Edward Osóbka
-

recommended the Zamek be given to the university 

memorandum from the presidium of the State National Council (Prezydium Krajowej Rady 
Narodowej) 

 
of whom Bierut was chair and Osóbka
-
Morawski vice
-
chair 

 
not only prevented 
the City Council from tearing down the building, bu
t even decreed that its current style be 
preserved (APP, 1160/78, 25).
 
I
ssues of local memory
, therefore, were trumped by national 
politics 

 
driven in this case by Soviet influence rather than by Polish nationalism
. 
 
A
rt historian Janusz Pazder also credi
ts Osóbka
-
Morawski with halting plans to tear 

-
Morawski opposed the destruction of the Zamek, because 

-
Morawski ordered the Zamek be
 


37
 
The irony of the fact that the 


 

as regional stereot
ype would suggest 

 

uncharacteristic pragmatism, which is normally associated with 
the 
Polish image of Poznanians 

 

 
say that, 
                                        
        
 
37
 

-
Morawski, bo 

-
Mora


 
69
 
 
as an exception, Poznanians in this case were steered by emotion, whereas the premier in 
Warsaw 
acted 

 
in the typical Poznanian
 
fashion 

 


).
38
 
In the end, therefore, while the tower was reduced 
in size 
per the
 


was short
-
lived, lasting merely a few months. His replacement, 36
-
year
-

elected by a vote of 40
-
13
 
on July 16,
39
 
and w
ithin two days he was 
sworn 

238).
40
 

particular, of the
 
Ratusz
 
(Old Town Hall)
. 
 
A portrait 
by Jerzy Watracz 
of the former president hangs today in the
 
R
atusz
, which 

the picture 
Sroka
 
is seated
 
in a relaxed pose, hands at his side
, but with a stern, determined look 
on his face. In the background is the renaissance 
Ratusz 
itself 

 

important architectural work since 1555 

 
its tower and façade reconstructed after the damage it 
sustained during the war. Next to that portrait is another of two toddlers playfully laying bricks, 
imitating the proud,
 
resilient workers in the background who are rebuilding the
 
Ratusz
. As 

same as in Warsaw, Stalingrad, Dresden and other cities in the Soviet sphere of influence that 
w
ere left smoldering after a brutal, yet ultimately successful, war: work and reconstruction. 
 
                                        
        
 
38
 



 
39
 
Seven of the 60 council members abstained.
 
40
 
See also
 
the section for June 29 on p.
 
221, in which Osóbka
-
Morawski introduces the new 

 
70
 
 
 
Figure 3.4.
 


credited with beginning the rebuilding of the 
1555 
Ratusz
 
(Old Town Hall) on S
tary Rynek (Old 
Town Square)
 
after 
its tower was destroyed in World War II. This 1947 portrait
 
by Jerzy 

 


currently hangs
 
in the Ratusz as part of 
a museum 

The Ratusz can be seen in the background. 
Photograph by the 
author.
 
Used by permissio
n of Museum Narodowe w Poznaniu (MNP, Mp1463).
 
 

-
year 
city 
presidency may be associated wi
th the Ratusz, but he could be 
equally remembered as the president who preserved the Zamek. It was this building that 

 
despite its German origins and Nazi associations 

 
appealed to the mayor as the seat of his city 
council. Just like Wilhelm II, Hitler a


1947, he reported to the National City Council on two meetings that past February in Warsaw 
with Bier
ut. Addressing the council members, Sroka referred to the results of these meetings as 

not only 
agreed to let 
71
 
 
them keep the
 
Zamek
, but to move city administration there, using it as the 


(New 
Town Hall) while the
 
original Ratusz
 
on 
Stary Rynek 
was being rebuilt
 
(294)
. 
 
 
By this time in late 1947, two years 
had passed 
since the Zamek had been spared from 

 
impressive building 
for spacious offices. Instead of being used by the university, as Osóbka
-
Morawski originally had 


pproval, he was able to proceed with budgetary 

Sroka listed 16 departments of the administration that were to be located in the Zamek 
immediately, as well as four addi
tional departments that would join them after renovations. This 
left only four departments that would be housed in other locations.
 
 
At the end of his address to the council, Sroka listed the amount it would cost the budget 
for the Zamek renovations: 45 mi


designated to repairing the beloved 
Ratusz
 
on 

during the same two years
 
(10)
.
41
 
The
 

Katedra (C
athedral), has long been one of the 

a Polish administration should put renovation of the German Zamek on the same level of priority 
with the 
Ratusz 
is in itse
lf astounding 

 
not to mention the fact that this was just two years after 
the end of the Nazi occupation. 
 
                                        
        
 
41
 

get and 30 



ticipated for the Ratusz
 
in 1947; and 6 

the Ratusz in 1948.
 
72
 
 
 
In a 
meeting on November 22, 1947, that
 


of the castle. One council member 
reasoned that despite high costs in the first year, they would be able to cut costs in future years 
(1160/32, 102). The motion to approve the budget was unanimously approved, and city 
authorities moved into the stately neo
-
Romanesque structure, where they would stay for 15 years 
(103). Most of the funds were used to convert the wings to offices for the use of the city council 
(1160/18, 10).
 
Schwendemann argues that communist authorities ultimately saved the palace in large 
part because the National Socialist architecture fit so well to the Stalinist ideal. While the 


 
but for a few changes 

 
preserved, 
the interior renovations under the Nazis were so complete that 

interior are still recognizable. Nearly all the original décor 
was
 
replaced with the fascist interiors 


sicherlich, daß die stalinistische Archite
ktur der NS
-
Architektur in vielem ähnelte. Nicht von 

-
71). 
Schwendemann also references a comment Speer made in his memoirs, published in 1969, in 
which the prominent 
Nazi architect was invited to Moscow to meet with Stalin. 

full citation:
 
Etwa Anfang Oktober [1939] ließ der deutsche Botschafter in Moskau, Graf von 
der Schulenburg, Hitler mitteilen, daß sich Stalin persönlich für unsere Baupläne 
interess
iere. Eine Serie von Fotografien unserer Modelle wurde im Kreml 
ausgestellt, unsere größten Bauten allerdings auf Weisung Hitlers 

Schulenburg hatte vorgeschlagen, ich solle zur
 
Erklärung der Pläne nach Moskau 

die Reise. Wenig später teilte mir der deutsche Gesandte Schnurre mit, daß meine 
Entwürfe Stalin gefallen hätten. 
(
Erinnerungen 
183)
 
 
73
 
 
There w
as talk of converting the style of the Romanesque façade, which was seen as a 

(Schwendemann 170). In the end, however, the formidable sandstone walls as well as the 
specifically Nazi interior proved appealing enough, as only modest changes were made inside. 
Postwar Polish authorities took down the tower, but kept the vast majority of friezes, sculptures, 



sheaves of grain were befitting of both ideologies, Schwendemann 
points out 
(171). Friezes of 

 
still adorn the top of the spiral staircase leading to the second 
floor above the Great Hall. Near columns set aback from the staircase is the large oak leaf 
emblem used by the Wehrmacht as a symbol of 
Deutschtum
.
42
 
When asked about some such 
curious symbo
lic elements that can be found today throughout the castle, Zbigniew Antczak, an 
architect who has worked on various renovation and restoration projects in the building during 

ts put in. It was 

P
ersonal interview).
43
 
 

 
The Nazi 
regime had been replaced with an oppressive Stalinist
 
regime, and the university had been forced 
to look elsew
here for much
-
needed classroom and office space. Those who spoke out in the press 
                                        
        
 
42
 
One might also recall the emblematic 
Podbielski Eiche
 
planted on the grounds of the old 
Deutsches 
Stadion
 
during the last years of the 
Kaiserzeit
. The 200
-
year old oak was later 
incorporated into the Olympiastadion
 
construction during the 1930s. 
 
43
 

 
74
 
 
were soon hushed.
44
 
As the next chapter will show in the discussion of the June demonstrations 

for its own use 
had not subsided for an entire decade after the end of the war. For the time being at least, the 
castle with its humbled tower retained its purpose and association as a representative place of 
authority. 
 
 
IV. 
 

T
wo 
U
nsuspecting Naz
i 
S
tructures?
 
Given the fact that the regime had its capital in Berlin for twelve years, remnants of National 
Socialist architecture are surprisingly few, despite enormous sums of state money dedicated to 
massive building projects by Hitler and Speer. Many
 

quite early on by his own war of aggression, and much that was built was destroyed 

either 
during the war or after. Nevertheless more does remain than many realize. Despite the war, the 
average annual building a
ctivity under Hitler was equal to the sum of all building from both the 
nineteenth and twentieth centuries put together before he came to power (Koshar, 

Transient Pasts
 
206). Only several of the structures that survived the war, however, have bee
n 
controversial. 
 
                                        
        
 
44
 
Zofia Karczewska
-
Mar
kiewicz, who wrote theater reviews, cultural reports and editorials for 
the daily 
Rzeczpospolita
, wrote three articles in the fall of 1947 criticizing the government for 
neglecting cultural organizations in postwar decision
-
making and depleting the budget 
for 

from the university. Her articles were brought up in a December 29, 1947, meeting of the city 
council, resolving in the decision to address the problem (APP, 
1160/18, 318). Sroka himself 
then responded to Karczewska
-

decision and the stressing the importance of cultural organizations. Karczewska
-
Markiewicz, in 

er addressed the topic again in the press. Only her theater 
reviews were published. 
 
75
 
 

Reichsluftfahrtministerium
 
and the 
former 




-
to
-

Hoffmann
-

the Nazi structures.
45
 
By 1992, plans 
had been made to demolish the two buildings. 
 
But 

 
as is seemingly inevitable in Berlin 

 
a counter
-
argument arose. Some in the city 
government, as well as lobbyists and the public opposed this destruction as something of which 
their city had experienced 
quite enough in the past five decades. Besides that, building new 
structures would prove much more expensive than remodeling, and would take much longer to 
complete (90). Mentioning several similar buildings in Berlin, Munich and Nuremberg, Wise 
recounts t

Reichsluftfahrtministerium
 

residence (91
-

ic factor often 
ends up carrying the day. As was the case with the controversial Zamek, there was an even 
greater emphasis on budget considerations in 1945. 
 
Let us now shift our attention to the two Nazi structures in Berlin that are part of this 
study, O
lympiastadion and the Siegessäule. Wise 
neglects
 
to mention either in his thought
-
provoking chapter on National Socialist architecture
 

 
perhaps offering further evidence of each 

. 
Yet that does not mean that the two stuctures,
 
both having 
survived the war completely intact
, were void of meaning in 1945

of destruction and lack of built space played a part at the two sites in Berlin. Here, as we have 
                                        
        
 
45
 
Qtd. in Wise, 89.
 
76
 
 

es for the purpose of achieving self
-
legitimization in the wake of World War II, a period when one world conflict had just ended and 
another was just beginning.
 
 
V. 
 
The British 
M
ilitary 
A
dministration 
M
oves into the Olympic 
C
omplex
 
Bombs 
rained
 
down from 
the sky on Berlin in what must have seemed like a constant stream for 
several years during World War II. It may seem strange that Olympiastadion was not targeted. 
There is no doubt that it would have helped disrupt the Nazi war effort. The Nazis had been 
u
sing the space to produce and store armaments since the start of the war. 
The company 
Blaupunkt manufactured primers for anti
-
aircraft machines
 
there


k, 
Großdeutscher Rundfunk
 
(
<
www.olympiastadion
-
berlin.de
>
).
 
Strategically, the stadium complex 


major potential 
targe
t many Allied flight crews saw 
during their approach on Berlin.
 

valuable as a landmark in the days before radar for the countless American and British planes 
and bombers 
deployed on a constant string of missions to Berlin. The oval structure may have 
functioned as a strategic marker 

 
after all, it was the Western source of the Ost
-
West
-
Achse 

 
for 
the many planes flying missions to the capital, directing them on their way
 
to ta
rgets nearer 

 
especially during cloudy weather with limited visibility.
 
77
 
 
 
After the war it was the British, under whose supervision the Olympic grounds fell, who 
were largely responsible for the preservation of the stadium and the entire Olympic complex. 
Journalist Volker Kluge claims th
at the stadium may still exist
 
only becaus
e it fell under British 


Steine beginnen zu reden 
167). 
Otherwise i
t might have been either 
torn down
 
or
,
 
more likely
,
 
simply neglected to
 
become overgrown and forgotten. But despite the 
tainted christening as focal point of the 1936 Nazi Olympics, in 1945 both the functional stadium 
and Olympic complex were valuable assets. 
 

ry start. As soon as 

headquarters, commencing with clean
-
up on July 1, 1945, with the help of German prisoners of 
war, as Kluge recounts (
Olympiastadion Berlin
 
121). The B
ritish military would remain until 
1994 (179). As early as September 23, 1945, they hosted an international Olympics for the Allied 
nations in Berlin. All attended but the Soviets, who pulled out at the last minute.
 
 
The British did nothing to slow down th
e rebuilding of German sports after the war; in 
fact they promoted it (
Fischer and Lindner 254). With the
 
ceremonial first kick of a 1949 
regional league match, British 
Major 
General 
G
e
offrey Bourne, Commendant of the British 
Sector of Berlin, 
returned the
 
Olympic Stadium to German hands (261).
46
 
There were many 
subsequent matches and other events hosted by the West Germans as well as by the British 

 
or 
by both, such a
s the friendly match between
 
English and West German youth sides in 1967 
(
see
 
F
igure 
3.5
).
 
The stadium has even been host to fictional events: in his well
-
documented historical 
                                        
        
 
46
 


may have confused General Bourne 
with former U.S. Sectretary of State, James Byrnes. 
 
78
 
 
crime novel, 
The Good German
 
(2001)
,
 
Joseph Ka
non stages a scene of friendly American
 
football among the Allies at Olympic Stadium in the summer of 1945
 
(110
-
16
)
.
 
 
In 
summary, t
he Olympic complex had a distinct functionality for the Allies after the war 
as military headquarters. In spite of their National Socialist origins and use for armaments 
production, neither the complex nor stadium was targeted during Allied bombi
ng and survived 
the war 
fully 
intact. It is not clear whether or not this functionality or the possible value as an air 

the stadium provided a venue for a mul
titude of recreational and sporting events for those 
stationed in and living in Berlin under British administration. 
 
 
Figure
 
3.5. The British returned Olympiastadion to West Germany in 1949 and it was used as 

erman 
youth 
team 
(r.
) 
meets England in a football 
match in April 19
67 

 

Wembley Stadium. Courtesy of Landesarchiv Berlin.
 
Used by permission.
 
 
79
 
 
 
VI.
 
The 
A
ngel of 
V
ictory 
S
urvives French
 
L
obbying and the Allied Control Council 
 

-
out process that was, at least in some 
respect, unique to the four
-
power occupational system in Germany after World War II. France, 
the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States represente
d four powers whose 
roles in the war, political interests and relationships to the conquered Germany were vastly 
different from one another. This became evident in the long discussion concerning the status of 
the Siegessäule in the urban landscape. The mat
ter took more than two years to be settled 

 

fate, played some role in its preservation: by 1947 it had become so long since the debate began 
that any drastic action
 
would risk being seen as revanchist. Ultimately, while Allied 
representatives 
did recognize what the French correctly pointed out 

 
the 

form and symbolic fun
ction under National Socialism 

 
in the end they 

ori
gins in the 1870s the most substantial argument in 
protecting it from the fateful D
irective
 
No. 
30
. The fact that the discussion persisted into 1947 and the anticipation of a negative public 
reaction also played a role in the decision to keep the monument.
 
During the two
-
year decision process, the monument also fulfilled a function in the 
meantime, not at all unlike its original purpose: as a monument to victory adorned with the flags 
of the victorious powers. In addition to appeasing the French, who fought
 
most ardently for its 
removal, for the time being it provided a constant and satisfactory political symbol for the 
occupational authorities. 
 
80
 
 
Beyond
 
serving the Allies as a 67
-
meter flag pole, the Siegessäule also provided the 
backdrop for post
-
war celebr
ation by the victors. Soviet soldiers celebrated at the site and many 
had their picture taken in front of the monument
 
(
see
 
Figure
 
3.7)
.
47
 
Even the state chose it as an 
appropriate stage for celebration, holding an Allied military parade there to commemorat
e the 
German surrender and display their authority to the public. The French newsreel documentary 


e Nazis used it after it was re
-
erected. The film also provides a clear summary of the French attitude of the time that would 
characterize the bureaucratic battle they so ardently waged over two years to erase the 
Siegessäule from existence. A stream of so
ldiers, jeeps and tanks parade down the former 
Charlottenburger Chaussee, which is adorned with flags and bunting and lined with onlookers, 
some of whom are standing in the shade provided by some of the very few trees still standing in 
Tiergarten in the su
mmer of 1945
 
(
see
 
Figure
 
3.6)
. The narrator clearly describes both the scene 
and the French historical sentiment toward the German capital: 
 
Eine große Parade der allierten Besatzungstruppen feiert in Berlin den entgültigen 
Sieg der vereinten Nationen über
 
die Mächte des Faschismus. Die Truppen der 
vier Siegermächte marschieren durch die Strassen der Stadt, von der aus der 
Zweite Weltkrieg über alle Kontinente getragen wurde....Berlin, das seit 
Napole
o
ns Zeiten keine Besetzung von keiner fremden Macht gekan
nt und das 
erst in diesem Krieg fühlbar die Schrecken der Zerstörung kennengelernt hat. 
Berlin, von wo aus Preußen
-
Deutschland drei mal in den letzten 75 Jahren den 
Krieg in wahnwitzigem Hochmut entfesselt hat. Berlin, die Ruine Berlins, klingen 
wieder vom
 
Schall der allierten Fanfaren. 
(BArch
-
FA, MAG 2986)
 
 
                                        
        
 
47
 
One documentary film shows Soviet soldiers dancing and playing the accordion on May 2, 
1945, after receiving official greetings from Stalin the day before (BArch
-
FA, BS
P 1798). The 
monument was well
-
known as a symbol of the German Sedantag celebrations in the Kaiserreich, 
but World War II was not the first time foreign soldiers celebrated here. A silent documentary 
film from 1919 also shows American soldiers gathering at
 
the Siegessäule in its original place 
after the conclusion of World War I (BArch
-
FA, BSP 06637). 
 
