Berlin Fragmented City

I. Fragmented urban landscape

We think of cities as dense places, characterised by their fullness in built form and functions. We think
of cities as places filled with life and urbanity; an artificial world, a contrast to the openness of the
surrounding nature. However, this fullness of cities is contrasted by an empty, or negative, zone
(Studio E.U. 2006). Global processes and structural changes in the economy have changed the cities.
Old industries have disappeared, new technologies have been developed and the production is being
decentralised, and as a result former industrial premises, disused railways and rail-freight yards ()
are spreading throughout the inner cities. (Overmeyer 2007). These empty buildings and vacant
spaces lie like vacuums within the fullness of the city and wait for new use. Essentially, this contrast
between fullness and emptiness, between the built and the voids, is what characterises the
fragmented urban landscape.
Moreover, as these premises within the city lie disused, nature slowly starts to reoccupy them. A
wilderness starts growing, and gradually the fragmentation is accentuated further so that we no longer
can talk about a clear division between city and nature. If certain memories and images of fullness
occur in us when we think about the city, a lack of correspondence appears between our expectations
and our perception of the fragmented urban landscape. This mental construction is consequently
likely to have very little to do with the reality that we experience every day. (Kniess and Lagos 2006)
II. Crashes of realities
Berlin is a city where such a fragmentation can be clearly read. Not only through the inner-city
emptiness, but also because of the many crashes of different realities which can be observed all over
the city. Compared to other Western cities, Berlin has a special story to tell, and signs of its history can
be read in its physical structure. With the bombings of World War II, the following partition of the city
and the uncertain economic situation afterwards, its stories have been told, erased and retold. In May
1945, 70 percent of the city lay in ruins, 80000 houses were destroyed and one and a half million
people were homeless (Oswalt 2000). The physical structure of the city was more or less completely
destroyed. Furthermore, the rebuilding of the city in the post-war period was hindered by the division
of the city and later by the building of the Wall. After the reunification the city was left with a long "scar"
running along the former Wall area and vast areas of derelict land soon became a hallmark of this
fragmented city. (Bisky 2006)
The urban landscape of todays Berlin is not dense, but still very fragmented. Rather than one clearly
defined city centre, the city has many smaller centres. What is more, the urban morphology is
exceedingly heterogeneous; the city is pieced together of fragments from several historical layers. As
early as in the 1920s the Dadaists were inspired by Berlin when they started developing the technique
of photo collaging (Oswalt 2000). Today, real collages can be observed all over the city. A fragmented
urban landscape has developed where colonial gardens can be found next to traditional Berliner
blocks, end walls bear signs of disappeared neighbour buildings, large inner-city railway areas are left
obsolete and overgrown, and the new main station is surrounded by voids without programme.
Throughout history different ideologies have left their marks on the city web. The Berlin based
architect Phillip Oswalt describes Berlin as a conglomerate of influences from a variety of ideologies
and concepts, none of which were influential or long-lasting enough to establish a homogenous
structure (Oswalt 2000). All of these are traces which tell stories about the city as a dynamic, living
organism, stories about the active processes of transformation, shrinking and development one finds
in the city today." (Studio E.U)
Many of the things that have happened here in Berlin over the last 15 years generally takes much longer say 50 years or
more elsewhere. (Ferguson 2006)

