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Capital Dilemma:: Germany's Search for a New Architecture of Democracy

Princeton Architectural Press, 1998 - 192 pages

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Interesting reading

Capital Dilemma is one of those books that talk about architecture with a slight hue of fiction, which makes interesting reading. The subject matter itself is very intriguing in that it deals with the plots that Germany was subjected to through its rather tumultuous history. Architecture assumes importance as a manouvreable political tool. The classical buildings standing over time accrue layers of significance as they play host to various disparate and historically significant events of the different political eras of Germany. Also the predicament faced by contemporary Germany in its search for a new identitiy reflects strongly on the indecisive and wavering nature of contemporary planning and development control. All these are brought to light effectively by Michael Wiese, who surprisingly, is not an architectural critic. Aided generously by some good photographs, the narrative is equally exciting when it talks about the history of Hitler's third reich or about the architectural inclinations that marked the attitudes of west and east Germanys before unification. A must read for those interested in German history and politics. Also, anyone interested in the performative and symbolic power of architecture will be delighted by Capital Dilemma.


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The decision to move Germany's government seat from Bonn to Berlin by ?the year 2000 poses an epic architectural challenge and has fostered an ?international debate on which building styles are appropriate to ?represent German national identity. Capital Dilemma investigates the ?political decisions and historical events behind the redesign of ?Berlin's official architecture. It tells a complex and exciting drama of ?politics, memory, cultural values, and architecture, in which Helmut ?Kohl, Albert Speer, Sir Norman Foster, and I. M. Pei all figure as ?players.?

?If capital city design projects are symbols of national identity and ?historical consciousness, Berlin is the supreme example. In fact, ?architecture has played a pivotal role throughout Germany's turbulent ?twentieth-century history. After the fall of the monarchy, Germany gave ?birth to the Bauhaus, whose founders argued that their own revolutionary ?designs could shape human destiny. The century's warring ideologies, ?Nazism and Communism, also used architecture for their own political ?ends. In its latest incarnation, Berlin will become the capital of the ?fifth German state in this century to be ruled from that city. How will ?the official architecture of reunified Berlin, a democratic capital ?being built amid totalitarian remains, be different this time around? Th?e Federal Republic of Germany, a highly stable democracy in stark ?contrast to its predecessors, has been struggling with burdensome ?architectural legacies. In the process, it has considered remedies as ?varied as outright destruction, refurbishment, and, in the case of the ?former Nazi Central Bank now being converted into the new Foreign ?Ministry, physical concealment.


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