81
 
 

German governing unit answering to Moscow that was headed by the future GDR head of state, 
Walter Ulbricht. Archit
ect Hans Scharoun, who would later build the Philharmonie and 
Staatsbibliothek in West Berlin, was the chair of the Magistratsabteilung für Bau
-
 
und 


ining monuments, placing the structures on three lists: those which would 
remain in their current places; those to be kept, but only on the condition of relocation to 
museums; and those which were to be purged from the urban and cultural landscape. In all 
43 
monuments were to be destroyed, while eleven were to be transferred to museums and ten would 
remain where they were. Near the top of the list of those sl
a
ted for destruction was the 
Siegessäule.
48
 

rzeichen von Berlin, 
aber künstlerisch nicht bedeutend genug, um ein Stehenbleiben an so auffälliger Stelle zu 

(LAB[STA], 100/773, 26
-
31
).
49
 
 
The Siegessäule was no accidental target: towering above the hollow shell of what had 
used to be the
 

the most visible landmark in a city without a skyline. Besides that, it was well
-
known from 60 
years as the centerpiece of Sedantag parades even before the Nazis relocated an
d subjected it to 
                                        
        
 
48
 

its current place at the Gro
ßer Stern. 

rotz seiner pathetischen 
Ausdruckssprache ist es doch als Hauptwerk der Berliner Bildhauerkunst des 19. Jahrhunderts 

100/773, 26
-
31). 
On the final list, Bismarck h
ad been designated to be moved to a museum. To 
this day his statue has remained alongside Moltke and Roon as part of the Siegessäule ensemble 
at the Großer Stern. (773, 2a
-
2f).
 
49
 

between March 
and May of 1946, see Dieter Hanauske, 
Die Sitzungsprotokolle des Magistrats der Stadt Berlin 
1945/46: Teil II: 1946
 
(Berlin: Berlin Verlag, 1999),
 
254
-
257, 386
-
399, 464
-
483 and 499
-
500.
 
82
 
 
their own explicitly public political celebrations. The committee cited its size and stature as 
contributing to the decision, and reasoned that the popular monument was not artistically 
meaningful enough to prevent its removal.
 
The Magist
rat sought to act quickly. Originally the destruction of the monuments was to 

meeting on May 18, the list was approved and the fast
-
approaching completion date was 
moved 
back three weeks. Pending only the approval of the Allied Kommandatura in Berlin (AK), the 
Allied authority in the former German capital
,
50
 


773, 2a
-
2f).
 
 
Figure 3.6. This Allied military parade in the summer of 1945 traveled the same route the Nazis 
used for their parades. The Siegessäule can be seen in the background. Courtesy of 
Landesarchiv Berlin.
 
Used by permission.
 
                                        
        
 
50
 
The AK was the local authority that answered to the Allied Control Council, the four
-
power 
government responsible for all of Germany.
 
83
 
 
The list was, 
nonetheless, much too arbitrary for the AK, who discussed it but eventually 
passed it on to the Allied Control Council (ACC)
,
51
 
that, already on May 13, 1946, had initiated 

and Nazi 

-
155). The directive overruled the decision of 
the Soviet
-

committees. The directive declared specifically those monuments illegal
 

preserve and keep alive German military tradition, to revive militarism or to commemorate the 

defined in the directive the application of the
 



-
39, this 
became a crucial point o
f debate when discussed by various committees.
 
Such decisions, in most cases, fell not to architects, urban scholars and cultural critics, 
but rather to military administrators. The members of the ACC committees were given the 
enormous job of restoring Ger
many to a level of self
-
sustainability after twelve years of Nazi 
rule had permeated every facet of society and government. What is more, they were to operate on 
four
-
member committees made up of colleagues from each of their fellow occupation powers. 
Cold
 
War political agendas were becoming clear, and diplomacy played a significant role. With a 
stack of decisions to be made at each meeting, committee members were accustomed to making 
swift decisions. When something, as in the case of the Siegessäule, neede
d more time, they 
listened to arguments and in the case of stalemate assigned it to another committee for further 
research and advice. Had this case clearly fallen under Directive No. 30, it would have been an 
                                        
        
 
51
 
The ACC is synonymous with the Allied Control Authority (ACA), which is seen in the 
abbreviations of archival signature

 
84
 
 
open and closed decision with no room for deba
te. Instead, the various committees continued to 

passed between committees specializing in education, fine arts, internal affairs and legal 
interpretation. 
 
 
F


Courtesy of Landesarchiv Berlin.
 
Used by permission.
 
85
 
 
The AK in Berlin di
d not appeal to the ACC because they had more power or because 
their approval was necessary, but because of the particularity of this case, a special situation that 

Nazis. 
Obviously already in 1946, the monument was a complex public space laden with multiple layers 




 
Without exception
,
 
on each committee it was the French representative trying to convince 

re. There were different French 
representatives, and though their argument was always essentially the same, it took on various 
versions and was supported by different lines of reasoning. One of the most detailed was a five
-
pronged argument of the Legal Dir
ectorate in which the French delegate first admitted that, if 
interpreting the 1914 date cited in the 
d


e 


Siegessaule [sic] in the heart of Berlin, capital
52
 
of the former Prus
sia, the cradle of German 



s and mosaics which were quite humiliating to France, an 
                                        
        
 
52
 
There is a blank space where this word is presumed to have been on the copy of this protocol. 


py.
 
86
 
 

(BArch
-
K, DLEG/M[47]23, 9
-
12). 
 
The French representative on the Education Committee agreed with his fellow
 
Allied 
representatives that the Siegessäule should indeed not be torn down for political reasons. In other 
words, French resentment of a German monument celebrating victory in 1870 does not justify 
removal of the monument. The argument should rest on the 
fact that after its move and alteration 
in 1938
-

monument to Nazism (DIAC/AEC/M[47]3, 2
-


roader in his criticism. He argued that the 


 

l by the 

No. 
30 was drafted, adding that this 

(DIAC/M(47)2, 14). Tannenberg was one of two localized but
 
highly nationalistic celebrations 
after the turn of the twentieth century that highlight the respective German and Polish views of 
history and of the present. Both were identifiable with growing nationalistic trends. Historian 
Keely Stauter
-
Halsted descri



c



itical groups reframe 
87
 
 
national questions for ideological ends and the rich ambiguities in the cultural representation of 

-
1939 version of the Siegessäule is a 
different monument contains both truth a
nd relevance, the argument itself provides evidence of 


to cite
 
Bucur and Wingfield. 
 
 
In contrast to the Polish commemoration Stauter
-
Halsted mentio
ns, historian Robert 
Taylor documents the 1914 German monument in East Prussia: the Tannenberg Memorial 
referenced by the French official. Erected to commemorate the 1914 German victory over Poles 
near the storied fifteenth
-
century Grunwald site, the memor
ial was considered by 
völkisch
 
writers to mark an act of revenge (Taylor 188). One might pose the question: revenge for what 

 
the 1410 military defeat or the increasing celebrations like the one in 1910 mentioned above?
53
 
 
The French committee member refer

destruction of the Tannenberg memorial in their sweep across Poland would have been 
justifiable even outside of the Allied Directive No. 30. Though that particular action had not 
been preapproved by an internatio
nal tribunal, the Soviets had acted in the spirit of the directive. 


-
K, DIAC/M[47]2, 14). 
 
In the matter of the postwar German
 
monument landscape, the single most important goal 
of the French was the destruction of the Siegessäule. Whether in light of Allied Directive No. 30 
or in spite of it, for them the action was obviously justifiable. The directive was merely 
bureaucratic re
d tape, providing the opportunity for an obstacle to the ultimate goal of 
                                        
        
 
53
 
The Grunwald anniversary continues to be a major attraction in Poland each July, including 
large
-
scale reenactments on the original site. The 2010 event attracted an estimated 200,000 
visitors for the 600
th
 
anniversary of the original battle (Fowler)
. 
 
88
 
 


 
given its location in 
postwar Poland 

 
was likely imminent, in pointing 
to a spontaneous action by the we
stward
-


was simply politicking for the Soviet vote on the matter of th
e Siegessäule.
 
Hence
, in the end,
 
the highest post
-
war authority, haven taken on the specific assignment 
of removing Nazi ideology from the urban landscape of post
-
Hitler Germany, decided by a three
-
to
-
one count that the Siegessäule was not
 
objectionable e
nough to merit its removal. The 
difference of opinion in the discussion wa
s not even drawn along the Cold 
War lines that were 
beginning to dictate the dialogue of so many topics 

 
particularly in Berlin and its four sectors. 
 
In the end, while the French p

indoctrination of the monument, this was perhaps merely an argument of convenience. It was 
rather on account of their national perspective vis
-
à
-
vis the Germans dating back to the 
nineteenth century that 
the French wished to see the monument purged from postwar Berlin. 
When it became clear that their international colleagues could not be convinced of the same, the 
French stripped the friezes and carried them off to Paris, just as Napoleon had done with the
 
Brandenburg
er
 
Tor

Quadriga
 
nearly 140 years prior. The three Siegessäule friezes 
remained in France until the mid
-
1980s. Their symbolic return to Berlin in two installments was 
characterized as a political gesture, as the next chapter will addr
ess. 
 
* * *
 
In his 2001 novel 
Rot
,
 
Uwe Timm marvels at the fact that the Siegessäule survived 1945, a year 
synonymous with the end for so many structures of importance in Berlin. 
 
Es kommt einem Wunder nahe, daß gerade dieser Klops stehengeblieben ist, im 
Krieg nicht von Bomben, nicht von der Stalinorgel getroffen und später nicht von 
89
 
 
den Rotarmisten gesprengt wurde. Nach der Kapitulation haben die Russen dem 
Engel eine rote Fahne in die Hand gesteckt, das war alles. 
(93)
 
 

also used to hoist the French 
Tricolore
 
and the British Union Jack as well as both the American 
and Polish flags at various points, demonstrating a clear justif
ication of the monument in form 
and message. After the arrival of the Allies and the division of Berlin into four zones, it was with 
British permission that the French and Americans were allowed to fly their flags on the 
monument, which was in the British
-
controlled Tiergarten (LAB, B Rep./037/216, 
BKC/M[46]32). One British delegate assured his French colleague that employing the 
Siegessäule as a pedestal for the 
Tricolore
 


-
K, DIAC/P[47]13).
 


display was not simply temporary; the French were permitted to keep their flag 
there until 1949 

 
four years after the war ended. In fact, according to Alings, they replaced the flag 22 times in 
those four years after it had apparently become tattered (112). The French thereby employed the 
services of the same aggressive Viktoria whi



54
 
Hanging another victorious flag on the column simply either gives credibility to 
the monument a
s an admirable, effective symbol of victory, or, from the German perspective, 
establishes the Viktoria as an ironic bearer of the message of defeat. More than that, the Allies 

 
in particular the French 

 
thereby rendered moot and hypocritical all relevant
 
arguments made 
                                        
        
 
54
 


 
90
 
 
against preserving the column, based on its past association with fascism and danger as a 
militaristic symbol. 
 
In the introduction we considered the pressing need for functional buildings in 1945 in 
both cities. In th
e cases of the Zamek a
nd Olympias
tadi
on
, this was the most important factor in 

removal, though both legitimate and valid, may have been the mere façade for a revanchist 
national(
ist) vendetta. One of the deciding factors was a point brought up by several committees 
asked to review the Siegessäule case: timing. As late as 1947, occupation authorities did not wish 

 
local Berlin population. 


-
K, DIAC/P[47]93). The American representative argued 

 
such controversial circumstances, so long after 

-
wide repercussions, as 
its significance was becoming more a question 
of politics than of education or
 

Soviet colleag

(DIAC/AEC/M[47]3, 2
-
3). The British member of the Directorate of Internal Affairs and 

among t
he ruins of Berlin and that the two should remain as a lasting memorial for the German 

ruin could indeed make the case for an effective monument of irony: the str

name and image stand in contrast with its surroundings and the sober reality the war and its 
aftermath had for Germany.
 
91
 
 
In a certain sense, the pragmatism that played a role in the preservation of the Zamek and 
Olympiastadion also appli
es here. The Siegessäule was not a structure that would be utilized on a 
regular basis on the inside, but Allied committee members here make a convincing argument that 

man 
history and its place in a devastated urban landscape were valuable to the ruling authorities 
concerned with their primary formal objectives, namely the denazification and reorganization of 
the defeated Germany. This was a high
-
profile decision that ha
d indeed dragged on long enough 
to generate both anticipation and controversy in the politically
-
charged four
-
zone former capital. 
By deciding to keep the monument, the four powers felt they would gain a measure of legitimacy 
in the eyes of Germans. The vi
sual monument, still intact, had the potential to offer Berliners 
some sense of history that did not directly relate to the Nazi era (although the Nazis had gone to 
great lengths to connect this history to their vision). Whether or not Berliners saw the mo
nument 
in this way can certainly be left to debate: the monument quite likely invoked pride for some and 
shame for others. The committees of the Allied Control Authority, nonetheless, used precisely 
this argument in their final decision to spare the monume
nt. 
 
Ironically, it may have indeed been Germans who had the last say on keeping the 
monument, after all. In the 1971 Sunday edition 
Tagesspiegel
 

recapping headlines from 25 years prior, there was a short mention 

 
all of eight
 
lines 

 
of the 

1971, 39). This prompted one reader, the German antifascist and Holocaust survivor Dr. 
Heinrich Gr

 
weeks later, clarifying that the 
monument is indeed still standing, lest the previous column be misunderstood, and criticizing 
92
 
 
Germans for their lack of appreciation for history (Tsp, 7820/6 June 1971, 25).
55
 
The following 
week, Professor Ferdinand Frieden
sburg wrote in to the same forum to set the record straight. He 
had been a member of the democratically
-
elected Berliner Magistrat in 1946 and served as 

claims t
hat on the Berliner AK, the Soviet and British delegates had sided with the French, but 
the American delegate wished to hear the opinion of the Germans represented by the newly 
elected Magistrat. 




13 June 1971, 25). Friedensburg, however, disagre
ed with both method and motive:
 
Ich widersprach mit Heftigkeit; so häßlich sei das Denkmal nun auch wieder 
nicht, und Berlin sei arm genug an Erinnerungen, die die Stadt mit ihrer stolzen 
Vergangenheit verbänden. Vor allem hielt ich es für unmoralisch, von
 
uns eine 
ausdrückliche Zustimmung zu einem Revancheakt der Siegermächte zu 
verlangen. Ob wir die Siegessäule im neuen Berlin beibehalten wollten, solle 
später einmal von einer wirklich freien Stadtverwaltung entschieden werden. 
(25
)
 
 
The former mayor was 
in the minority, though not alone in his opinion to keep the monument. 

refused to take a protocol of the meeting, and instead of putting the matter to a vote, simp
ly 
informed the Kommandatura that they were una
ble to reach an agreement (25
). 
 

es, und an der Siegessäule freuen sich noch heute die Berliner und zahllose auswärtige 

25
). 
However close the committee might have been to removing the monument, both 
                                        
        
 
55
 
Grüber compares the Germans and Russians in his closing critique of the German attitude: 

n sind stolz auf ihre Geschichte, und sie hüten die Zeugen der Vergangenheit 
von Leningrad bis Moskau, Kiew und Odessa. Wir Deutschen haben nun einmal wenig 
Verständnis für Geschichte und für die Großen der Vergangenheit, und wir haben keine Achtung 
vor de

 
93
 
 


twar generation. There were 
those grateful to see the Siegessäule stand tall in the midst of the ruined urban landscape of 
central Berlin.
 
 
VII. 
 
Conclusion: Function before 
F
orm
 
Michael Wise and Rudy Koshar both argue that functional buildings should not 
be prevented 
from serving a practical purpose simply on account of past association with a discredited regime. 





oppressive authority. In 
Berlin, both structures were utilized by Allied authorities establishing 
their rule over a defeated Nazi Germany. The Olympic complex became the center for the British 
military occupation authority. The Victory Column, meanwhile, testified to the defeated 

the monument itself was at the same time spared by authorities that wished not to offend citizens 
of a postwar German nation (BArch
-
K, 2/124
-
1/12, DIAC/AEC/M[4
7]3).
 


Berlin carried the flag of restoration and rebuilding, fully int


94
 
 
own purposes three of the same prominent structures that Hitler designed to proclaim the 
superiority of National Socialism 

 
p
recisely that past which the new authorities sought to leave 
behind.
 
