Search results

Title: An introduction to temporary-use : strategic planning in the interim
Creator: Earls, Matthew
Date: 2011
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Berlin with its numerous vacant buildings and properties has become an urban laboratory. It is a world with limited planning. With the market economy withdrawn from the numerous wastelands which dot the city, seemingly functionless spaces have become the staging ground for a number of unexpected activities. Freed from the restrictions of traditional social rules and organizations, these spaces have developed a tremendous range of uses. These are places of inventions and of start-up companies....
Show moreBerlin with its numerous vacant buildings and properties has become an urban laboratory. It is a world with limited planning. With the market economy withdrawn from the numerous wastelands which dot the city, seemingly functionless spaces have become the staging ground for a number of unexpected activities. Freed from the restrictions of traditional social rules and organizations, these spaces have developed a tremendous range of uses. These are places of inventions and of start-up companies. While temporary-use is not a cure-all to the problem of urban decay, it may nonetheless prove extremely beneficial to cities in filling "holes" in the urban fabric and cultivating innovation
Show less

Title: Former U.S Air Force Major Ruth Rowntree talks about her eleven years of active duty, first in the Women's Army Air Corps and later the U.S. Air Force
Creator: Rowntree, Ruth
Date: 198x
Collection: Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Description: Former U.S Air Force Major Ruth Rowntree talks about her eleven years of active duty, first in the Women's Army Air Corps and later the U.S. Air Force. Rowntree says that she left her job as a secretary to volunteer when World War II started, was inducted in October 1942, went to Officer Candidate School, and was later assigned to the all male Statistical Control Section. She says that she was in the first group to become regular Air Force officers and later became a Management Analysis...
Show moreFormer U.S Air Force Major Ruth Rowntree talks about her eleven years of active duty, first in the Women's Army Air Corps and later the U.S. Air Force. Rowntree says that she left her job as a secretary to volunteer when World War II started, was inducted in October 1942, went to Officer Candidate School, and was later assigned to the all male Statistical Control Section. She says that she was in the first group to become regular Air Force officers and later became a Management Analysis officer, Wing Comptroller, and finally Assistant Division Comptroller until her discharge in 1953. She also talks about the Berlin airlift, about the complex record keeping duties she had while serving in Wiesbaden, Germany and finally leaving the service to be with her husband.
Show less

Title: In sight but out of mind : the construction of memory at three once stigmatized sites in Berlin and Poznań
Creator: Naumann, Stephen Paul
Date: 2012
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This study explores cultural identity reflected in the urban landscape at three structures formerly identified with National Socialism: Berlin's Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium) and Siegessäule (Victory Column), and Poznan's 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 both Germany and...
Show moreThis study explores cultural identity reflected in the urban landscape at three structures formerly identified with National Socialism: Berlin's Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium) and Siegessäule (Victory Column), and Poznan's 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 both Germany and Poland. I conclude that after the structures were first used to project meaning from Cold War tropes, 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. Poznan's Zamek cesarski, a palace first commissioned by German Kaiser Wilhelm 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, the structure was later remodeled by the Nazis for Hitler's use. 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 maintained by the Polish postwar administration, and today serves citizens as the multifaceted Centrum Kultury "Zamek" (Center of Culture "Zamek"). The physical space surrounding the building has been drastically changed, as a number of Polish monuments and memorials have been erected around the palace's perimeter. Similarly, 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. After first demonstrating Hitler's personal interest in the design and the Nazis' use of 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, utilization and repurposing during the decades of the Cold War. Finally, I describe the emphasis on historical and new events, the erection of monuments and the structures' depiction in cultural texts that have also had an impact on the public perception of the three spaces in today's Berlin and Poznan. 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 carefully scrutinized in the public sphere. 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 rewritten.
Show less

Title: Interview of Lieutenant Colonel Bernice R. Couzynse (Ret.) on her service as a U.S. Army nurse during WWII and other conflicts
Creator: Couzynse, Bernice R., 1919-1997
Date: 1983-03-17
Collection: Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Description: Lieutenant Colonel Bernice R. Couzynse (Ret.) talks about her long military career and serving on four continents as a United States Army nurse. Couzynse says she completed nursing school in the fall of 1942 and by March 1943 had enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps. She tells of deploying to North Africa with a hospital unit, being under attack by German aircraft, moving up to Naples after the invasion of Italy, setting up a hospital at an agricultural college, moving with the troops as they...
Show moreLieutenant Colonel Bernice R. Couzynse (Ret.) talks about her long military career and serving on four continents as a United States Army nurse. Couzynse says she completed nursing school in the fall of 1942 and by March 1943 had enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps. She tells of deploying to North Africa with a hospital unit, being under attack by German aircraft, moving up to Naples after the invasion of Italy, setting up a hospital at an agricultural college, moving with the troops as they advanced, being near the front lines and treating extreme battlefield injuries. At the end of the war in Europe, Couzynse says that she did not have enough points to rotate home and was slated to be sent to Japan as part of the U.S. invasion forces. Ironically, she says that she did later serve in Japan during the Korean Conflict. Couzynse recalls her duty in Germany in the early 1960s, the Berlin Wall crisis when all leaves were cancelled, and finally finishing her career as head nurse at William Beaumont Hospital in El Paso, TX in April 1971. She credits the Army with giving her a chance to have an interesting career, to travel, and to make many friends. Couzynse is interviewed by Doris J. Triick.
Show less

Title: Interview of Patricia W. Pasbach on her experience in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in post-WWII Germany
Creator: Pasbach, Patricia W., 1923-
Date: 1983-04-26
Collection: Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
Description: Patricia W. Pasbach discusses her experiences in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps while attached to the 124th General Hospital in Salzburg, the 279th General Hospital in Berlin, and the 120th Station Hospital in Bayreuth in 1946. Pasbach speaks at length about her experiences in a divided Berlin, detailing the economic problems caused by postwar inflation in Germany and discussing the Russian occupation of East Berlin and the territory around Berlin. She also describes spending weekends in...
Show morePatricia W. Pasbach discusses her experiences in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps while attached to the 124th General Hospital in Salzburg, the 279th General Hospital in Berlin, and the 120th Station Hospital in Bayreuth in 1946. Pasbach speaks at length about her experiences in a divided Berlin, detailing the economic problems caused by postwar inflation in Germany and discussing the Russian occupation of East Berlin and the territory around Berlin. She also describes spending weekends in Berchtesgaden while stationed in Salzburg, and her anxiety about being stationed in a foreign city where she did not know anyone. Pasbach says she was offered the chance to sign on for another year, but did not want to stay in Europe that long and left the Army in November 1946 after a little over a year of service. Pasbach is interviewed by Elsie Hornbacher.
Show less