III. Paradoxical expectations

After the fall of the Wall, large inner city areas lay empty, and a heated public debate arose on
possible future developments and strategies; hence how the future stories of the city could be told.
The disjointed history of Berlin had apparently left the politicians longing for homogeneity and
continuity, and in order to achieve this, the voids needed to be filled in a soon as possible. Thus, the
Planwerk Innenstadt was developed, based on the ideal that the historical city should be
recovered (Bisky 2006). The plans for the inner parts of the city had an image of the European City
1
and Critical Reconstruction as starting points. Basically, the strategy put forth to rebuild a dense city
centre, primarily based on a block structure scheme. Today, physical manifestations of this strategy
can be seen for instance in the reconstructed Potsdamer Platz and in the current plans for rebuilding
the historical castle on the site of the former East German parliament.
The fragmented cityscape called forth an urge to use an image of built space with the intention to
create a traditional identity for Berlin (Huyssen 2005). However, at the same time, Berlin had recently
regained its status as capital, and both inhabitants and politicians had great expectations of the
metropolis of the future (Bisky 2006). Expectations ran high of how the capital would soon be home
of six million people and become a hub connecting East and West (ibid.) The building of Berlins new
main station in the middle of no mans land reveals this optimistic belief in progress and growth.
However, the voids surrounding it also show how the expectations of the 1990s regarding population
growth and development have not come true. Instead, the population has declined and in addition an
extensive suburbanisation has taken place.
Phillip Oswalt has been one of the critics of the Planwerk Innenstadt. Among other things, he argues
that the reconstruction strategy is based on nothing else than a construction of an image of a
homogeneous city history which Berlin never had. Thus, the existing city is being rejected in the
search of a new identity (Oswalt 2000). Oswalt continues to claim that what is missing can never be
replaced by something which simulates history, and that these buildings do therefore not create the
desired homogeneous image. Rather, they add yet another dimension to the conglomerate city.
Die Simulation knnen das Fehlende nicht ersetzen, sondern nur auf das Vermisste verweisen. So wird in Berlin die
Heterogenitt der Stadt, die eigentlich kaschiert werden soll, um eine weitere Dimension bereichert" (Oswalt)

It has also been argued that these politics have not led to the desired strengthening of a clear city
centre. The new government buildings, the new main railway station and the redeveloped Potsdamer
Platz formed an attempt to connect the existing centres. However, the projects have rather underlined
the polycentrality by adding another centre to the existing ones (Oswalt 2000). Moreover, critics have
argued that these new projects have failed to project an image that Berliners could recognise (Bisky
2006). In a paper for the Urban Age summit in Berlin in 2006, Bisky claims that these new
developments have contributed further to the fragmentation of the city because the new representative
centre does not intersect with the living space of the inhabitants.
More than ever, Berlin is a conglomeration of parallel worlds, a hotchpotch of stages on which long-established residents,
newcomers and tourists make their respective entrances." (Bisky)

IV. The value of the voids

The many critical voices in the debate indicate that many of the urban development projects initiated
by the planning authorities in Berlin after the reunification do not correspond with peoples perception
of the realities of the city. Along these lines, it may be argued that the fragmented cityscape holds
possibilities of its own, and that it is exactly the excitement in Berlins crashes of realities which
makes the city unique.
Indeed, the many disused buildings and empty spaces after the reunification have provided a breeding
ground for subcultures and a rapidly emerging art scene. In no other place in Europe are such an
amount of art galleries, around 400 in total, gathered in one city. Berlin is home to more than 300
independent fashion labels and several film- and television production companies. (Beier 2007).
Considering the fact that many of these activities arose out of informal use of wasteland or temporary
1

The Planwerk Innenstadt was rewarded with the Deutscher Stdtebaupreis in 2006.
(http://www.dasl.de/staedtebaupreis/?p=252)

events in vacant buildings imply that the fragmented city has been one of the factors which have
triggered this creative development. Due to the low cost of living and surplus of space, the city has
become a magnet internationally for young people with creative potential (Overmeyer 2007). Thus,
this phenomenon creative people with time on their hands, who innovatively develop the potential of
surplus space can be observed all over Berlin. (ibid.); Beach volley ball courts and flea markets pop
up at vacant sites, empty shop windows are filled with small independent design shops, and old
industrial buildings become hosts for parties and events.
The last years, the politicians too have started to recognise how this creative potential can be
transformed into economic growth, and moreover that the creativity actually inherit a possible image
building factor when it comes to attracting tourists as well as more creatives to the city. With the
globalisation of the world the factors which make cities attractive have to some extent changed, and it
has been set forth that innovative entrepreneurial practices now operate as trademarks of cities`
creativity, dynamism and innovative ability (Bittner 2006). According to Regina Bittner, a researcher
and cultural theorist teaching at the Bauhaus in Dessau, the creatives are attracted first and foremost
by cities` cultural heterogeneity, their ability to innovate and be tolerant. Thus, promoting the creative
development could be an opportunity to reach a high-profile location in the cities`global competition.
(Overmeyer 2007)
"Vacant sites and disused premises are not a constraint but a prerequisite of restructuring. They are the spaces of the future: a
training ground and experimental zone for the future city." Ingeborg Junge-Reyer, senator for Urban Development, Berlin