Each structure continued to stand through the Cold War era, ultimately devoid of N
azi 
meaning. Over time they beca
me insignifican
t, un
-
conflicted and functional
 
rather than 
symbolic. This
 
allowed for their eventual destigmatization. In these cases, society had time to 

Vergangenheitsbewältigung
 
be used to describe the removal of a meaningful piece of
 
each 


difficult past? These symbolic changes 

 
the removal of the t
ower, the Olympic bell and the 
three friezes 

 
were certainly satisfactory enough that there were no major conflicts regarding 
these sites in the decade to come. 
 
Had any of the structures been torn down after the war, there would have been much 
more poten
tial for conflict, even in the future. The Berliner Stadtschloss 

 
which Scharoun, 
ironically, lobbied unsuccessfully to preserve in postwar East Berlin 

 
provides an excellent 
example of this scenario. The site of the former Hohenzollern palace has divide
d Berliners in 
debate ever since it was torn down in 1950 and replaced by the Palast der Republik two decades 

were quiet after the fall of communism in Po
land and East Germany and German reunification; 
subsequent renovations were implemented without a significant voice of opposition. Had 
something more dramatic been done after the war, a natural resistance to such an action might 
easily have grown into a re
luctance to forget.  
 
95
 
 
Many years, even decades after the end of the war, people would begin to ask questions 

long been buried. They lay beneath the dirt with the 
heavy Olympic bell. They were hidden with 
the missing friezes in France. They had vanished along with the highest twenty
-
plus meters of 

oppression. The association 
of these three structures with Nazi ideology disappeared along with 
these signature elements. 
 
The generation that had experienced the horrors of the Second World War was more than 
content to ignore any reminders of it, even in the urban landscape. Few wer
e seeking visible 
reminders at this time, as that generation may have been content to let any architectural 
reminders in its respective city fade into the background. 
 
In both postwar states borne out of the 
Land der Täter
, a generation full of collaborato
rs, 


border onto the new ideological Cold War rival. 
 
Polish histori
an Andrzej Paczkowski has shown that in postwar Poland as well, memory 



 

Zamek as an attractive seat of their own municipal administration, it was no longer useful to 
associate the build
ing with the National Socialist
 
occupants, who, despite large
-
scal
e 
modifications to both the façade and interior
 
that remain to this day

96
 
 
Zamek for a mere five and a half years. The building, like the city, became re
-
conquered territory
 
after the war
. 
 
In the late 1960s and 1970s, by the time anyone from the postwar generation would begin 
to ask questions about the Nazi past, each structure had already become the backdrop, symbol or 
stage for numerous other political, historical and cultural events. Not 
only were these events 
extremely meaningful in their own right 

 

the images and memories from before 1945, 
a 
period 
many were 
trying to forget. While these 

-
1945 events could not always be plann
ed or foreseen, they certainly were 
enthusiastically embraced as imparting meaning on their respective structures. Therefore, one 
might even say the meaning of these three urban spaces would, in fact, change by design. 
 
 
In 1956, the Olympic bell was dug u
p in front of Olympic Stadium 

 
where it is on 
display today 

 
and in 1987, the last of the missing friezes was returned by the French to Berlin 

th
 

during two de
cades since the fall of communism, there has even been discussion of replacing the
 

 
tower.
56
 

we saw at the beginning of this chapter ultimately proved futile, although the
y did succeed in one 

structure bore under the Nazis, the spaces could be more easily associated with future events. 
                                        
        
 
56
 
Whereas there have been multiple suggestions and conceptual designs throughout the past 
several decades projecting a new tower, none of the plans has been approved. The tower has 
remained unchanged since it was lowered at the en

(around $16 million) in local and European Union funds were secured in 2009 by Center of 

portions of the interior of the
 

another project in the foreseeable future currently seems unlikely. Director Raczak was quoted in 
a 2009 interview as saying that although he would like to rebuild the tower, it would 
depend on 
funding that is currently unavailable (Podolska). 
 
97
 
 
Each space would eventually lose its post
-
war st
igma and take on other meanings, as we will see 
in 
chapter
 


 
the result of both time 
and circumstance.  
 
 
Figure
 
3.8. 
This photograph of the Olympic complex was taken in 1947. In front of the 
stadium is 
the expansive Maifeld where the Nazis once held rallies and youth demonstrations. The 
Langemarckhalle is across the Maifeld from the stadium, though its damaged Glockenturm had 
already been torn down. To the left of the stadium in the corner of 
the complex is the German 
sports complex that was used by the British as the headquarters of their occupa

administration until 1994. C
ourtesy of Landesarchiv Berlin. 
Used by permission.
 
98
 
 
CHAPTER 4
 
Time Heals all Wounds? 
The Acquisition of Alternate 
Meaning
 


 
-
 
Günter Grass, 
Im Krebsgang 
(165)
 
 
 
I.
 
Introductory Scenes
 

8, 1956
 
The 

the expense of the university, which we observed in the previous chapter, struck a nerve with 
local citizens that did not disappear in the 1950s. In fact, years afte
r the building had been 
preserved amid threats of destruction, its function was a point of contention voiced by the 
Cegielski factory workers
57
 

28, 1956. 
 
Ten years after the war ended, apartm

capital of a region that rarely in its history lacked 
such 
things. The reality of the bleak everyday 

rosy pictu
re painted by communist propaganda. When faced with increasing food prices and a 
raise in taxes despite stagnant wages, workers from the large Cegielski metal works factory sent 
a delegation to Warsaw to voice their concerns. When they returned only to fin
d promised 
concessions were being denied them, factory workers from the plant in the southern district of 
                                        
        
 
57
 


once again named 
after its nineteenth
-


 
99
 
 
Wilda began a march north to the city administration on the fateful morning of June 28. They 



The 
Spring Will Be Ours
 
273).
 

demonstration 
eventually 
grew to 
over 100,000 citizens. Both the Zamek and the adjacent party 
headquarters were stormed by the crowd of demonstrators. On the outer wall of the central party 




 


 

58
 
Municipal authorities had moved into the Zamek as well after the war, spending
 
over 150 million 

directed toward authorities representing a government that itself had voiced similar resentment of 
the Zamek in 1945 before adapting it to their
 
own purposes. 
 
As events escalated, the government deployed tanks and militia to forcefully suppress the 
revolt. By the end of the day some 70 citizens had been killed, several hundred more injured and 
about 250 arrested and detained for weeks (Paczkowski
 
273). As for the Zamek and its district, 
both would thereafter remain associated with the violence and political implications of the 


act, an event around which Poles from all over the country 
rallied in their long but ultimately successful struggle to overthrow the communist regime. In 

                                        
        
 
58
 
Both quotations and the second translation are taken from the Museum Powstania 

12 May 2011.
 
100
 
 
Castle 
District an unmistakable meaning that has prevailed to the present day 

 
a meaning that, 
for postwar generations, was more recent and has arguably become more relevant than the year
s
 
when Greiser sat in command of his crumbling fascist administration in th
e so
-


 
 
Berlin, August 22, 1951
 
On a warm afternoon in late summer an enormous crowd had gathered at Olympiastadion for a 
special event organized by the Allied authorities. Such large
-
scale recreational events were few 
and far 
between in Berlin, and today some 60,000 people
59
 
filled the seats to take their minds off 
the difficulties of the post
-
war economy, the new political conflict and the literal division of a 
city trying to get back on its feet. Today the Harlem Globetrotters
 
were treating the crowd to an 
entertaining display of basketball, a sport unfamiliar to many in the crowd of excited 
onlookers.
60
 
 
 


ed to Berlin. Jesse Owens, who had shocked the world and 


with enormou
s enthusiasm as the American sprinter rounded the stadium, looking ahead of 
                                        
        
 
59
 
The figure of 60,000 is taken from Volker Kluge, 

Stadium
 
(175). Bud Greenspan, in his 1964 documentary 
Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin
, cites 
80,000 in attendance. 
 
60
 
Basketball had been played as an Olympic event in Berlin in 1936. The United States defeated 
Canada for the gold medal by a score of 19
-
8. The sport had been introduced in Germany before 
the war and both clubs and leagues existed, but still on a small sca
le compared to soccer, 
handball and other team sports. Even in the United States
 
after the war, the National Basketball 
Association was only in its very first years
 
of existence
. 
 
101
 
 
himself with a determined step and grateful eyes. He was dressed in a white track uniform with a 
diagonal stripe running down across the chest, matching the pattern of the U.S. Oly
mpic Team 
uniform he donned 15 years earlier. When he concluded the lap, Owens ran over to midfield 

was on its feet. Reuter, in a gesture meant to make up for Hitle

after his Olympic victories, received the champion warmly with both hands. Leaning over out of 
his seat in the first row, Reuter shared a few seconds with Owens, as Berliners roared their 
approval.
61
 
 
Berlin, 
May 1949 /
 
Octo
ber 1983
 
When, after nearly a year, the Soviets lifted their blockade of West Berlin on May 12, 1949, the 
French ultimately pulled down their flag from the Siegessäule, in symbolic silence. It was clear 
that they were now allied with the West Germans again
st the Soviets, a political stance that was 
no longer well served in humiliating Berliners through the display of the victorious French flag. 


Vom Gesch
ichtsbild
 
111
-
112).
 
French leaders were, however, not as prepared to return the three bronze reliefs that were 
stripped from the base of the column just after the war. A 1952 request by the Berliner Senat for 
the friezes to be returned to the monument was 
rejected by the French, whose administration 
refused the same request again in 1964 and 1978 (Sp, 4/23 January 1978, 83). In 1964, however, 
the French finally admitted to having two friezes in their possession.
 
They were being kept in 

Municipal Muse
um and Army Museum, respectively 
(Alings 115)
. 
 
                                        
        
 
61
 

 
102
 
 
Finally, in October 1983, Jacques Chirac 

 
at that time the mayor of Paris 

 
announced to 


W
eizsäcker thanked him 

Der Spiegel
,
 

-
französischer 


 
In 
February 1984, the French returned both that frieze and one other to Berlin, which left 
only the frieze depicting the 1864 victory over Denmark at large. Despite varying rumors placing 
it in Copenhagen or considering it melted down by thieves after the war
, it was French president 

th
 
anniversary celebration (Alings 115). During his speech Mitterrand contextualized the political 

in 

 
soll diese Stadt nicht die Hauptstadt des Dialogs 

the return of the final frieze 
as a 
suggestion to initiate dialogue in Berlin, a city where for decades political communication was 
typified by walls, checkpoints, spies and an arms race. Despite a stubbornness that lasted several 
decades, therefore, the friezes finally reappeared and w
ere returned on two occasions to Berlin, 
thereby redefining the Siegessäule as a symbol of French
-
(West) German political solidarity 
during the Cold War. 
 
 
II. 
 
The C
onstruction of 
M
emory on the 
Tabula R
asa
 
As 
c
hapter 3 
has 
demonstrated, each structure bea
t the odds to survive both the war and the 
vocalized motion for removal by new authorities. Each was permitted to remain 

 
at least for the 
103
 
 
time being 

 

utilized 

 
two of them i
mmediately 

 
and before long, authorities poured money into 
preservation and renovation. The two Berlin structures were eventually placed under 
Denkmalschutz
, forbidding anyone from removing them or remodeling in a way that might 
deemphasize their historic
al design 

 
that is, the design (or redesign) implemented by the 
National Socialists. 
 
 
The question to be answered in the current chapter is quite simple: What happened next? 
The fact that each structure was preserved meant that its history would continue
, as new events 
and interpretations would continue to account for an alternate memory than that associating the 
spaces with the Nazi past. Until the present day, each edifice has now seen nearly seven decades 
since the end of the 

 
in relative terms 

 
shor
t
-
lived reign of National Socialism. 
Does each 
attempt to define 
one
 
of th
ese three public spaces require
 
consideration of the use, meaning
 
and 
interpretation of its past? This has
 
certainly 
not always 
been 
the case. It was apparent that some 
events made s
pecific reference to that past, demonstrating a consciousness for what had 
happened there. Yet other subsequent events seemed staged despite the past, and still other 
events happened with such spontaneity that the site 

 
historical or not 

 
could in no way
 
have 
been preconceived. Many of these post
-
1945 historical events added layers of both history and 
memory 

 

meanings under National Socialism.
 
This chapter will discuss the func
tion, meaning and interpretation of these spaces in the 
decades after World War II. The chapter will pursue answers to the following questions for each 
of the three spaces: What else occurred here historically, and how else have these spaces been 
used? Wha
t are some examples of how these sites have been represented in literature, film, art, 
104
 
 
photography, theater, the media and other public venues, and how have they been presented and 
interpreted there? How did this change, if at all, after the fall of commun
ism in 1989, which saw 

After this chapter presents the historical and cultural events 

 

structure and space, so to speak 

 
the f
ifth and final chapter will then, taking all of this into 
consideration, assess how the meaning of each structure has changed and the potential each 
space still has. 
 
 
III. 
 
Zamek C
esarski
 
When, after World War II, it became apparent that the German castle
 

was there to stay, something noteworthy happened with the surrounding space. In the subsequent 

focus on Polish national memory. This bega


 
which included storming the Zamek as the seat of city authorities 

 


Piotr Grzelcza
k writes of 
P
lac Adama Mickiewicza
 
(Adam Mickiewicz Square)
,
 
the open square 


-

62
 
In addition to historical events like Po

the series of monuments around the castle also changed the impression of the building itself, 
specifically by steering public vision and attention to those particular events and personas 
formed and spelled out in gilded permanence. 
 
                                        
        
 
62
 
Translat


 
105
 
 
The Zamek it
self housed the university (albeit for a brief time), the city administration 
and two cultural institutions 

 
all of which continued the uninterrupted utilization of the building 
as a space with contemporary function. During the first postwar decades, inst
ead of a marker 
outside the building informing people of when or why it was built or how it was used before 
1945, the castle was gradually surrounded by monuments telling exclusively of the Polish past 

 
only two before 1989, followed by a flurry of commem
orative markers in the two decades after 
the fall of communism. The Zamek became a 
tabula rasa
 

largely ignored while the space became officially identified only by the current institution(s) 
located there and the visual
 
cues of Polish national memory around its perimeter. 
 

space to give it a more national character happened on the large, adjacent square 

 
originally 
known in 1903 as Bis
marckplatz. In 1955 the 

 


state officials approved the nineteenth
-
century national poet as patron. Less than two years later 
in January 1957 

 
and just half a year after
 


 
the prominent square was officially 


the square unoffic
ially bore the name of Joseph Stalin 

 
a name most Poznanians were reluctant 
to keep (Grzelczak 100).
63
 
In May 1960 a four
-
meter likeness of the famous poet atop a two
-
meter pedestal was unveiled on the square 

 
a short distance from the place where the Bis

                                        
        
 
63
 

district, whose workers marc
hed to the Zamek on June 28, 1956, was also officially named 

demonstrations, when the company was once again named after its nineteenth
-
century founder, 
Hipolit Cegielski: 

 
106
 
 




56).
64
 
Though this 

was chosen for the square, it is perhaps noteworthy that an earlier proposa
l in 1948 suggested a 
colossal Mickiewicz out of the sandstone from the lowered Zamek tower that would stand 
equally as high as the tower (Grzeszczuk
-

 
When
,
 
in 1966
,
 
Poland celebrated its one
-
thousand
-
year anniversar
y, there were still 


impression that though the city itself is 1000 
years old, most of the central architecture bears 

25). When plans for construction of the commercial center 
ALFA, a row of five twelve
-
stor
y 
towers just down 

65
 
from the Zamek, were 


r the 
Zamek, so as to dwarf the latter and its clock tower, which had already been cut down to two
-



realize is that the tower would also have dominated the adjacent communist party headquarters, 
                                        
        
 
64
 
The monument of Bismarck stood from 1903 to 1919 on what was then known as 

Holy Heart of Jesus) 

 



 
was unveiled. This monument featured a 5.3
-
meter statue of Christ and was intended as a 
national monument of thanksgiving for independence won by Poland in 1918
-
19. It was torn 
down in 1939 at the beginning of 

-
19). 
 
65
 

-


, p.
 
98
,
 
as
 
well as 
his footnote 14 on p.
 
105.
 
107
 
 
one of two other buildings between the Zamek and the planned ALFA skyscraper. The project, 
therefore, never came to fruit
ion (26). 
 
 
In 1962 the city administration moved to the former Jesuit College at 
P
lac Kolegiacki
 
(Collegiate Square)
, where it remains to this day, and the Zamek became home to the multi
-




Adam Mickiewicz Square, meanwhile, was used as the site of both state
-
sponsored and 
spontaneous political gatherings. In 1966 state 
officials used the space for the official millennium 
celebration of the Polish nation, while the Catholic church held a simultaneous millennium 

Baptism of Poland),
 
at the cathedral on the other side of the city (Grzelczak 101). In 1968, writes 

name and likeness) to join fellow students in Warsaw and other cities in protesti


Dziady
66
 



 
The spa
ce around the Zamek is simultaneously 

and 
lieu de mémoire
, as 


 
it also 
became the site of the monument to the same. Like the historical event, the ere
ction of the 
monument in 1981 was a significant event in itself, as were subsequent gatherings and 
demonstrations at the site. History became memory and memory history. 
 
                                        
        
 
66
 
The Romantic drama 
Dziady

communist officials in Warsaw in 1968 because of its themes of Polish freedom and strong anti
-
Russian undertones.
 
108
 
 

. 




events
.

of government opposition. 
The authors explain: 

and resistance, where Poles would voice their protest t


 

). 
 
