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In Berlin Remake The city can Reviving Old Frictions.
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During the Cold War, most of Berlin underground passages served the West Its trains would slow but not stop in dimly lit stations in communist eastern part of the city, where guards with machine guns kept watch East Berliners, d Moreover, rode trains above ground trams and buses that have managed to avoid West Berlin.
These days in Berlin, people can use a mode of transportation they choose.
Such changes are by design, said municipal planner Annalie Schoen, a West German transplant in Berlin Schoen is part of a team that helped create a flawless capital since lawmakers decided to move the government from Bonn back to Berlin in 1991.
I met her in the federal district, which is called Band des Bundes, suggesting a place between the former East and West and linking the new federation Schoen said the buildings here, both within their modern facades and welcoming public spaces and outside, symbolizing the evolution of Germany in a democratic and peaceful society.
When we started, none of the streets were there, none of the buildings was there, she said.
The white canvas has the task of creating a quarter of a unified government here easier, Schoen adds architects from around the world participated in the design, as the German authorities have requested international contributions to avoid any appearance of national pride.
A key element was the redesign of the old Reichstag building, which now serves as the main building of the German Parliament That was one of the few existing structures in the quarter, which was rich in history, but in disrepair says Schoen.
You know that our Reichstag was renovated by a British architect, Norman Foster, she said, adding that she probably Britain or France would have allowed an outsider to do, but you know our history, forcing us be a little more open.
The renovated building, which works on solar energy, is a huge draw for German tourists and foreign They not only get a 360 degree view of the city, but they can look in the legislative chamber below.
Architect Thomas Krueger, another West German transplant who runs an agency offering architectural tours of Berlin called Ticket B is one of the many fans of the new design.
Now there is a new monumentality, he says it's also displaying pride Now we are 85 million people, peaceful meeting.
During the Cold War, trams have been found mainly in East Berlin, while people in West Berlin generally used now underpasses everyone can use any mode of transport they want to move in the city Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson NPR hide the legend.
During the Cold War, trams have been found mainly in East Berlin, while people in West Berlin generally used now underpasses everyone can use any mode of transport they want to move in the city.
But a short bus ride is another project of Berlin undertook to reinvent Krueger said that misses the mark.
Called the Humboldt Forum, the project, to be completed by 2019, is a partial reconstruction of a Baroque palace which traces its origins back to the 15th century, the palace was badly damaged during World War II and then completely torn by the East German Communists, who have built their parliament there in the 1970s.
In 2006, the German parliament has ordered the building is German with bronze mirrored windows to be demolished, which took about two years.
These days, the site flew by cranes and workers assigned to the project nearly 800 million when it is completed, Krueger said, it will house a library, academics and African and other non-European art collections Berlin.
The Museum of non-European art will be presented behind a Baroque façade, which does not really make sense, he said.
He also did not sense to remove all traces of the building East German who was here, Krueger added called the Palace of the Republic, it housed not only the communist legislature but also a bowling alley, room concert, restaurants and even a giant dance floor on hydraulic lifts.
All East Germans I know told me a story about his connection to the Palace of the Republic, and demolish really is an act of violence, says Krueger Some of my colleagues have made many suggestions how to renovate the old Palace of the Republic, and there was still the cultural life is what it truly amazing Everything is Berlin was still there.
The Palace of the Republic was not the only GDR building to be demolished, he added.
I read that more than 180 buildings here in the inner city have been demolished since 89, he says it is far There was a high-rise building called the Foreign Ministry of the GDR, they demolished very quickly so this was a prominent building, not architecture very nice, but it was a piece of German history.
The feeling, Krueger added, is, everything is ugly times of the GDR and so we must tear down.
Thomas Krueger, a West German transplant, runs a company that offers architectural tours of Berlin Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson NPR hide the legend.
Thomas Krueger, a West German transplant, runs a company that offers architectural tours of Berlin.
Krueger very much but said disapproves the problem is that the West Germans in particular those who don t believe Berlin buildings from the communist era are worth protecting They are a reminder of a time in the German history, they forget to instead.
It's set last great German era monument is at risk Alexanderplatz Berlin and the square of 20 acres was the Mecca of communist East Germany and is best known for the iconic TV tower in Berlin which at 1,207 feet, is one of Europe's highest structures a copper fountain and enamel World Clock and a little showy here also attract tourists.
Alexanderplatz is also framed by colossal buildings of the Soviet era with austere glass and metal facades, since reunification, have for most businesses, shops and restaurants critics and investors say that instead is wasted space with old structures that are cankers They grow to tear -the.
In an op-ed in Der Tagesspiegel in August 2013, a West German author and journalist, Peter von Becker compared the proposed preservation of a building to keep Berlin looking like North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
That's not how she sees Katrin Lompscher Sá native East Berliners who was 27 when the Wall fell and now serves as the parliament of Berlin as a member of the Left Party, which includes members of the political party that he followed the decision of the German Communists.
Alexanderplatz of my youth, I recall, was a transportation center and ideal for shopping, Lompscher said the best shop was here and had a terrace with stairs open such a place.
Of course, it is important to move forward and develop things, but she says it is wrong to completely deny what is already there.
She worries about a director 1993 plan by the German architect Hans Kollhoff has been approved by the government and calls for 10 towers high rise in and around the square, although investors have turned away from erect all during an economic crisis in a decade Lompscher said it now appears that the plans are progressing for one of the tall buildings of a 39-story building designed by architect Frank Gehry forefront .
For Lompscher, it is a slap in the face of Berliners from the East, many feel reunification was everything the Western way.
Urbanist Annalie Schoen agrees that many East Berliners see this as conquerors something to do.
According to her, it was more difficult for them to adapt after reunification because we kind of took over, had to use our laws, they had to use our laws, our social security system, everything.
For them, Schoen said, the change was more dramatic than it was for us.
In Berlin Remake The city can Reviving Old Frictions NPR, berlin, refounding city.