The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape

Fantastic look at the history of Berlin via architecture and landscape. The book really shines when it discusses the human drama surrounding these monuments and buildings, the little personal stories that highlight everything. The use of design contests was surprisingly frequent, as was the total disregard for the winning design. By far my favorite story was about the Linné Triangle and the only mass flight from West Berlin to East Berlin.

Also excellent was the way the author explained the controversies related to the decisions by successive governments on what to keep, what to tear down, what to replace and how - and believe me, everything was a controversy. And rightly so. A monument to communism looks like a monument to oppression show more in the eyes of a West Berliner, but a decision to remove a monument to communism says to East Berliners that their personal history is of no value.

I've used this book a few times to take N to interesting places and then read the related snippets aloud, and it's been a successful form of low-key walking tour. show less

Wow - a book about city planning deserves five stars. It also deserves to be read by lots of people because It discusses a fascinating topic. How should Berlin preserve its past while not doing honor to the many terrible things that happened in its history? It describes the debate that took place on how streets should be names or renamed and how buildings should or should not be preserved. The people of Berlin deserve praise for the choices they made.

I picked up the book spontaneously at the end of a tourist trip to Berlin and was totally impressed. It describes the challenges faced after WWII and the fall of the wall in a way that can be understood by non-Berliners with limited familiarity with the city. It provides a lesson to anyone show more in any city interested in historical preservation. show less