Grzelczak explains the significance of the space to Poznanians today because of the 1956 
uprising, the memory of its victims and the long struggl
e for democracy against the communist 
regime: 
 

elections, which signaled the fall of communism in Poland, the first legal 

event since 1981 
took place on Adam Mickiewicz Square. In winning the election, the democratic 
opposition also prevailed in its struggle for the memory of that place, for the 

the events established a clear break that closed an important period in the postwar 
history of the square. (105)
67
 
 
On account of the events of June 1956 described by Grzelczak, as well as the importance of the 
Cold War period and the difficulty of struggle
 
for memory, the space became politically charged 


                                        
        
 
67
 









 
109
 
 
memory, for making it d

 


).
 
That political struggle was of an entirely different nature, however, and had a different 
opponent than the longtime Prussian or tyrannical Nazi occupiers. The 2009 book 
Cities after
 
the 
Fall of Communism: Reshaping Cultural Landscapes and European Identity
, edited by urban 
scholars John 
Czaplicka, Nida Gelazis and Blair Ruble, explores recent trends of architectural 
self
-
interpretation in a range of post
-
communist cities, from Odessa
 
and Sevastopol to Vilnius 

witnessed clashes between conflicting historical narratives, influenced by national memory 
tropes, nostalgia, the emergence of capit
alist economies, and European and global influence on 
local and national identities (1
-
13). Though it is not among the eleven cities examined in the 

memory history
 
of the Castle District.
 
Sociologist Krzysztof Podemski argues that the Castle District lost both its original 
political meaning from the German Kaiserreich as well as its subsequent Cold War political 

 
character entirely, becoming an important 
public sphere, a place of symbolic memory of the past, a space of official celebrations and public 

68
 
To a 
certain
 
extent
, 
however
, the space has still retained its political character. 
The memory t
hat has been reinforced is 
now 
that of the Polish struggle for freedom 

 
from 
longtime German and Russian occupation (embodied in the Mickiewicz statue) and from Soviet 

 
                                        
        
 
68
 




 
110
 
 
 
Figure 4.1.
 

Mickiewicz Square (Plac Mickiewicza). This postcard by DDK Edition 
(Pozna

) 
was produced 
in 2011. Photograph by Dariusz Krakowiak.
 
Used by permission.
 
 
According to urban scholar 
Hanna Grzeszczuk
-
Brendel, however, the contemporary 
function of Adam Mickiewicz Square, as the scene of important events in both the public and 
private spheres, has fulfilled precisely 
one of 
the goal
s
 
that renowned German city planner Josef 
Stübben had in
 


-
purpose cultural center for the city, 
Stübben 
also 
planned to use the new 
Schlossviertel
 
to display the superiority 
of Ge
rman culture 

 
Hebungspolitik
, which is discussed in 
c
hapter 2.
 
In the post
-
communist 
era the district has continued to attract people for political, public and cultural events, and 
citizens have spent private time in the square and a
djacent courtyards of the Zamek. Grzeszczuk
-


111
 
 
significanc

69
 
This is consistent with the key characteristic of 
the district under the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period, as legal historical 

ontinued political and 

(73
-
74). This role as university center was absent, however, during the reigns of both Wilhelm II, 
who founded a royal academy (not yet 
a university) exclusively for German citizens, and the 

severely manipulated politically (Schwendemann 103).
70
 
During both German reigns the district 
functioned first 
and foremost as administrative center and symbol of authority.
 
 
In a flurry of memorializing that began in 1999, several monuments were unveiled that 
literally encircled the Zamek. Though clearly representative of Polish national memory, I argue 
that each 


though others followed. In 1999, on the 80
th
 
anniversary of the Greater Poland 
Uprising
,
71
 
a 

directly beneath the so
-

                                        
        
 
69
 




 
70
 
Schwendemann adds that the Posener Reichsuniversität was one of three 

y the Nazis, along with those in Straßburg and Prag.
 
71
 


Paderewski on December 27.
 
The successful uprising assured Poles in the Greater Poland 
province (
Wielkopolska

the new Polish state that was established after World War I. 
 
112
 
 

72
 
from communism a
nd is presented on behalf of 


introduced in the garden behind the Zamek on the
 
60
th
 
anniversary of the Soviet invasion of 

-
Czech 232). 
 
The year 2007 saw two new additions in front of the main south façade of the Zamek. In 

 
opened 
inside the Zamek on the basement level with an entrance 
along the main thoroughfare, ulica
 

metal 
numerals
,
 
nearly two meters in height
 
and 

,


numerals 
illuminate in red at night. Just a few steps to 


German Enigma mach
ine during the 1930s. The students studied mathematics at the time at 

during World War II and not least to future Allied cryptologists. The monument is a thr
ee
-
sided 
bronze obelisk covered in numbers, with the name of one of the three mathematicians 

 
Marian 


 
on each side
 
(
see
 
Figure
 
4.2)
. These two 
monuments stressed important local contributions to national memory
, specifically in support of 


 
a national 
memorial with no direct connection to the Castle District, since it commemorates victims of 
Soviet crimes 

 
was recently incorporated into l
ocal identity: in the summer of 2010 a temporary 
exhibition was set up along the sidewalk encircling the monument. The exhibition 
consisted of
 
a 
                                        
        
 
72
 
Translation by the author. Orig.:
 

 
113
 
 

Greater Poland, th
ereby repositioning the national tragedy within 
a 
local context. 
 
 
Marek Raczak, who recently retired after serving for 13 years as director of Centrum 

after become
 
director in 1998, Raczak commenced with plans to systematically clean the 


people, 
despite having this building in the center of their city, were not familiar with it. It used to be such 
a repugnant building, as if too dark, black and 
repugnant 

Personal i
nterview).
73
 
 

 
fictional works illustrate the difference 

Pulpecja
,
 
a novel 


 
family over the span of several decades, teenagers Patrycja and 
Marcelek meet to go to the cinema located inside the Zamek. Musierowicz describes the building 


 


 
seems to endure 
with an independence from [the waves of traffic on the busy street], closed into itself and full of 

74
 
The black façade and imposing architecture reflect the general 
attitude toward the building in the 1990s. 
 
                                        
        
 
73
 



 


 
74
 


 


 


 
114
 
 
 
Figure 4.2. This t
hree
-

mathemeticians who deciphered the code of the German Enigma machine in the 1930s. They 

author. 
 
 
The ligh
t gray Silesian sandstone revealed after its cleaning, however, merits a mention 

on
 


75
 
demonstrates the stark change in perception of the castle since the 
cleaning, which 

 
but for the final stages on the western façade 

 
had been completed the year 

inve


                                        
        
 
75
 


 
115
 
 
reached the crosswalk, he glanced at the polished Zamek Cesarski. When he was young, it had 

76
 
The c
leaning of the walls has had a major impact on the overall impression as well as the 


 
Smura writes of 


 
not so long ago it was all black from 


ided tours of the Zamek on a larger scale. And 
it turns out that it really caught on. With great enthusiasm Poznanians began coming here for 
sight
-

Personal i
nterview).
77
 
In 2010 and 2011, guided tours of the building that 
were offered once a
 
week in the summer and once a month in the offseason regularly attracted
 
between 100 and 
200 visitors
 
per tour
. 
 
Podemski documents the significant change in perception of the Zamek and its 
surrounding district, particularly in the past 20 years. His 2004
 


Stary Rynek
 
(Old Town Square) 
the Zamek was the second
-
most visited place by international 
visitors, with 36% of them coming to 
see the Zamek; only 15% of domestic visitors visited the 
building, however, making it the sixth
-
most visited site (116). 
 
                                        
        
 
76
 



 
77
 
Translation by the author. Original quo



 
116
 
 

the monthly magazine 
National Geographic Trav
eler
 
conducted a widely
-
publicized online 


been rediscovering forgotten struc
tures, renovating them and turning them into true touristic 


). Zamek cesarski ranked among the leading sites for several months and 
eventually finished eleventh out of 35 total sites throughout Poland with 3.10% of all votes. 
Though nar
rowly missing a top
-
seven finish (the seventh
-
place finisher had 5.43% of all votes), 
Zamek was far ahead of such sites as the Museum of the Polish Air Force (32
nd
 
place, 0.26%) 
and Chopin Museum (34
th
 
place, 0.18%), both of which are much more representat
ive of the 
national Polish narrative
 
(Wojciechowska)
. This favorable attitude toward the building is 
representative of the current generation, for whom the Zamek is the anchor of the university 
district and a place where people gather for cultural events.
 
 
IV. 
 
Olympiastadion
 

events, particularly track and field and football. On September 23, 1945, the British had already 
used the stadium to host a track and field
 


Olympiastadion Berlin
 
121). According to 
Welt in Film
, a regular 
documentary news program produced by the occupying Americans
 
for a German audience
, the 
first sporting event open to t
he German public was an exhibition football match in 1946 between 
the British occupying troops and Sheffield Wednesday, won by the former by a 5:1 count 
117
 
 
(BArch
-
FA, WiF 53/1946). Perhaps most telling about the 
Welt in Film 
newscast is the contrast 
between t
he report of the match and a previous report of the South African president visiting the 

score, which, together with the presence of an international leader, cas
t clear judgment on the 
Nazi regime and on Hitler in particular. The football match, however, featured an upbeat, cheery 
musical score with fans 

 
both soldiers and local Berliners 

 
laughing and enjoying the event 

 
regardless of the location. Military le


WiF 53/1946
). 
 
A few weeks later there was another track and field event for all occupying powers, 
including nations such as Denmark and Belgium. 
An American general opened the gam
es as the 
Welt in Film 



n, 

-
FA, WiF 69/1946). 
Der Augenzeuge
, a
 
news documentary produced 
by the Deutsche Film Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA) in the Soviet Zone, reported on the same event, 
depicting the lighting of the torch and introducing footage of competit
ion with the following 

Das Berliner 
Olympiastadion ist erhalten geblieben und bietet im glanzvollen Rahmen für ein großes 

-
FA, AZ 20/1946). 
The 
former 
Nazi stadium 
as historical 
topos
 
has clearly been pardoned 
here 
of any lingering association with the fallen 
regime 

 
and this from both the Western and Eastern postwar perspectives and their competing 
worldviews.
 
118
 
 
 
Another example of the clean s
late the stadium was given after the war is illustrated by a 
1950 Deutsches Reisebüro commercial promoting the city of Berlin.
78
 
The one
-
minute 

local identity i
n Berlin as opposed to the national German identity, which was at an absolute low 
in 1950 because of the shame of the war and the fast
-
emerging political crisis that had divided 
the country in two. The clip shows West Berlin sites such as Kurfürstendamm, W
annsee and the 



 


-
destructi
on days 

 
a touristic foresight that 
has drawn much criticism in contemporary Germany for ignoring the Nazi past. Near the end the 

presumably a sporting event at O


ecreation and 
not with history (BArch
-
FA, K 39983)
. 
 
 
Volker Kluge
 
writes that 

 

war (120).
 
Whitewashing
 
the stadium

 
space 
instead 
to current 
Cold War politics 
was being practiced 


lustration provided already in a 1946 report from 
Der 
Augenzeuge
 
(BArch
-
FA, AZ 27/46). The DEFA news program reported on an American football 
game in Olympiastadion, colored with the same political jargon that typified the East
-
West 
world
-
view conflict for
 
decades thereafter. The sport is depicted as violent, senseless and foreign 

                                        
        
 
78
 
The advertisement was produced by Kontakt Film Gm
bH.
 
119
 
 
football. 
Zwei Mannschaften aus Amerika im Lande der höchst
-
entwickelten Zivilisation 
zeigten 

First an equipment manager 
is shown lining up helmets on the grass in preparation for the violence of the event. In the 
background fast
-
paced jazz music played by a marching band set
s a chaotic tone for the piece. 
The first play is not a highlight, but a simple off
-
tackle dive for a short loss, where the ball
-
carrier is mauled by several defensive players. The empty stands 

 
except for members of the 
American military 

 
add to the iro

completely absent. Soldiers, meanwhile, are shown looking on and yelling with aggression. The 
closing scene presents an injured player being helped off the field by two trainers, followed by a 
close
-
up of a concerned woman biting her fingers while looking on in horror. The commentator, 
his voice marked by a highly sarcastic, admonishing tone, closes his message with the words: 

(BArch
-
FA, AZ 27/46)
.
 
 
Several weeks earli
er, however, in contrast, 
Der Augenzeuge 
showed a clip of young 
Berliners enjoying a summer day by diving at the Olympic Schwimmstadion located in 

-
FA, AZ 14/46, 2). After the pool was 

isitors in 1950, there were 83,000 swimmers and divers who visited that 

with smiles on their faces as they dive into the pool used in 1936 for Olympic competit
ion. The 
upbeat orchestral music combined with the enjoyment of the participants creates a mood in 
contrast with the heavy architecture of the Schwimmstadion and the Olympiastadion, the façade 
of which hovers over the scene in the background. Compared to t
he football scene, which 
associates the American military with violence and aggression, this scene depicts peaceful, 
carefree Germans enjoying a more innocent and artistic sport. Despite the fact that both events 
120
 
 
were held at the same former
-
Nazi site, t
hi
s did not ensure a consistency
 
in how the events were 
presented. In fact, the place played no role at all in the presentation of the event; rather the 
American occupying power and carefree German citizens were shown in contrast to each other 
based on the q
uickly developing Cold War politics in the divided former German capital. That 
same year more obvious measures were made to distance the stadium from its past, when West 


(126).
 
* * *
 

four
-
gold
-
medal performance to run a commemorative victory lap before a huge crowd in the 
same stadium, culminating in a warm congratulatory embr



Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin
. Both 


effectively 

Olympiastadion, repositioning the erstwhile tainted 
topos 


 
 
Greenspan begins by positioning the stadium in the cu
rrent political landscape of 1964 

 
a time of extremely high tension during the height of the Cold War, just three years after the 

begins with Owens narrating, appa



Tiergart
en westward, past Schloss Charlottenburg to Olympiastadion. Owens describes in a 
121
 
 


rom the rest of the 

Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin
). 
 
Just as the French removed their flag from the Siegessäule in 1949 and returned the 
friezes in the 1980s as gestures of political solidarity with West Germ
any, the British flag was 
officially lowered on June 12, 1949, when British Commandant Geoffrey Bourne presented the 


e side of the Allies and the West, deemphasizing the 


dictatorship, to divided 
Berlin, where it was void of meaning. This mirrors the common trope on 
both sides of divided Germany of ignoring the Nazi past in the face of a more imminent political 
threat.
 
 
Leaving the center of the city and current conflict behind, however, Greenspan 
and 



(
Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin
)
.
 
Owens then recounts his 
participation in the opening ceremony, the competition, receiving each of his four gold medals 
and his friendship with German long jumper Luz Long, who offered Owens strategic advice to 
prevent him from disqualifying. During the cl
osing ceremony, when the evening sun descended 
directly behind the Olympic flame, Owens recollects: 
 
We wept without shame, for I think all of us felt as brothers. The Olympic flame 
was dying in front of us. The Olympic flag was slowly being lowered from i
ts 
heights, and at this moment there were no nationalities, or different colors of skin 
122
 
 
or different religious beliefs, but rather a natural aristocracy of man, the 
qualifications of which are talent and virtue. 
(
Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin
)
 
 
Here, it is
 
the Olympic spirit of sportsmanship and competition thought to transcend politics 
upon which Greenspan rests his historical views. Owens continues:
 
And now it was time to go home. We all of us knew that perhaps we were seeing 
our newfound friends for the 
last time, for the war was but three years away, and 
the spirit and comradeship that we loved so much in the Olympic Village would 
make unnatural enemies of many young people who had laughed, cried and broke 
bread together. 
(
Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin
)
 
 
Belittling the fact that sports are often themselves used to political ends, Greenspan 
focuses on the grandeur and camaraderie of Olympic competition in the 1936 Games, while 

international 
community while distracting them from newly
-

is perhaps somewhat predictable, coming from a respected sports journalist and filmmaker who 
spent his entire career romanticizing memorable Olympic 
moments on screen. In the process, the 

representing Nazi Germany were all gracious, depoliticized competitors like Luz Long.
 
 



stadium grounds was renamed Jesse
-
Owens
-
Allee in his honor. His wife, Ruth, was on hand in 
Berlin in 1984 for the spe
cial ceremony. 
 
Two recent films depicting Olympiastadion provide alternative interpretations to that of 

inability to separate politics from sport, thereby demonstrat


Berlin 36: 
Die wahre Geschichte einer Siegerin
, is a historical drama based on the story of Jewish high 
123
 
 
jumper Gretel Bergmann. Bergmann, who had
 
been expelled from her sports club in Ulm on the 
basis of racist policy and emigrated to the United Kingdom where she became a national 
champion, was invited to return to Germany and train for the Nazi team leading up to the 1936 
Olympics. The invitation 
was simply a political ploy to prevent an American boycott from the 
Games; the day after the American team set sail, Bergmann received word that she was being 

represen
tative of the acutely sensitive and, at times, hypercritical view of the German past held 
by the post
-
reunification generation responsible for the influx of monuments throughout the 
country, and particularly in the German capital. 
 
The second film, Thomas 

Berlin: Sinfonie einer Großstadt
, is a montage of 
hundreds of scenes from all over Berlin shot in 2002.
79
 
The scenes are arranged to portray the 
city of Berlin on one typical day. One two
-
minute sequence pauses, as if for reflection, at 
Olympiastad
ion. Whereas many scenes depict movement and pace of the living and working 
city, this particular one is noticeably calm and still. Schadt uses a constant high
-
pitch of a single 
violin note to invoke a slight uneasiness, as the camera aimed at the shadows 
inside the 
concourse pans downward to show the numbers 36 and 37 marked on the walls of the section 
entrances. Given that this is the first 
shot
 
of the two
-
minute sequence, the viewer can read the 

e music combined with the site 

National Socialist past. 
 
