The Surfaces of Memory in Berlin

This article uses the demolition of the Palace of the Republic, razed in order to reconstruct the Hohenzollern City Palace, as a lens to view the complex relations between the urban manifestations of collective memory and the contemporary architecture in Berlin. Berlin's search for a historical identity is manifested in contradictory ways; while the concern for architecture shrinks to surfaces as representations of "traditional" images, the surface of the city expands, transforming Berlin into an archaeological site, unearthing historical layers beneath it. The site of the Palace of the Republic constitutes a micro model, representing these facets of urban transformation.