street/memory

So you're probably thinking: oh, she got to the end of her project and just decided to lump these two things together. Well, you're half right. The unit was originially titled "Politics of Memory and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe," aside from being excessively cumbersome, this last topic failed to incorporate some of the research/literature I had found and themes that my advisor and I had been discussing. I then thought that "Street Life/Scenes" would just be another category, but I realized that the theme of memory is very much integrated into the street scape of Berlin life. There are large empty spaces, there is a long line of brick through the city, indicating the path of The Wall, and in one Eastern neighborhood, they've integrated in the walkway raised "tripping stones," which bear the names of families who had lived there before being deported to intournment and concentration camps further East.

Although Doeblin and Goetz do not write about memorials or the more heady 'politics of memory,' the excerpts I've included are not only important pieces of German genre literature, they are so very Berlin. Their literary talent perfectly encapsulates how a casual glance out of your apartment window can define an entire day or citywide event. And just as much as street vendors and the antics of such institutions as the Love Parade bring character to the city, the prominent pieces of public art and architecture devoted to facing a problematic history head-on are completely incorporated into the totality of 'the scene.'

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is no exception. These places of memory are highly-publicized and highly-visible, yet once placed in the environs of a particular area, they become fully integrated. At once, Memory as a cultural priority is fully incorporated into the urban landscape.

Much of the criticism against this particular memorial questions its complete accessibility. Is it right that people can sunbathe and spill ice cream all over the stone pillars on hot summer days? Should toddlers really be learning to walk on a Holocaust memorial? And what about the fact that it's built extremely close to Hitler's bunker? To me, this is much less offensive than the Holocaust 'tourism' centered around the extermination camps. Smiling under the "Arbeit Macht Frei" wrought iron gate is MUCH more perverse than interacting with a streetside memorial intended to ensure that time does not heal all scars or forgive all atrocities.