Schadt identifies the stadium without naming it, points out Germanist Evelyn Preuss, 
showing distinct feat

                                        
        
 
79
 

Berlin: Die Sinfonie der 
Großstadt
, presenting a modern interpretation 75 years after the original.
 
124
 
 
references to the past, its history, and to place it in the contemporary debates surrounding 

ing, the 
Olympic rings, the track, and several original sculptures in the Nazi aesthetic, such as Joseph 

 
Rosseführer
 
at the entrance to the Maifeld. For those viewers still unfamiliar with the 
visual clues, before the scenes return to the urban 
center and the music speeds up again, Schadt 
provides one last queue at the end of the sequence: a sign missing only its first few letters. For 

temporal and sp
atial coordinates, Schadt renders one line in the sign marking the site fully 


 

film shows two construction workers emerging from their booth located just out
side the 
Marathon
-
Tor, as a low but menacing piano rhythm emerges. As alluded to by the sign in the 

-

the remodeling of the stadium by the Hamburg firm Gerkan, Marg
 
und Partner 
(gmp) 
in 
preparation for the 2006 World Cup. 
 
 
In the postwar decades Olympiastadion also became an important site for football, 
regaining its significance on both local and national levels. The West Berlin club Hertha BSC 
Berlin qualified to 
begin playing in the top flight of the newly
-
founded Bundesliga in 1963, 
playing its home games at Olympiastadion. A bid to host the 1966 European Cup final was 
denied because of the lack of lights for a match at night; they were installed in November that
 
year (Kluge 135). In 1966 West Germany was also appointed host nation for the 1974 World 
Cup. Berlin was included as a host city and the stadium was renovated and received partial 
roofing over the center sections of the main tribunes. Since 1966, the stad

125
 
 
officially preserved, as it was added to the list of historical German buildings, monuments and 
architectural works protected by the national Denkmalschutz initiative (Trimborn 143). 
 
In the 1974 World Cup, both the West German and East
 
German sides played first round 


Chileans.
80
 
Even during the World Cup, the Britis
h reminded the public of their occupying 



 
she had already even made a state 
visit at this site 

 
thi


 
Since 1985 the stadium has served as host venue 

 
and Berlin as host city 

 
for the final 

81
 

-
Bu
nd Pokal (German Football 
Association Cup or, as hereafter, DFB
-

-
Pokal 
several times between 1936 and 1943, when it was known as the Tschammer
-

Reichssportführer, Hans von Tschammer und Osten.
 
Six times between 1950 and the founding of 

Steine 
beginnen zu reden
 
154). Since 1985 the event has once again been bringing fans of four German 
                                        
        
 
80
 
While West Germany and East Germany did meet that year, resulting in a historical
 
1:0 East 

goal, the match was played in Hamburg 

 
and not Berlin.
 
81
 


s Olympiastadion until 2010. 
 
126
 
 

 

annual boost to local tourism.
82
 
 
I would argue that at events like these, the stadium has primarily represented the city of 
Berlin, while representing Germany only secondarily. This is evi
denced by the local tourism 
shown in the one
-
hour documentary film 
Hinein 

 
Ein Film um die deutsche 
Fußballmeisterschaft 1950
, which centers on the two teams who traveled to Berlin for the 1950 
German Football Championship: VfB Stuttgart and Offenbacher K
ickers (BArch
-
FA, K 
308503). After an introduction showing both teams winning their respective semifinal matches 
and stadium renovations in Berlin, the players are shown visiting various attractions in Berlin. In 
addition to the bustling commercial areas a
round Kurfürstendamm, the Rundfunkturm, and the 

Berliner Kindl. One woman is shown window
-

schönen Frauen sind Berlin 

K 308503
). Here the comment implies that some 
have abandoned the former capital and encourages them to return. The Siegessäule is also 
mentioned, though it is established not as a discredited or conflicted national monument, but as a 
local
 


 
die 

K 308503
). 
 


K 308503
). 

s shown in front of nearly 100,000 fans.
83
 
The opening and closing images of the film are the same sketch of an outline of Olympiastadion. 
                                        
        
 
82
 


 
83
 
Kluge lists the paid attendance for the match at 95,051, making it officially the larges
t crowd 
since the 1937 final between FC Schalke 04 and 1. 
FC Nürnberg, when 101,000 fans were on 
hand (
Steine beginnen zu reden 
154).
 
127
 
 

no mention of the bui

 

largest sporting events: the Summer Olympics in 2000 and the World Cup in 2006. The Olympic 
bid was met with a fair amount of opp
osition among certain groups of Berliners, and eventually 
fell short as the Games went to Sydney. Germany won the 2006 World Cup bid, however, and 

nationalen Aufgabe,

Gerhard Schröder approved the large
-
scale renovation and construction of a full roof (143). The 

-
of
-
the
-
art design impr
essed 
critics and visitors
 
alike
. Lest we become too comfortable
, however,
 
with commodifying history 

 
bottling and selling it as local identity, attracting tourists to a given city 

 
Andrew Webber 
cautions against forgetting the other meaning of a place l


Cup, but with a historically laden substructure that speaks of other kinds of dreams of world 

 
A renewed 
skepticism before the renovation project began in 2001, as illustrated by the 

2004, more than 53,000 fans were on hand to celebrate the grand opening of the sta
dium 

 


 


 
flame (Trimborn 144
-
45; Kluge
, 
Olympiastadion Berlin
 
157). After the remodeling and dedication, 
however, the use of the 
stadium in spite of its Nazi origins received surprisingly little criticism
, given the strong public 
128
 
 
opposition to the recent Olympic bid

with 
gmp
, 
was internationally lauded
 
as a great success, and the stadium was honored with the 
prestigious five
-
star ranking by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
84
 
 
 
Figure 4.3. These two reliefs sculpted into the limestone are part of the network of National 
Socialist art f
rom 1936 that is preserved at the Olympic complex. These reliefs are located west 
of the Langemarckhalle at the entrance to the Waldbühne, which is today used as an outdoor 
concert venue. Two historical markers to the left, only recently erected, explain t
he friezes and 
the Waldbühne. Photograph by the author. 
 
 


discussed in fur
ther detail in c

aesthetic have also been purposefully preserved on the Olympic grounds and a series of historical 
markers
 
have been added (
see
 
Figure
 
4.3)
. The series of statues in partic
ular have, in their 
                                        
        
 
84
 

-

 
129
 
 

Szobor Park
 
(Statue Park)
, mentioned in 
c
hapter 1
 
(see p. 21)
. 
Szobor
 
Park is a collection of several dozen of 

which were put on display in 1993 in a rural 
space several miles outside of Budapest. 
 


the occasional 
sporting event or concert 

 
they are seen only by those willing to travel outside of the center to 
see them. Even when there is a concert or sporting event, the statues are greatly deemphasized. 
They do not adorn the stadium façade itself, n
or are they found anywhere inside where they 
would be seen by those entering and exiting. Instead, they lie around the periphery of the 
grounds outside the stadium,
 
unlit and some of them in ruin
. Only those visiting the stadium as a 
memorial site see them
 
on a guided or self
-
guided tour. These visitors
 
visit
 
during the day, 
since 
the grounds are 
only 
open until 6:00 p.m. On days when there are large events, tours are not 
typically held for visitors. In this way, much of the Nazi art that is an important pa
rt of the 
stadium complex is not presented to those utilizing the stadium in its modern function. Rather, 
visitors traveling outside the city to see the stadium and Olympic grounds 

 
like visitors to 
Szobor
 
Park 

 
are those who can consider these elements 
in quiet reflection. To the few who 
seek them out, these imposing stone figures 

 
like the communist statues in Budapest 

 
testify to 
the art and ideology of a fallen regime.
 


locals who wish to learn about the Nazi past today visit places like
 
the 
Memorial
 
to the Murdered 
Jews of Europe
, the Jewish Museum, Topography of Terror
 
or the former concentration camp at 
130
 
 
Sachsenhausen. These sites are the core of what many consider a monument
-
saturated German 
capital in regard to World War II and Holoca
ust memory. Olympiastadion is generally a 
perpetrator site rather than a victim site, though the hundreds of boys who rallied behind the cries 

during the final 
weeks of the war might also be considered victims. In any case, the stadium is 
only peripherally relevant to the Nazi past in Berlin today 

 
despite daily tours and the series of 
historical markers. 
Instead, the stadium is an international sports venue, or
 



 
 
Figure 4.4. The crowd begins to assemble hours before a U2 concert on July 7, 200
5. Over 
70,000 were in attendance for the event. Photograph by the author. 
 
131
 
 


led 

(Schulte
-
Peevers 134). In addition to sports, the stadium has also been used since the end of the 
war as a venue for large concerts, such as the Rolling Stones and 
U2
 
(
see
 
Figure
 
4.4)
, and 
religious gatherings, such as the Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag Berlin 
(
see
 
Figure 4.5) 
and
 

. 
 
 
Figure 4.5. Olympiastadion has hosted a number of religious gatherings as well, most recently a 
ma
ss for 61,000 led by Pope Benedict XVI on September 22, 2011. Pictured is the closing service 

of Landesarchiv Berlin.
 
Used by permission.
 
 
In his book chapter on Ol
ympiastadion as one of several 
Böse Orte
 

 
as the volume is 
titled 

 

sporting competition that conveniently ignores the Nazi past. Most, however, seem impressed 

 
132
 
 
or at leas
t satisfied 

 

function, discussed in 
c

Ruinenwert
 

 
wishes. Rose 
argues, therefore, that by continuing to use Olympiastadion, Berlin is specifically denying Hitler 
his desired legacy of the ruin (89). 
 
 
V. 
 
Siegessäule
 
After the lowering of the French flag in May of 1949, the Siegessäule became 
increasingly 

reports that the viewing platform
 
was opened to tourists in 1951 and by
 
1953 there were already 
62,000 annual visitors (
Vom Geschichtsbild
 
112). The fo
llowing year the Viktoria statue was 
repaired and received a fresh layer of gold leaf, and over the following decades various elements 
of the monument were renovated as the Siegessäule reestablished itself as a symbol of the city.
 
 
Its depiction in postwar
 
film advertisements and documentaries illustrates the historical 

Berliner Erinnerungen
 
nurtures 
nostalgia for the pre
-
Nazi city by showing images from the years 1918 to 1933 (BArch
-
FA, 
MAG 1628
8). The Siegessäule is shown along with the Brandenburger Tor, Unter den Linden, 
Friedrichstraße, the Berliner Dom, and the Bodemuseum. Like the other sites, the Siegessäule is 
shown in its 1919 form 

 
with three segments instead of four and located in fro
nt of the 
Reichstag. Avoiding the 1955 version, in its post
-
Nazi reconstruction form, can be read as an 
association of the current four
-
segment column with the Nazi regime. Later, as images of the 

 
(though the post
-
war Siegessäule 
133
 
 
is never shown), the narrator addresses the post
-

dich. 
Hast du auch schwer gelitten, und bist du auch noch nicht so schön wie einst, wir glauben 

MAG 16288
). 
Thoug
h the film is about nostalgia, it does not completely ignore the 
Nazi past, like some other such films from the era have done. There is a short sequence near the 
end referencing the Nazi era: the Brandenburger Tor is draped in Nazi and Japanese flags and 
l
oud shouting is heard, but then fades out as the shot of the Brandenburger Tor changes to its 
photographic negative, is held for three seconds of silence, and finally replaced by a silhouette of 

resumes with images of the city 
from 1919, and the final two shots before the credits are of the three
-
tiered column, and a close
-
up of Viktoria. The film works to connect the post
-

-
World 
War II past, a common tactic 
of essentially ignoring the Nazi past and writing it out of history. 
Interesting for this study, however, is the fact that only the pre
-
Nazi Siegessäule is shown 

 
unlike the Brandenburger Tor and other symbolic structures, which are shown both before and 

form is avoided, suggesting that the structure was still seen as stigmatized because of its 
renovation and role under the Nazi regime. 
 
Similarly, there is curr
ently a 
recent 
series of nostalgic black
-
and
-
white postcards for sale 
in tourist shops on Unter den Linden. The postcards depict scenes from Berlin in the 1920s, 

Sieg
essäule, except that the post
-
1939 four
-
segment column and its location at the Großer Stern 
prove an obvious anachronism with the Weimar
-
era caption: until its disassembly in 1938 and 

t Königsplatz (currently 
Platz der Republik) and its column consisted of only three segments
 
(see Figure 4.6)
. 
I
t is 
134
 
 
certainly 
possible that 
someone might wish to forge 

in order 
to avoid 
conjuring 
war associations with a tainted year su
ch as 1939 in the caption, thus promptly spoiling 
any hopes at providing the 

viewer with feelings of nostalgia. Much more likely, 

is 
simply 
a
n unintentional
 
misrepresentation, 
which would 
clearly evidence
 
the 

 
In e
ither
 
case
, the effect is the historical exclusion of the Nazi past.
 
 
Figure 4.6.
 
This postcard is part of a series using black
-
and
-
white historical images in an 
attempt to create nostalgia for the Berlin of the Weimar Republic. The caption on the back side 

, the four 
segments in its column and the guard houses flanking it reveal a misrepresentation of a 
photograph taken during the Third Reich. Speer moved and altered the column, which was 


 
the earliest date this ph
oto could have been taken. 
Produced by Kartenedition Pawlowski
, Berlin
.
 
Used by permission.
 
 
The public ceremony recognizing the return of the friezes in 1987 was meant to recast the 
monument of victory as a symbol of reconciliation. 

nalist Christiane Peitz 
135
 
 
for 
Der Tagesspiegel

Überwindung von Erz
-
 

Nevertheless, simply 
making this recognition required admittance on the side 
of the French to having stolen the friezes 
in the first place 

 
a fact that was generally unknown among Germans, the reliefs having been 
written off as another casualty of war. When they were returned, however, the reliefs were 
deliberately reinserted by B
erlin authorities with a number of sections missing, in an attempt to 
reflect the full history of the monument 

 
that is, to represent both World War II and their 
decades
-
long absence (Alings 45, 115; Matthias Braun 68). The reinserted friezes with their 
m
issing fragments seem almost intended as a forced 
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
,
 
an apology for 

Die 
Zeit
 

. Initially afraid to display the 
nationalist depiction of the Franco
-



 
prompting the (West) 
German newspaper to ask its readership:
 


 
* * *
 
In 1987, the same year that the final relief was returned to Berlin, Wim Wenders used the 
Siegessäule in an innovative and meaningful way in his acclaimed film 
Der Himmel über Berlin
. 

conversations throughout the divided city. Among their favorite observation points is alongside 

 

reinvents the winged goddess of victory as an angel, to match his main characters. 
 
136
 
 
The film also addresses German history by means of a narrator figure, a venerable man 

 




rator as a parallel to the filmmaker, lamenting the loss of an audience (129). He can 
also be seen, however, as the lonesome, fading representative of the generation with a personal 
knowledge of history, having experienced World War II and the Weim
a
r Repub
lic before it. In 
the film Homer wanders about the barren, undeveloped void that was once Potsdamer Platz, 
mumbling to himself about the bustling symbol of the modern metropolis, seeking Wertheim and 
Café Josty, where he recalls having sat enjoying coffee,
 


Der Himmel über Berlin
). Frustrated with his unfulfilled search, he finally collapses 
onto a sofa in the vacant lot. 
 

cour
tesy of Peter Falk and an American film company. As discussed in 
c
hapter 1, Maurice 

social memory 

personal experience, as opposed to 
historical memory
, which is reliant on textual re
presentations. 

social memory
 
of World War II was 
marginalized, reduced to the lamentations of an elderly narrator, disoriented at the change of the 
physical face of the city, and discouraged by the insignif
icance of his own voice. Only the 
invisible angel, Damiel, was still willing to listen to him 

 
and, of course, we, the viewers of the 
film. 
 

metaphor for the 
suppression
 
of (social) memory during the Cold War, a time when Germany 
137
 
 
was politically divided, each side conveniently assigning the responsibility of the Nazi past and 
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
 
to its counterpart across the Wall. It was during this era of 
negligence
 
and political self
-
legitimization that sites like the Siegessäule and Olympiastadion 

 
l

 

 
effectively lost their memory. 
 
Olympiastadion had maintained its function as an arena for major sports and 
entertainment events as 
well as large cultural gatherings. The Zamek 

 
first maintained in its 
original political function, later received a new function, namely that of a cultural center. As for 

Der Himmel über Berlin
 
that brought attention back 
to the long
-

the monument itself, its meanings, origins or Nazi past, however. Rather, it was simply the angel 
motif that Wenders employed as an
 
observation point for Damiel and Cassiel, despite the fact 
that the monument is, compared to elsewhere in the city, relatively isolated from the population 

 
extensive greenery. 
 

ically significant, though both 
function today in a manner of paradox. The 
Kaiser
-
Wilhelm
-
Gedächtniskirche, with the violent 

War II 

 
a 
Mahnmal
 
to the horror an
d destruction of war. Despite its construction as a place of 
worship, the building now functions as a monument, one that admonishes (
mahnen
). The 
Siegessäule, on the other hand, was originally constructed as a 
Denkmal
, a monument to 
commemorate (
ge
denken
) 
several military accomplishments during the Kaiserreich. Later it was 
employed as a Nazi propaganda tool, the angel of victory rotated westwards into a permanent 
gaze towards subjugated rival France. Wenders made a sequel film in 1993, entitled 
In weiter 
F
erne, so nah!
, which employs the Siegessäule in precisely the same manner, and the band U2 
138
 
 

soundtrack. In the video, Bono and the other band members are also pictured 
perched atop the 

though
t
 

and Cassiel did 

 

point and gaze down on the city as a 
tourist. Instead of history they associate the monument 

 
if with anything at all 

 

films and the U2 video, or with one of several subsequent events. 
 