It seems the fragmentation which the authorities originally wanted to sweep away, and the empty
spaces which had to be filled in, have proved to be of great value not only as an image building factor.
Temporary use has even turned out to be an important component of urban planning in Berlin
(Overmeyer 2007). Recent initiatives of the authorities to make the planning regulations more flexible
and responsive to temporary use indicate that its potential energy has been noticed. In the end this
means some kind of justification of the fragmented landscape which has put Berlin firmly on the map
in the European imagination and proves that, here at least, everything is possible and anything goes,
no matter how limited your resources (Bisky 2006).
V. Reading between the lines
Nevertheless, the potential of the inner-city voids of Berlin is not a recent discovery. Ever since the fall
of the Berlin Wall there have been voices promoting their value and importance. Berlin tells its stories
in its scars, the voids and the absence of built form contain more stories than the built. (Huyssen
2005). Already in 1992, Daniel Liebeskind suggested that the best way to deal with the void of the
Wall was to preserve it as it was: I suggest a wilderness, one kilometre long, within which everything
can stay as it is. The street simply ends in the bushes. Wonderful. (Daniel Liebeskind quoted in
Huyssen 2005). A void so filled with history and memories would lie as a reminder, telling the story of
the city with its emptiness. The Italian Architects IaN+ follow the same line of thoughts as they argue
that the no mans land was not only important in regard to the inhabitants feeling of belonging
because it made people more sensitive and aware of the image of their wounded, but living, city
(IaN+ 2006). What is more, it could in fact have had the capability to fulfil the longing for an identity
and become the new face of the city (ibid.)
"I had never realized so clearly before that there have to be places in cities that are not occupied, but that have to open up
suddenly, like clearings in a wood. I like the word we have in German for clearing: "Lichtung", suggesting a place with bright
clear light, as does the English "clearing". If you don`t have islands of light and disorder like this the city becomes overloaded, it
becomes a closed system." Wim Wenders (Casu and Steingut 2006)

With regards to open space within the city, film creator Wim Wenders has been one of those
promoting this not only as a luxury and advantage, but as a necessity for cities. In Wim Wenders` film
Himmel ber Berlin, the old man Homer walks around in the void of the Berlin Wall, searching for the
Potsdamer Platz he knew when he was young, however finding nothing but wasteland. Wenders
suggests in an interview that Homer would have become even more surprised and confused if he had
returned to the redeveloped Potsdamer Platz. Thus, in an empty space it was easier for him to recall
his memories and reconstruct the former platz in his imagination (Casu and Steingut 2006). Wenders
continues with comparing the function of empty and open spaces in a city to reading between the lines
in a text: the empty spaces in the cities work like that as well. They encourage us to fill them up with
ourselves" (ibid). Perhaps this points out the most crucial quality of empty space, that it is a space of

opportunities, of future stories. Thus, these places trigger our imagination; encourage us to add our
own stories to the city. Because where nothing exists, everything is possible.
Wo nichts ist, ist alles vorstellbar." Phillip Oswalt

VI. References
Beier, L et al. (2007): Grossstadt ohne Grssenwahn in Der Spiegel 12/2007 p.22-38
Bisky, J. (2006): "Berlin: A profile" in Towards an Urban Age, www.urban-age.net
Bittner, R. (2006): Life`s a beach. Fields of urban gravitation in Arch+ nr.180 Convertible Cities
pp.50-55
Casu A. and Steingut, I. (2006): "Wim Wenders, A sense of Place" in Arch+ nr.180 Convertible Cities
pp.110-115
Huyssen, A. (2005): "The Voids of Berlin" in Future city, Read, S. et al. (ed.), London and New York:
Spon Press.
IaN+ (2006) "Emptiness" in Talking Cities: The Micropolitics of Urban Space, Ferguseon, F.(ed),
Basel, Boston and Berlin: Birkhuser
Kniess, B. and Lagos, L. (2006): "The Cartography of Everyday Life" in Talking Cities: The
Micropolitics of Urban Space, Ferguseon, F.(ed), Basel, Boston and Berlin: Birkhuser
Oswalt, P. (2000): Stadt ohne Form, Mnchen, London, New York: Prestel
Overmeyer, K. (ed.) (2007): Urban Pioneers: Berlin: Stadtentwicklung durch Zwischennutzung, Berlin:
Jovis
Studio E.U. et al. (2006): "Berlin Wall(k)" in Talking Cities: The Micropolitics of Urban Space,
Ferguseon, F.(ed), Basel, Boston and Berlin: Birkhuser