Читать книгу Where in the World is the Berlin Wall?. 170 Sites around the World онлайн

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Whilst the cultural administration pleaded for a memorial to be constructed on Bernauer Straße and for the fortifications to be reconstructed, the road traffic authorities followed with plans to build a multi-lane by-pass. The distorted image of a memorial as a “Wall-Disney-Land”¹⁰ at this site made the idea seem unappealing.

Christoph Stölzl, director of the German Historical Museum, warned that “it may appear as irony of history to future generations if the German capital does not display pieces of this chapter in German history.”¹¹

Just as much attention was paid in this context to the discussion about the “Wall in the mind” between East and West Germans, which would have long since replaced the Wall that no longer existed in real terms. At that time, there were only a few notable remnants of the Wall left in downtown Berlin, such as on Niederkirchnerstraße, the “Hinterlandmauer” at the Invaliden cemetery, and on Bernauer Straße. The fourth, a section of “Hinterlandmauer” along the banks of the Spree, north of the Oberbaumbrücke, had been decorated with paintings and was already world famous as the East Side Gallery post-1989. The former minister for urban development, Volker Hassemer, wanted to preserve it, but was met with opposition from the city district of Friedrichshain. The district officials wanted the land between the Spree and the Wall closed to the public and used instead for commercial benefit. The individual districts within the city were free to decide what was to happen to the sections of Wall within their districts. This “regionalism” within Berlin hindered the founding of a Wall memorial and the development of a general concept for years.