A satirical opera entitled 
Goldelse 
was also written i

750
th
 
anniversary. The opera honored the Viktoria statue that has been so playfully dubbed 

title character from her 1866 n
ovel that appeared in the periodical 
Die Gartenlaube
. Composer 

-
critical view of modern 
German history, depicting a Goldelse who descends her pedestal to observe up close the four 
political p
eriods she had watched from above during 114 years. According to the program, the 


une 1987).
85
 
* * *
 
According to anthropologists John Borneman and Stefan Senders, the first Love Parade was held 

-
July to dance techno on the 

86
 
The Siegessäule became the imp
robable symbol of the event 
beginning in 1996, when the Love Parade was moved from Kurfürstendamm because of the 
                                        
        
 
85
 
Qtd. in Alings 128. 
 
86
 
Other 


 
139
 
 
growing number of participants. A parade featuring several dozen floats would typically begin at 
Ernst
-
Reuter
-
Platz and proceed to the Siegessä
ule, culminating in a celebration of eroticism 
fueled by alcohol and techno that carried on into the nigh
t and often featured renowned deejay
s 

21 April 2005). 
Ma

 
[N]iemand hätte zu denken gewagt, dass dieses Bauwerk einmal, wie kaum ein 
anderes, mit dem weltweiten Bild der Stadt verknüpft sein würde. Der 
hedonistische Lärm der selbstverliebt trunkenen Spaßg
esellschaft, der die Säule 
alljährlich umtobt, gehört an diesen Ort; ein ziviles Satyrspiel nach der Tragödie. 
(68) 
 
 
In 2000 Borneman and Senders investigated the Love Parade from various viewpoints, 
some of which even judged the event a political or reli
gious movement. They point to a German 

 
event
 
because of excessive litter in 
the Tiergarten, ruling 
that 


nd Sanders
 
write:
 


nonetheless, had later indeed become political by rejecting traditional politics, discursiveness,
 




-
14). In 2004 the event was canceled, however, when 

was finally lifted and organizers were not able to organize enough sponsors (HB, 21 April 2005). 
It returned to Berlin and the Großer Stern site one final time in 2006. 
 
Since 1984 the monument has also lent itself as both symbol
 
and namesake of the 
monthly gay and lesbian magazine 
Siegessäule
. Schulte
-
Peevers, while neglecting to mention the 
Nazi legacy, highlights this particular reading of the monument in her short description of the 
140
 
 

-
bo
osting triumphal column, built as a monument to 

shows several visual advertisements playing on this theme that also feature the column and/or 

-
33)
,
 
and 
he 
even historically connects this association to the early 
twentieth
 
century: 
 
Die Schwulenbewegung nutzte das phallische Monument schon in der Kaiserzeit 
und in der Weimarer Republik als Treff
-
 
und Orientierungspunkt für 
erwartungsvolle Streifzüge durch den Tiergarten, sowohl damals, in der Nähe des 
Königsplatzes und des Goldfischte
ichs in den Zwanziger Jahren, als auch, mehr 
denn je, heute, wo der Tiergarten rund um die Siegessäule seinem Namen als 
Volkspark alle Ehre macht. 
(135) 
 
 
A number of political organizations and commercial companies also employed 

r ideas and market their products. Alings shows a political poster for 
Die Grünen (127) as well as an advertisement for the bookstore Hugendubel (135), both from 

Meisterwerk

-

sketch of the Siegessäule (134). A picture in 
Der Tagesspiegel
 
from June 8, 1996, shows a 

mask to the 

 
 
Similar to Olympiastadion, the Siegessäule was also used as a symbol of (West) Berlin 
during the Cold War. Alings discusses its prevalence as an image on postcards a
nd tour guides, 
but also men
tions that prominent guests Mikh
ail Gorbachev
 
and Ronald Reagan received small 
metal replicas of the Viktoria as gifts during state visits (136). In 1990, the year after the wall fell 
in Berlin, a staggering 185,000 people visit
ed the monument and climbed the steps to the 
platform (116). 



 
namely the Brandenburger Tor (135). 
The 
141
 
 
symbolic gate 

 
paradoxica
lly part of the wall for decades 

 

designed Reichstag with its symbolic glass dome took on national meaning in the city that was 
chosen to be the capital of a new unified Germany. The Siegessäule, meanwhile, was another site 
peopl
e viewed when they visited Berlin, predominantly for the scenic view it offers from a 
unique location between the former eastern and western city centers. It was associated not with 
national history, but with Berlin, with events such as the Love Parade, wi

with local advertisements and organizations. 
 
 
In 1999 a new tenant acquired the Siegessäule edifice from the Bezirksamt Tiergarten, 

historian Ute Grallert. 

garten] war 
nämlich schon seit Jahren auf der Suche nach einem Pächter, der in die Siegessäule investiert 



a museum exhibit and remodeled one of 

 
The museum opened in 2002 and displays the embodiment of nationalism in two 
millennia of national monuments across Europe dating bac
k to the Roman Empire. 
Grallert 



). 
The website www.monume
nt
-
tales.de explains that the 


contribution to a common Europe
.


(
<
www.monument
-
tales.de
>
, 



Germans, but also to Europeans. This attempt to connect the monument and its nationalistic roots 
142
 
 
to a common European ideal reduces the Nazi past to a European event, when instead, though 
nationalism was p
revalent throughout Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 
German National Socialism is a unique and specific case that is responsible for both World War 

 
connection to 


87
 
In one room that uses several maps to sum up 
nineteenth
-
century 

s origin, the poster shows 
several photos from the monument being moved in 1938
-


-

31
). Clearly the exhibit 

nification and frames it as part of European history 

 

Among the 

which Aulich identifi


 
In 2001 one of the great voices of contemporary German literature, Uwe Timm, wrote a 
multileveled novel that entails 

 
at least on the surface 

 
a political plot t
o blow up the 

Rot
, the protagonist, Thomas Linde, is a middle
-
aged eulogist and jazz 
musician who reflects on the days of his political activism in 1968 with a measure of distance 
and a lack of fulfillment. The recollection of his po
litical youth is set off when he receives word 
                                        
        
 
87
 
The descriptions of the exhibit are cited from a booklet published by Monument Tales GmbH, 
which disp

elements, and the maps explaining 
nineteenth
-
century European history, all of which are 
reproduced in the 38
-
page booklet. The booklet is listed in the bibliography under Dieter 
Vorsteher, who wrote the text for the exhibit and whose name is listed as author of the 
publication. The booklet is available in both German and English, and both versions are shown 
side by side in the museum. The English version is cited here. 
 
143
 
 
that a friend from this part of his past has died, and requested in his will that Thomas give the 
eulogy at his funeral. The friend, Aschenberger, on account of what Germanist William Collins 



problem is 

 
and even Thomas, throughout the course of the novel, comes to the same conclusion
 

 
the symbol no longer carries the same meaning it once had. Like the actual failed attempt in 
1991 that went unnoticed for two days 

 
which will be addressed in 
c
hapter 5 

 
no one was 
likely to understand the purpose behind such an attack on the monument
 
anyway, which would 


monument, in spite of its origins and outward appearance
, is simply no longer seen as a political 
symbol.
 
During the 2006 World Cup, Berlin was engrossed in 
Fußballfieber
 
and like many of the 

-
known sites, the Siegessäule was associated with the tournament as well. Perhaps 
inspired in part by the Lov

Straße der 17. Juni from Brandenburger Tor, city organizing officials set up what was called the 
Fanmeile
 
to provide fans a public area to view matches on a series of large projection screens.
 

the Siegessäule was the natural geographical focal point at the Großer Stern. The former Ost
-
West
-
Achse had become the 
Fußball
-
Achse
, connecting the host stadium
 
in the West with over 
one million fans watching in the Tiergarten 

 
even a miniature Olympiastadion, holding 10,000 

enter the replica stadium to watch the m
atch on one of two large screens. 
 
144
 
 
 
 
 

17.
 
Juni stretches eastward through the Tiergarten toward Brandenburger Tor and Berlin
-
Mitte. 

-
West
-
Achse, the avenue is now better known for events 
such as the 
Fanmeile
. 
Postcard by Skowronski & Koch Verlag, Berlin. Phot
ograph by Günter 
Schneider.
 
Used by permission.
 
145
 
 
The Siegessäule, a true physical symbol of the city of Berlin, was closed in 2010 for full
-
scale renovation that included cleaning the mosaic and furnishing Viktoria with another layer of 
gold leaf 

 
her thir
d coat since 1945. When the monument was opened again in April 2011, city 


 
sites, and 
will be discussed in the following and concluding chapter. 
 
146
 
 
CHAPTER 5
 
 

 
 

 
-
 
Günter Grass, 
Ein weites Feld 
(67)
 
 
 
I.
 
Introductory Scenes: 
Latent M
emory and the 
P
hysical 
P
resence of the 
P
ast
 
Berlin, April 13, 1992
 
When, in April 1992, Berlin put forth a bid to host the 2000 Summer Olympics, including a 
renovation of Olympiastadion and the entire 1936 Olympic 
complex, the initiative was met with 

-
Olympia
-

was founded and according to one poll 49% of all Berliners were opposed to hosting the Games, 
writes Jürgen Trimborn, who also
 

International Olympic Committee as well as a special unit of Berlin police handing out fines to 
protesters for certain offenses (139).
88
 
Volker Kluge mentions the plaque honoring the 
controversial 
sport director Carl Diem being stolen from the wall of the Marathontor in 1992 
(152).
89
 
The prominent Berlin author Günter Kunert summed up the opposition by posing the 


 
aber sollten die Spiele
 

(
152).
 
 
                                        
        
 
88
 
For deta
ils of correspondence by the initiatives Anti
-
Olympia
-
Komitee and Berlin 2000 
NOlympic City, see also 
Der Spiegel 
37/13 September 1993.
 
89
 
Involved in German sports organizations since 1899, Diem (1882
-
1962) was appointed 
General Secretary of the 1936 Olympic Games in 1932. He held his position and continued to 
work under the Nazis, and today is criticized in particular for his 1945 speeches
 
to assembled 
groups of Hitlerjugend, many just 10 to 14 years old, encouraging them for what proved a 
senseless defense of Berlin by glorifying war and death (see Kluge 108
-
11). After his plaque was 
stolen from Marathontor in 1992, it was replaced using t
he original mold. 
 
147
 
 
This question lingered in large part because of 
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
, or lack 
thereof: the space provided no historical documentation of its Nazi past. With no mention
 
of the 
1936 Olympics, it was as though the 
significance of the 
past was being 
ignored 
by the organizing 
committee, masked by silence as well as by proposed renovations that included a wagon
-
wheel
-

 
and a softball field on the Maifeld 
(152). After the stadium had for decades hosted large crowds that had come for a wide array of 
sporting and non
-

the prospect of hosting anoth
er Olympics struck a nerve in the collective memory of the former 
Nazi capital. In his monograph addressing the wealth of controversial sites in post
-
communist 
Berlin, Brian Ladd summarizes the anti
-

boost t
o national pride was the last thing Germany needed. Many of them feared that a second 
Berlin Olympics would represent a renewal of the dangerous traditions of 1936 and, at the same 

 
Following Berlin

the renovation and design of Olympiastadion took a much different approach, as mentioned in 
c
hapter 4. Berlin had purchased the stadium from the federal state, and the politicians and 
arch
itects involved in its (re)design were much more conscious of the past than those in 1992. 
Despite some voices in favor of a modern stadium, the Berliner Senat ultimately decided in 1998 
not to cover up the National Socialist past: the renovation would be 


 


 
(gmp)
, which, according to Kluge, was the only 
one 



148
 
 

character of the entire Olympic complex 
has been consciously preserved, including the view of 

-
West
-
Achse) from inside the stadium, visible 
because of the gap in the roof over the Marathontor 
(
see
 
Figure
 
5.1).
 
 
 
F
igure
 
5.1. The new roof, design
ed by
 
Gerkan, Marg and Partner in 2004, is open at one end in 

design. Photograph by the author.
 
 
 
Not least because of the persistence of a group of what Jennifer Jor


series of 27 historical markers in both German and English were set up in strategic places 
outside
 
the 
stadium
, explaining the history a
nd symbolic use of various elements under the Nazi 
149
 
 
regime.
90
 
A small circle of scholars, including art historian and publicist Stefanie Endlich, 

Museum 

 
one
 
of the supporting organizations 

 
recounts the long but ultimately successful 
process of establishing the markers before the start of the World Cup: 
 
Durch das Engagement vieler Einzelner, aber auch durch den politischen Druck, 
den internationalen Besuche
rn der Fußballweltmeisterschaft 2006 die erste große 
Bauanlage der Nationalsozialisten nicht ohne Erläuterungen zu präsentieren, 
konnte ein Scheitern verhindert werden. 
(12) 
 
 
Later a second series of historical markers, identifying places throughout the O
lympia complex 

 
such as the Waldbühne, Glockenturm and Langemarckhalle 

 
was erected as well. 
 
On May 4, 2006, just a few weeks prior to the start of the 2006 World Cup, the 


 
1936 

 

 
Langemarckhalle, across the Maifeld from the stadium. The thorough exhibit, which specifically 

was conceptualized by Deutsches Histor
isches Museum and its co

6.5 million was carried 
by federal and Berlin state funds, as well as by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz (Kluge 159). 
 


yment of the stadium to host major international 
events. Though the stadium is chiefly representative of Berlin, and most days it is nothing more 
than that, it also has the potential to symbolize the nation. For such occasions as the 2006 World 
Cup, the 20

the 
Olympiastadion welcomes international guests to events hosted by Germany. For the final of 

-
Pokal, the two best teams in the national
 
                                        
        
 
90
 

developing the signage and text was later given much less (13
-
16). 
 
150
 
 
tournament advance to the 
national
 
championship 

 
in Berlin. Like the public opposition to the 
2000 Olympic bid, it is the use of the stadium as a national venue that has the potential to cause a 
few furrowed brows and uneasiness about what the stadium no
w symbolizes given its past.
 
 
Figure
 
5.
2
. The German National Team played its match against Ecuador in Olympiastadion 
during the group stage of the 2006 World Cup. The picture shows fans in the stadium 
celebrating
 
the team with a 
C
horeo
 

 
a choreographed effort to display a message. Here the eagle
 
and 

agen von des Adlers Schwingen 
we

crit
icize the use of the stadium for such events. 
Courtesy of Landesarchiv Berlin.
 
Used by 
permission.
 
 
In his chapter on Olympiastadion in the volume 
Böse Orte
, published the summer the 
World Cup was played in Berlin, Trimborn describes Bundespräsident Horst 


Stadion an diesem Tag als Ort, an dem einmal nicht versucht wird, die Spuren einer unbequemen 
151
 
 
Ver

-
51). 
Yet while ther
e may be an opportunity to confront the 
past for those few daily visitors who manage to reach the exhibit, several hundred meters away 

oblivious to any such exhib
it. 
Trimborn sums up his critique:
 
Der Großteil der Menschen, die sich anlässlich der Fußball
-
WM dem 
Olympiastadion nähern, nimmt diesen Ort nicht als Teil einer diktatorischen 
Vergangenheit wahr. 
Manch einer beklagt Geschichtslosigkeit, Unwissen und 
Desin
teresse. (150)
 
 
Though most seem comfortable with the stadium as international venue after the perceived 
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
,
 
clearly those voices also remain who would prefer to avoid any 
nationalistic associations in the stadium built under the 
Nat
ional Socialists (
see
 
Figure
 
5
.2
).
 
 
 
Berlin, July 24, 2008
 
During his campaign for the 2008 United States presidential election, Barack Obama traveled to 
Europe in July, scheduling a campaign speech in Berlin. Obama had originally hoped to s
peak in 
front 
of the Brandenburger Tor
, much as Ronald Reagan some 25 years earlier, when the iconic 
gate still paradoxically divided the city into East and West as part of the Berlin Wall. German 
Chancellor Angela Merkel decided that the now open gate 

 
arguably her na

prominent and meaningful symbol 

 
was not the proper backdrop for an American presidential 
campaign tour, and Obama was forced to look elsewhere for a place to speak. His campaign 
management chose the space in the center of the Tiergarten with 
the Siegessäule as backdrop, a 
location some German politicians and journalists questioned as a curious choice for a political 

 
152
 
 
 
 
Figure 5.3. While campaigning in Euro
pe as a candidate for the American Presidency, then
-
Senator Barack Obama spoke in front of the Siegessäule on July 20, 2008. Some 200,000 people 
attended. Courtesy of Landesarchiv Berlin.
 
Used by permission.
 
