Double Fake - Imitations at Berlin Potsdamer Platz

At times of the Berlinale film festival,one heads out to Berlin Potsdamer Platz quite frequently. I recently took acouple of pictures of the remains of the potemkin village in the heart ofBerlin's inner city. 

The building and its fake twin. 2012. (Image by SYNCHRONICITY)

Fake building. 2012. (Image by SYNCHRONICITY)

(Image by SYNCHRONICITY)

 The Potsdamer Platz and its adjacent Leipziger Platz, gotrebuilt as the new (old) downtown city center according to local urbanplanners. In order to not be too dependent on investment the city decided tobuild fake buildings instead: Huge scaffoldings dressed in banners withfacade printing anticipate what once will be. The last remaining giant is thescaffolding separating Leipziger Platz from Potsdamer Platz. Together with itstwin (an actual building) they articulate a symmetric gate seen from the oneside, and enclose the octagon of Leipziger Platz from the other side. The areagot completely destroyed during the bombings of WW II; after the Wende, Leipziger Platz got restored inplan. However many of the new buildings are reminiscent of the 1920s era. Therefore,with its huge buildings and high-rises, this part of the New Berlin imitatesNorth American downtowns such as New York or Chicago. Like in other parts of the city, current urban planning tries to imitate the image of the GoldenTwenties when Berlin was the flourishing, densely populated capital of WeimarRepublic. Only 1920sBerlin never looked like 1920s New York. Arguably the contemporary PotsdamerPlatz has an aura of a double fake: buildings that are not buildings, and new buildingsthat pretend to be old. These are conspicuous symptoms of both, the citystruggling with its past and the image the contemporary metropolis aspires tocreate.

Leipziger Platz scaffolding 2010 (Image source)

Leipziger Platz / Potsdamer Platz 1902 (Image source)

Leipziger Platz 1921 (Image source)

Leipziger Platz 2011 with two fake buildings (Image source)

1920s inspired architecture at Potsdamer Platz (Ritz Carlton) Image source

Scaffolding on Google Maps

The Detroit-Berlin Connection

Numerous comparisons have been made between Detroit and Berlin. Especially within the fields of electronic music or the thriving art scene. The Detroit-Berlin Connection is a radio series produced by WDET public radio in cooperation with Berlin Stories,  that looks at the futures of these two cities and speculates on the measures being used to reinvent industrial cities for the 21st century. The series goes beyond the common comparisons in the fields of art and music and outlines other connections by covering also comparisons in Land Use, on Mies van der Rohe, or on The Creative Class. A more general overview gives the radio discussion on What can the Detroit Berlin connection teach us?
Also the other media is worth checking out, to give you a summary on the similarities but also discrepancies between these two distinct cities.
For those with a deeper interest in the topic and living in Berlin, there is a disscussion at the US embassy in Berlin tomorrow 4pm (map). 

Ruins of East Berlin 2008 (source)

Ruins of Detroit 2011 (source)

URBAN DEMOLITION

please click the image to activate

Even though we all know it already: Berlin is one of the most interesting and unique sites in terms of history and city development. But still - this animation makes even the most hard-boiled berlin expert realize the bandwidth of berlins urban tragedy (and great opportunity!).

check this out!