 
In an article written in the days leading up to
 

for both 
The New York Times 
and 
Spiegel Online
, William Kristol introduces an American 

you have a militaristic bent). It
's a large fluted sandstone column on a base of polished red 

-

1
53
 
 
description is accurate, though even he fails to mention the dozens of French, Danish and 
Austrian canno
ns taken as war booty and now enshrined in 24
-
karat gold leaf and mounted in 
three rings encircling the sandstone column. Nor does he mention the four bronze reliefs 

aturing 
Hohenzollern monarchs standing against the French to the approval of an allegory of Germania 
looking on. 
 

four days ahead of his visit, leading representatives of t
he German political parties Freie 
Demokratische Partei (FDP) and Christlich Demokratische Union (CDU) criticized the location 

deputy leader of the FDP, spoke spec

in Berlin was moved to where it is now by Adolf Hitler. He saw it as a symbol of German 


her Barack Obama was advised correctly in his choice of the Siegessäule as the 

-
Intl, 20 July 2008, 

 
Ladd wrote, in 1


least controversial monuments

The Ghosts of 
Berlin 
199).
91
 
The question to be considered, then, following the Obama event is: Why were
 
there German politicians and journalists who were suddenly wary of the Siegessäule as the 
                                        
        
 
91
 
The emphasis in the citation is my own. 
 
154
 
 
backdrop for a twenty
-
first
-
century speech?
92
 
The 
majority of the press leading up to and 

 
Berliners attended 
the speech of the then presidential hopeful.
93
 
Did something happen between 1997 and 2008 that 
changed the meaning of the space? Is Berlin so saturated with controversial sites and reminders 
of its jaded political past that a journalist 
could question almost any site? Or is there some latent 
meaning imbued in this particular place?
 
 
Writing a guest article for 
Der Tagesspiegel 
a few years later 
in 2012,
 
former CDU 
general secretary Heiner Geißler also spoke out against the Siegessäule, ca


 
Die Stadt Berlin findet nichts dabei, dass das dümmste Monument der Republik, 
nämlich die Siegessäule mit ihren blutrünstigen Reliefs und eingelassenen 
Kanonenrohren, mit denen die Preußen auf Württemburger, Ö
sterreicher, Hessen 
und Franzosen geschossen hatten, umgeben von Standbildern der preußischen 
Generalität, mitten in der deutschen Hauptstadt ihren Standort hat. 
(Tsp, 1 
February 2012)
 
 
Whether the use of the monument in 2008 as the backdrop for a political speech either impacted 
his perspective or motivated him to voice his opinion of the monument publicly, cannot be said 
                                        
        
 
92
 
There were also politicians and me
mbers of the media who answered the critique of the site, 
arguing that the Siegessäule is no longer representative of war and is not a Nazi symbol. Kristol 
concludes as much in his article. See also, for example, the 
Focus Online 

Die S

Focus
 
Online
 
maintains 



Berlin wisse heute kaum jemand, dass die an der Siegessäule befindlichen Kanonen Beutestücke 
von Dänen, Österreichern und Franzosen seien....Heute sei die Siegessäule ganz einfach eine 

 
eigne. Und darum gehe es schließlich für den 

The authors cite another source 
who compares the monument to the Statue of Liberty in New York City, suggesting it may have 
been chosen because of t

 
93
 
For a tone more typical of the positive reporting on the event, see, for example, the 
Spiegel 
Online 

-

Florian Gat
hmann, Severin Weiland and Philipp Wittrock (SpO, 24 July 2008). 
 
155
 
 
for sure. He was, in fact, writing to advocate the naming of a str
eet in honor of the first 
Reichsfinanzminister of the Weimar Republik, Matthias Erzberger. Interestingly, Geißler makes 

is certain from both examples, however,
 
is that the Siegessäule space has not been perfectly 
disassociated with its past once and for all. As with Olympiastadion, there is a latent meaning 

work 
will reveal. There are currently 

 
and may always be 

 
some detractors unwilling to 
separate this monument from its militaristic and/or National Socialist past. 
 
 

 

g so prominently 
identified with their city. In August 2009, one year before the centennial celebration, Leszek 
Pobojewski wrote in 
an article for
 
Gazeta Wyborcza


 
butcher Greiser and accommodation for Hitler 


94
 
Of course, 
Hitler never actually visited Po


 
but that 
may be
 
beside the point. The fact that it was built for him, not to mention 
functioning as the seat 
of 

 
administration
 
(though the Zamek was still under construction until 1945), is 
c
ertainly plenty to warrant the sense of 
niesmak 

 


 
that Pobojewski 
describes in association with the sandstone fortress. This sentiment forms an important part of 
                                        
        
 
94
 


jest oficj

 
156
 
 


 
even if it represe
nts a point of view that is slowly 
receding


marginalized as the Zamek has taken 
on new meaning 

 
particularly with younger generations. 
 
 
Two recent discoveries in the Zamek leading up to the centennial celebrations also 

of German occupatio
n. Piotr Bojarski reported on the findings in an article for 
Gazeta Wyborcza
.
 

quarters, a signature from 1908
-
09 was discovered written in pencil on a large 
pine board: 

95
 

-


Long live freedom and the proletariat

96
 

May God bless you, brothers

97
 
(GWyb, 28 June 

t historian and author at C
entrum 
K
ultury
 


away on Luisenstraße (present
-
da
y ulica Taczaka). 
 
 
A second discovery was made in a basement hallway running parallel to the courtyard. 


98
 
It is clear that Okupniak 
was part of a labor effort 

                                        
        
 
95
 

 
96
 

 
97
 
Translation by the author. 

 
98
 

 
157
 
 
on the castle. According to Bojarski, it is not yet known whether Okupniak was from P

elsewhere (
see
 
Figure
 
5.
4
).
 
 
 
Figure
 
5.4. This inscription by the laborer Felek Okupniak, dated 1944, was discovered in a 
basement hallway of the Zamek in 2010. Photograph by the author.
 
 
Not all such surprises have been uncovered as of yet. Architect Zbigniew Antczak has 
been working on var

interior and exterior since 1994. He maintains that interesting new discoveries about the 

 
a few 

the ground that revealed a separate World War II bunker. In the basement of the Zamek, there is 
also a hand
-
railing that runs diagonally down to the f
loor right as the hallway ends. Antczak 
believes it may lead to a former tunnel connecting the Zamek to another building. Currently the 
158
 
 
funds are not available to 
investigate, he says (Personal i
nterview). Some might also speculate 
that administrators are 
currently content to leave certain things buried. 
 
 
II.
 
The I
nvisible 
M
onument
 
What these three recent examples show is that each site still has a measure of latent meaning 
from the National Socialist past. There is potential for that meaning to be conjure
d up under the 
right (or wrong) circumstances. Because of the human tendency to associate memory with 

of these sites. 
 
 
Educators, journalists and scholars in ou
r society regularly remind us of the past by 
telling and retelling historical narratives. Yet just as part of the past can be called back into 
public memory, a portion of the past can be equally and just as easily neglected, ignored or 
forgotten. 
One might
 

-




lso shed 
light on the nature of monuments and how, given how familiar they are in our cities and public 
spaces, they can also be easy to ignore. 
Musil writes:
 
[D]as auffallendste an Denkmälern ist nämlich, daß man sie nicht bemerkt. Es 
gibt nichts auf der 
Welt, was so unsichtbar wäre wie Denkmäler. Sie werden doch 
zweifellos aufgestellt, um gesehen zu werden, ja geradezu, um die 
Aufmerksamkeit zu erregen; aber gleichzeitig sind sie durch irgend etwas gegen 
Aufmerksamkeit imprägniert, und diese rinnt Wassert
ropfen 

 
auf Ölbezug 

 
artig 
an ihnen ab, ohne auch nur einen Augenblick stehenzubleiben. 
(59
-
60)
 
 
All three structures in this study are stately, visible objects that were conceived in a way so as to 
attract attention, as Musil describes, and each of them
 
certainly does attract the gaze of the 
159
 
 
passer
-
by. Yet in spite of their stature each can also be like a monument that is seen but not 

examples of hist
orical forg
etting at each space.
 
 
* * *
 
According to Kluge, the South Korean parliamentary representative Park Young Rok locked 
himself into Olympiastadion one evening in October 1970 (
Steine beginnen zu reden
 
87
-
88). On 

ontor are three large limestone plaques displaying 
the names of the track and field and other event winners at the 1936 games, and the seventh line 

 
(
see
 
Figure
 
5.6
)
. The winner of the 
marathon had 
been Korean runner Sohn Kee
-
chung (also Son Ki
-
jong or Son Ki
-
jung), who 
qualified and competed for the occupying Japanese.
99
 
He was made to compete under the 

in shame 
as the 
Japanese anthem played (Walters 233). 
 
During that night in 1970 the parliamentarian Park undertook a minor project in stone
-


 
change for years afterwards 

 
or at least no one reported it. 
When it finally came to the attention of West German officials, Horst Korber, senator of sport, 
appealed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne (Kluge 87
-
88).
100
 
The IOC 
                                        
        
 
99
 
Korea was occupied by Japan in 1905 and annexed as a colony in 1910. It remained under 
Japanese control until 1945.
 
100
 
Historian Guy Walters references a 1983 request to the IO
C by the Korean Olympic 

denied, they appealed again in 1987, writes Walters, including a request to alter the stadium 

l to Lausanne in both his books (
Steine 
beginnen zu reden
 
87
-
88; 
Olympiastadion Berlin
 
164), but does not specify the year of the 
appeal. 
 
160
 
 
insiste



visitors from Japan and 
Korea, is not intended to be noticed by visitors to the stadium, even if they do bother to glance at 
the historic table of victors.
101
 
 
 
Figure
 
5.5
. This 
Ehrentafel
 

from
 

Photograph by the author.
 
 
                                        
        
 
101
 
At the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, Sohn, at age 73, was invited to run the final leg 
carrying the Olympic torch and
 
light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony. In Korea he is 

and his Olympic legacy, see: Walters 230
-
33 and 308
-

in the
 

The Nazi Olympics: Sport, Politics and Appeasement in the 1930s
, Arnd Krüger and 
William Murray, eds. (Urbana, IL: UP, 2003),
 
127
-
44; and David Clay Large, 
Nazi Games: The 
Olympics of 1936
 
(New York: Norton, 2007), 257
-
59.
 
161
 
 
 
 
Figure
 
5.
6
.
 

Korean runner Sohn Kee
-
chung is significant. He won the marathon for occupying Japan under 
the Japanese name Kitei Son. In 1970 the country listed behind his name was chang
ed during the 

International Olympic Committee. Photograph by the author. 
 
 
* * * 
 
It was not only the bomb that failed to ignite: the story of a terrorist plot to blow up one of the 

Der Tagesspiegel 
ran a 
short dépêche on the bottom of the front page and a feature 
article on page 17. The dépêche 
included information on European and American protests against the threatening Gulf War, 
which began with a United Nations air strike on January 17 (1). On page 17 the article was 
accompanied by a separate box with a brief e


 
readers might otherwise have struggled to understand why the RZ identified the monument as a 

 
162
 
 
The page
-

old
-

-

die 
tageszeitung 
(or 
taz


sich gefährdete Firmen und Ein
richtungen gegen mögliche 
Attentate
 

(Taz, 3308/17 
January 1991, 22).
 
After a few sentences explain the failed attempt, the paper recounts the 
answers it received from eleven different public, commercial and political organizations as to 
measures
 
they are taking to guard against protest
-
related violence. Thus, in this initial reaction to 
the attack, the Siegessäule itself was effectively ignored by a newspaper that at other times was 
eager to voice critique of the monument.
102
 
 
 
William Collins Dona
hue addresses, if somewhat indirectly, the muted public reaction to 

Rot
. In 
Rot
, which was written in 2001,
 
the protagonist, Thomas Linde, is a former Marxist activist from the 68er generation who is 
asked to speak at the funeral of a former friend and fellow activist, Aschenberger. Linde 


rmanist Anne 


                                        
        
 
102
 
An article later that y
ear, discussing a number of symbols in Berlin, called attention to the 


Gere
on Asmuth in 1999 criticized the upcoming millennium celebration planned at the site that 
would feature a 70
-
km
-
high stream of light, which would allegedly be seen from Dresden to 

, 6014/11 

a few parliamentary members of the Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus (PDS) and 
Union/Die Grünen to remove the Siegessäule for the same reasons the Len
in monument was 
removed in Friedrichshain. The motion was denied. On this motion Alings cites a 
taz 
report from 
October 19, 1991 (
Vom Geschichtsbild
 
116).
 
163
 
 
(141
).
103
 
Donahue, nonetheless, explains the pointlessness s
uch an attack would have because of 
how drastically the perception of the monument has changed: 
 
The problem with all of this of course is that as a political act in the twenty
-
first 
century it is fairly meaningless. No one in the novel (except Aschenberge
r), and 

song
104
 
has it, with anything but the annual Love Parade, Christopher Street 
Parade, or other kinds of mass celebration. People still love to climb up the 
column and 

Frisbee tossers, and Turkish picnickers. But no one seems to pay heed to the 
obscure inscriptions that are in fact chauvinistic. So to plan the bombing of this 
popular Berlin attraction seems r
idic
ulous, if not simply mad. (188
-
89) 
 
 


Siegessäule
 
is a 
landmark sign for the 
Lovepara
de

account to the reality of the 1991 attack, the plot failed in two ways: tactically, because the 
explosives did not fully ignite; and symbolically, because the public in 1991 did not share the 
activ

 

indifference gives evidence of a change in meaning at the site. 
 
* * *
 

th

democratic election in June 1989, signaling the fall of the communist regime in Poland, the 

 
Hitler either with the 
dictator or with his regime, as it once did. Nor might anyone have expected as much. The Nazi 
                                        
        
 
103
 
See also Timm 103
-
04.  
 
104
 


several weeks at the top of the German pop charts that year. The video shows only very brief 
clips of Kesici singing on Straße des 17. Juni, with the Siegessäule in the distant background. No 
direct lyrical reference is made to the Viktoria 
statue. 
 
164
 
 
dictator never visited the castle, despite having taken such an interest in how it should look. This 
likely influenced a public associatio
n of the castle with the Gauleiter, Arthur Greiser. Even 

renovation project, as both Schwendemann (
126
-
28) and Catherine Epstein (260) have pointed 
out. Chapter 4 also o
utlined the subsequent history that molded the social memory of 
Poznanians. 
 
Thus, when German historian Heinrich Schwendemann first saw the Zamek in 2001, he 
was surprised by the well
-

-
buried 
Reichsk
anzlei and so representative of National Socialist architecture. The building, beginning to 
blossom as cultural center after the fall of communism, had the feel of having been genuinely 
forgotten. 
In fact, shortly after his first visit, Schwendemann wrote 
in the 
Frankfurter Allgemeine 
Zeitung
 

Speer in seinen Erinnerungen nicht erwähnte, war kein Historiker auf die Idee gekommen 


 
49). 
This castle that contained a 
fully intact office and residence specially designed for Hitler 

 
whose infamous locales in Berlin, 
Berchtesgaden and East Prussia were all long destroyed 

 
had been effectively lost to German 
scholarsh
ip for decades. 
 
A wave of publications in the decade since 2002, led by the work of Schwendemann, 
Janusz Pazder, Evelyn Zimmermann and others, has reawakened in both Poland and Germany a 

larship also coincided with 


-
academic conference arranged in
 

165
 
 


historic
al image of the district cut into pieces like a jigsaw puzzle (see Figure 5.7). The prompt 
invited the local viewer to discover the 
unknown
 
in what has nevertheless always been an 
extremely familiar public space for Poznanians.
 
 
Figure 5.7.
 
This poster from 2010 promoted an educational contest as well as a conference 

th
 


he past at 
this historical urban space. 

TRAKT. 
Used by permission.
 
 
 
 
 
166
 
 
III.
 
The A
cquisition of 
A
lternate 
M
eaning
 

reemergence of latent memory shows us that today each structure has the potential to embody 
various meanings for different groups and under different circums
tances. For many the National 
Socialist past 
that exists
 
at each space is no longer significant, while for others it stains the space 
to this day. Though for most the Nazi past is no longer the main association, the examples from 
the opening of this chapte
r demonstrate the potential each site has to be linked with that past. 
That layer certainly exists and will inevitably become exposed on occasion. For the most part, 

s 
certainly played a role, as have post
-
war politics in divided Germany and in communist Poland. 
Yet the sites have also taken on new meanings 

 
through literature, film, art and marketing, as 
well as through cultural gatherings and historical events. Afte
r 1945 the sites hav
e functioned in 
new ways as well as
 
for the same purposes
. T
he Zamek as cultural center and the Siegessäule as 
advertising motif
 
both fulfilled new roles, while
 
the Siegessäule as 
backdrop
 
for military parades 
and Olympiastadion as a sports venue
 
functioned in the same way as before 1945.
 
 
A major factor in overcoming or replacing the Nazi past in each case, however, has been 
the association with other events that had a lasting value for ge
nerations of citizens. The case of 
Tempelhof airport and its meaning for Berliners provides a fitting comparison. A massive 
complex built under the Nazis and one of the quintessential examples of their monumental 
architecture, Tempelhof was still used as a
n airfield after the war, both commercially and by the 
American military. 
 
167
 
 

uprising in 1956, Tempelhof still holds a positive meaning for Berliners. The airport was the site 
whe

wave between June 1948 and May 1949 to bring food and supplies to citizens during the Berlin 
Blockade. In 1951 a monument was erected at the site to commemorate the pilo

Rudy Koshar comments on the dual meaning of the space:
 
The Tempelhof example alerts us to the fact that the line between intentionality 
and chance was very thin. Those who thought of Tempelhof as a symbol of 
postwar German
-
American friendship 
may have wanted to forget the Nazi past. 
Yet the force of circumstances and the unquestionable drama of events also 
compelled them to remember the airport for its postwar historical significance. 
(
From Monuments to Traces 
174
-
75)
 
 
We see the same situation
 
with the Zamek and the events of June 1956 as well as by subsequent 


into the national narrative of Poland overcoming Russian influence. In fact, use of the Zamek as 

overcoming the three greatest enemies of the Polish national 
narrative: Prussian
-
German 
imperialism, the Nazi occupation and the Russian/Soviet
-
led communist regime that was in 

from the Zamek, the building that represented
 

until 1962, when city authorities moved to Plac Kolegiacki
 
(Collegiate Square)
. Visitors to the 
castle today 

 
whether for a cultural event or to tour the building itself 

 
are reminded of the 
national strugg
le on guided tours and by monuments outside.
 
 
Even Olympiastadion has been partly destigmatized by a positive historical narrative 

 

168
 
 
victories at the Olympics too
k place parallel to the Nazi regime 

 
and not afterwards, as with the 
Berlin Airlift at Tempelhof (1948
-


(or
 
German) public on the winning side of the racial minority and victim, and 
against
 
Hitler and 

already been extremely popular with German fans in 1936 

 
despite the N

to discredit him or downplay his feat. 
 
 
As for the Siegessäule, Christiane Peitz of 
Der Tagesspiegel 
lists the different meanings 

Kriegerdenkmal, Aussic
htsturm (285 Stufen), Ikone der Schwulenszene, die ihre Zeitschrift so 
nennt, Touristenziel, Love
-


t 
on already established events to utilize the Großer Stern and Tiergarten for accommodating large 

monuments. Yet it is not merely locals to whom these three sites
 
appeal.
 
 
IV.
 
Tourism, G
lobalization and the 
R
ole of 
L
ocal 
I
dentity in the
 
T
wenty
-
first
 
C
entury
 
In the introduction to their edited volume 
Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation of 
Public Space
, anthropologist
 
Lisa Maya Knauer and historian Dani
el J. Walkowitz remind us: 


increasingly projected as symbols of their r
espective cities and tourist attractions. The messages 
169
 
 
that city administrators have given while speaking at a recent anniversary or public event hosted 
by each structure clearly illustrate the phenomenon that Knauer and Walkowitz identify. 
 
When the Olymp

Wowereit and Otto Schily, Bundesminister des Innern, both wrote short contributions to a 
special book published in commemoration of the new stadium. 
Schily said the stadium 


(Bruns 3). 


s. Despite 
the approaching World Cup being hosted by the entire country, the writers connected the stadium 

Hitler. Wowereit failed to mention any past other
 

spoke was implied as a change in the host nation from evil to good and from defeat to triumph 
(2
-

and direct their play 
to tourists. 
 
In his recent monograph 
Berlin in the Twentieth Century: A Cultural Topography
, 


n the world market, 

its geo
-

international image (
15
). In the past two decades B
erlin has surged past Munich and other 


 
170
 
 

re Olympic complex 

 
beyond just the 
stadium 

 
more tourist
-
friendly. According to the Deutscher Olympischer SportBund, the space 

are still trying to develop a 



Berlin
s Olympiap
ark
 

integrating
 
the stadium with the complex and its memory markers was discussed at length in 
2011 

 
the 75
th
 

 
 
Figure 5.8.
 
Two visitors to the Olympia complex relax in the sun not far from two of the statues 
crafted according to the National Socialist aesthetic for the 1936 Olympics. On the right is one 
of the historical markers. Photograph by the author.
 
 
On May 20, 2011, th
e Siegessäule was reopened after extensive renovations that lasted 
17 months. There was a press ceremony featuring speeches by Mayor Wowereit and Berlin
-
Mitte 
171
 
 
economic councilman Carsten Spallek
 
(
see
 
Figure 3.2)
. Ute G
r
allert is director of Monument 
Tales 

 

. 
She said of 


Aulich,
 


). 
 
Wowereit
 
sp

Spallek presented a symbolic key to 

and Berlin delicacies were served for guests from the media 

 
including 
Schmalzbrot
, Berliner Pilsner and champagne from Lutter und Wegner.
 
The monument was open
 
to the public the following day. On May 21 all three major Berlin newspapers ran front page 
photographs as well as a detailed feature story. 

,

Viktoria in the 
Berliner Zeitung
 
(BZ, 67/21 May 2011, Nr 118, 1).
 

Endlich wieder offen
,

celebrated the 
Berliner Morgenpost 
(BM, 21 May 2011, 1),
 
along with:
 



Der Tagesspiegel 
(Tsp, 20981/20 
May 2011, 9). Mercedes
-
Benz ran a full
-
page advertisement in both 
Der Tagesspiegel 
and 
Berliner Zeitung 
featuring Viktoria extending her laurel wreath over three Mercedes vehicles. 
 
In an article for the 
Berliner Zeitung
 
the day before the e
vent, Uwe Aulich quotes senator 
for city planning Ingeborg Junge
-


Aulich, 

). 
At the event Spallek co
nnected the monument to Berlin events such as the 
Loveparade, 
Fanmeile
, Christopher Street Day and Berlin Marathon. Having shed the militaristic 

(Personal i
nterview)
. 
 
In 2010 and 2011, the city sa


172
 
 
Wachhäuser, and also included two kilograms of gold for a new complet
e layer of leafing for 


105
 
As with Olympiastadion, there is no doubt of its 
importance to the city. Going far beyond the o
bligatory 
Denkmalschutz
 
guidelines 

 
where 
simply not changing or removing a structure can suffice (it is not mandatory to spend money on 
upkeep) 

 
Berlin authorities have invested in both structures as positive images of their city.
106
 
They want tourists to
 
visit both sites, to have positive images of both, and to take those memories 
home with them as reminders of Berlin itself. Both are cared for and presented in
 
the same way 
as the Brandenburger Tor
, Schloss Charlottenburg or the Pergamon Museum.
 
Art histo
rian Maciej Szymaniak points out that tourism is nothing new to t
he Zamek in 

-
11
). It has always been an important symbol in Poland, he argues, and tourists were 
curious about the building during the interwar period. In fact, more than 12,000 tour
ists visited 
the building during the 1936
-


 



s, but they were nonetheless fascinated 
by it. It was a great attraction, and worthy of a visit, given its size and architectural significance.
 

now offered weekly during
 
the summer season and once a month in the offseason. The castle is 
                                        
        
 
105
 
The figures are taken from p.
 

the press reception and rededication on May 20, 2011. 
The Pressemappe carries the subtitle: 


Anpassungsmaßnahmen zur touristischen Erschließung des Großen Sterns in Berlin
-

 
106
 

 

-
12, §1 and §8 ff.
, 
<
http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/service/gesetzestexte/de/download/dschg_bln.pdf>.
 
173
 
 
additionally open daily and tourists are encouraged to view its interior on their own, and can 
also 
visit one of the many clubs, exhibits, performances or other cultural offerings. 
 
 
Figu
re 5.9. The Zamek celebrated its 100
th
 

hanging from the clock tower advertises the event, which was accompanied by an academic 
conference on the history of the Castle District as well as a host of cultural offerings throughout 
the summer. Photo
graph by the author.
 
 
174
 
 
V. 
 

O

 
The opening chapter proposed a consideration of the difference between neglect and denial at 

View from Berli


 
an epilogue to 
historian 

art historian 

edited volume 
Beyond Berlin: Twelve German Cities Confront the Nazi Past 
(295
-
301
). The 
book is a significant contribution because of its examination of how local memory has 
developed 
vis
-
à
-


challenges a quiet post
-
war consensus that has separated t
he national catastrophe of the Third 

(296). The Nazi regime was indeed a national phenomenon and the post
-
reunification wave of 
German 
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
 
ha
s been conducted first and foremost on the national level. 

political 

Huyssen also reminds us (
Present Pasts
 
16).
107
 
Thus, at the local level, there is often room to 
deflect 
responsibility for the past onto the nation.
 
Ladd cues us in to one of the keys to understanding what can seem like a constant 

local identity has long been viewe
d through a national lens, other cities have been better able to 

structure can shed its associations to a national past 

 
in this case the Nazi past. And while 
Berlin 
has been the place where many national memory issues have played out, the cases of 
                                        
        
 
107
 

 
175
 
 
Olympiastadion and the Siegessäule show us that in Berlin, too, local meaning can function as a 
mask for the stigma resulting from a connection to the Nazi past. Whil
e the potential will always 
exist at these sites for that latent national past to reintroduce itself 

 
as we saw with the failed 
2000 Olympic bid and the Obama speech at the Siegessäule 

 
it can just as easily be forgotten by 
a generation. In the meantime,
 
local politicians and cultural organizers are connecting the three 

matches; the 
Fanmeile
, Christopher Street Day and Berlin Marathon at the Siegessäule; an
d the 
annual 



 

Press Photo exhibit each spring. Ultimately, by defining each site as part of what makes each city 
unique has the effect of reducing any emphasis on a natio
nal or imperial past.
 
Poland and Germany both moved away from local identity toward national memory after 
the 
Wende
. In Poland, there was finally a sense of autonomy, as the country enjoyed 

 
aside from 
the brief interwar period from 1918 to 1939 

 
its fir
st years as a state without Russian and/or 

War II finally in the 1990s presented cultural and economical opportunities to identify with the 
West. 
 
In Germany, re
unification brought for many a sense of national belonging and resolution 
after decades of fluctuation, migration and political turmoil, while for others it meant increased 
economic and political concerns. In any case, the new Berlin Republic was confronte
d with the 
German past that governments in Bonn and East Berlin too often conveniently avoided. For these 
initial years, questions regarding the Nazi past were addressed on a national level. As Rosenfeld 
and Jaskot demonstrate, however, the Nazi past is be
ginning to be addressed on the local level as 
well 

 
in places like Wolfsburg and Nürnberg, Quedlinburg and Dresden. 
 
176
 
 
Part of the reason for local past identifying these questions is the surge of global 
influence that has rapidly increased after the fall o
f communism and the growth of the digital 


 
and the case of the Zamek in 
particular 

 
also fits very well into the context of another recent edited volume
 
that was 
mentioned in 
c
hapter 4
: 
Citi
es after the Fall of Communism
:
 
Reshaping Cultural Landscapes 
and European Identity
 
by John Czaplicka, Nida Gelazis and Blair Ruble. The authors 
demonstrate how local actors in Central and East European cities have used local historical ties 
to past 
political and economic estab
lishments such as the Habsburg E
mpire and Hanseatic 


formerly
 

, 



, a city that also has a long 
rivalry with Warsaw. The Zamek provides a connection to Berlin 

 
one that Poznanians can 
highlight locally to distance themselves from Warsaw,
108
 
and then promptly dispose of in 

reminds u
s 
that not long ago there was even a
n 
unsuccessful
 


-


 
                                        
        
 
108
 

closer to Berlin. Rail connections
 
to Berlin are slightly shorter at just more than two and a half 
hours. The recently completed 
autostrada
 

will make automobile travel much quicker to Berlin, which for many Poznanians is already 
preferable to 
Warsaw as an international travel hub.
 
177
 
 
Loca
l and even provincial communities also have global audiences through digital media, 
and as a result, these communities strive to project themselves as places that are interesting in a 
unique way, but that also conform to global political standards. In Pozn


built the castle in 1910 not only gives the city a unique bit of history, but also connects it to the 
European community. In Berlin
 
the Siegessäule is no longer a symbol of war, but 
of tolerance 
and diversity
 

 
as Spallek interprets for the public 

 
which reflects positively on the city in the 
global and international community. Volkwin Marg

 

c
ombines attractive, cutting
-
edge architecture with maturity and responsibility in regard to the 
past and preserving the original form 

 
an aspect that is certainly not being ignored, even if it 
may often be thematically marginalized and spatially deemphasi
zed.
 
The 
previous 
chapter showed how Germans and Poles essentially wrote the three 

attention to those places again only when something else had happened the
re that was more 
recent than 1945. As each place is now being remembered again, it is no longer principally by its 

local 
past are 
interested in finding out 

 
and passing on 

 
all they can find about the history of each site. They 
are willing to use this 
interest 
to draw visitors to the city to engage with 
that 
local past. Funded 
locally and in some cases largely by the European Union,
109
 
organizers aim to promote the local 
                                        
        
 
109
 




renovating the Great Hall (Sala Wielka) complex will provide a modern interior with multiple 
spaces for hosting films, exhibits, lectures, receptions and other events. The project began in 
December
 
2010 and is scheduled to be completed by December of 2012. Of the total cost of 49 
178
 
 
past t

politically harmless while maintaining an appeal for tourists 

 
in spite of any national meaning 
that may be present. Czaplicka et al. point out that
 
challenges to any singu
lar monolithic national identity should be seen as further 
evidence that postcommunist Europe has been moving closer to Western Europe, 
where decades of continued migration, further transnational integration, and a 
new appreciation for multiculturalism and
 
diversity have changed the tone of 
national narratives substantially since
 
the end of World War II. (338
-
39)
 
 
Their study includes several cities each in Poland and Ukraine as well as Vilnius, Tallinn and 
Novgorod 

 
a context 
into which 

fit 
quite well. Although both 
Olympiastadion and the Siegessäule were located in West Berlin, both are certainly an important 

 
Another factor enabling these three structu
res to more easily shed their past associations 
is the fact that all of them are generally perpetrator sites in regard to the National Socialist past, 

they
 
might well all be somber places of remembrance today. Beginning with 

 
though certainly 
not limited to 

 
the dozens of concentration camps, both Germany and Poland have numerous 
examples. Yet because the spaces in this study were directly associated with 
the perpetrators and 
their ideology, the meaning has been more easily forgotten (and perhaps naturally ignored) and 
new meaning has been both anticipated and welcomed. 
 
Finally, each new generation is continually evaluating its own past(s). Though memory 
c
oncerns the past, it still takes place in the present. Post
-
memory and historical evaluation are no 
different: both refer to ongoing processes that happen in the present. No generation can control 
how its children will remember, think or feel. No generatio
n can program its children to react to 
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                    
 


 
179
 
 
certain events in a particular way. As far as Germans dealing with their burdensome past, we 
need look no further than 1968 to see how definitively (and radically) one generation broke from 

 
its predecessors. 
 
The current generation of Berliners associates neither Olympiastadion nor the Siegessäule 

Holocaust victims or learn about the Nazi past visit places l
ike the 
Memorial
 
to the Murdered 
Jews of Europe,
 
the Jewish Museum, Topography of Terror
 
or the former concentration camp in 
Sachsenhausen. None of these sites existed in its current form twenty
-
two years ago;
110
 
today 
they are part of the core of a monument
-
saturated German capital in terms of World War II and 
Holocaust memory. The Siegessäule is simply not a part of this memory network, and 
Olympiastadion, I would argue, is only peripherally relevant 

 
despite daily tours and a series of 
historical markers.
 
Instead, the stadium is an international sports venue and the column a city 

Berliner Schutzengel
 
than 
Siegesgöttin
 

-
chung and recent Hertha BSC footb
all 
stars like Arne Friedrich, its antiheroes perhaps Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materrazzi. 
 


 
particularly with recent publications and steadily growing interest leading up to a
nd following 
the centennial events 

 

is despite numerous elements of the interior that testify to the extensive modifications under 

This
 
no longer immediate association with the 
Nazi past
 
may seem surprising, given the place of history and Polish victimhood 

 
especially in 
                                        
        
 
110
 
The Sachsenhausen
 
camp indeed existed as a national memorial in the GDR, though the 
focus was almost exclusively on the political prisoners interned and murdered at the camp. After 
1990 a museum was opened that has made efforts to present a more balanced history of the cam
p 
and all of its prisoners, including those victims of the Soviets from 1945 to 1950. 
 
180
 
 
association with World War II 

 
in Polish national memory. Yet too much has happened at this 

1945 for the memory of the
 
space to be stuck in that year,
 
beginning with the 

outside and continuing with 
the designation of the 

for
 
cultural programs and exhibits
 
inside
. T
he Zamek has 


cultural memory 
portrayed in 
the monuments and education, young
er
 
Poznania

communicative memory 
will be colored by 
their own experiences. As with Berliners cheering on their football club in Olympiastadion or on 
one of the 
Fanmeile

continue to inform pub
lic perception of these sites going forward. With promotion and utilization 
more concentrated on the local level, contested memory tied to national narratives may 
continue 
to 
become increasingly muted. After all, an ever
-
present past is not necessarily always a 
remembered one. 
 
 
Figure
 
5.10
. The Polish flag, here at half mast, now flies 
above 
the Zamek 
on certain state 
holidays and observances. 
Photograph by the author. 
181
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
182
 
 
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Bundesarchiv,
 
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Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin
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Landesarchiv Berlin
 

 
Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu
 
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz
 
Zentrum 
für Berlin
-
Studien, Haus Berliner Stadtbibliothek
 
 
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Berliner Morgenpost
 
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Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
 
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Gazeta Wyborcza
 

 
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Der Tagesspiegel
 
Die Tageszeitung
 
Der Telegraf
 
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INTERVIEWS
 
 
Antczak, Zbigniew. Personal interview.
 
 
Felmberg, Bernhard. Personal interview.
 
 
Pazder, Janusz. Personal interview. 
 
 
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199
 
 
 
MUSEUM EXHIBITS
 
 


28 
June 2011.
 
 

Last visited 12 May 
2011.
 
 
 
 
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