Sense Memory

At what point in time does a building lose the memories---bad memories, in particular---associated with it?

An article from this weekend's Financial Times looks at the controvery surrounding Berlin's Olympic Stadium, which will host the World Cup final this summer. It was one of the few Nazi buildings to survive the war---and it's been in use ever since. While it's recently received a bit of a rehab, apparently none of the new features disguise the fact Adolf Hitler had the place built to host an Olympic games where he was to prove to the world the superiority of the Aryan race.

{...}Beyond the curve of the cream-coloured new roof, the derelict Nazi structures are visible: Arno Breker-style statues venerating the Nazi physical ideal, the rotting terraces and gigantic clock tower of the old Maifeld where mass rallies were held.

{...}Many buildings were demolished straight after the war. Nothing remains of such symbolic structures as Hitler’s bunker or chancellery, for example. Most of the old government buildings on Wilhelmstrasse were demolished and replaced with bland apartment blocks. The epicentre of evil, the SS quarter from which the Holocaust and other crimes were organised, was bulldozed.

The Olympic site is the largest and most perfectly preserved example of Nazi monumental architecture in the city - and Berlin is still trying to adapt, incorporate and move on from the structure’s history.

The stadium survived the war almost unscathed, but by 1998 this old, grey behemoth was decrepit. Berlin had to choose whether to pull it down or restore it. They chose the latter. Two years later Germany beat England to stage the 2006 World Cup - and the Olympic Stadium was awarded six games, including the final. After a four-year refit costing Euro225m, the stadium reopened last year with concerts, fireworks and popular approval.

In the arena where Hitler received the acclaim of millions in the 1930s, fans of Berlin’s football team Hertha BSC now celebrate an easy win over a visiting team from Mainz, courtesy of two goals from their Brazilian star Marcelinho. The fans clap, wave their blue flags and chant: “sieg!... sieg!... sieg!” But this is a good-natured crowd - and the word “sieg” means “victory”. It’s their way of saying “we won the game”.

“What can you do?” shrugs Andreas Nachama, former leader of Berlin’s Jewish community. “It’s the German language, and you can’t change the language. You can’t erase the history either. Part of being in the new Germany is that we live in the grounds and buildings of the remnants of the Third Reich. Yes, Berlin was the centre of Nazi evil, but there is a new spirit here, a new state, a new generation has taken over.”{...}

To get an idea of what we're talking about:

(clicket if you need larger)

The renovation by architects Gerkan, Marg and Partners is impressive but disconcerting. Inside the arena everything is new, more comfortable and softer-looking than before. It’s still unsatisfactory for watching football because the running track distances the crowd from the pitch. But the stands have been rebuilt with better seating. The VIP areas look like the lobbies of swanky hotels. The new giant screens, sound and floodlight systems are state-of-the-art. Even the toilets gleam.

From outside, however, apart from a slight change to the roofline, everything looks much as Hitler wanted it back in 1936 when it was the biggest, most proudly fascist piece of architecture in the world. The hard, clean, lines of the building are intact. So are the colonnades, the imposing symmetry and the distinctive open end with its “Marathon Tower” and Olympic flame urn. Spectators still approach the stadium across a great empty space, through two imposing towers between which hang the Olympic rings.{...}

While I don't think that buildings that leaned heavily toward Neo-Classicism necessarily can be equated with the descriptor "proudly fascist" I nonetheless take the author's point. (If this was true, think of what he would have to say about this stadium and its subsequent redesign. "Mistake by the Lake" indeed.) The stadium is still pretty much the same. It is an imposing piece of architecture, as all Nazi buildings were. But the stadium served a bit of a different purpose than, say, the Chancellery: it not only needed to intimidate and impress visitors to the Olympic Games, the stadium needed to seduce them as well; it needed to show people that beauty was possible in the Third Reich. For the raving lunatic that the man was, Hitler was also pretty smart in that he tried to offer the Full Meal Deal Society to the German people: one free of Jews, full of blonde haired, blue-eyed Aryans, with crisply cornered, broad shouldered stone buildings that appealed to the perenially tidy German sense of self.

But Hitler is long gone, as is the political party he founded and the war he started. It shouldn't mean anything to anyone that this building is still in use; that it was rehabbed because it was cheaper than building a new stadium; that it will be home to the final game in the World Cup of 2006---which will absolutely be the sporting event with the largest television audience ever. The choice of this stadium is simply incidental to the fact Berlin is the capitol of Germany. Mortar, stone and rebar have no memory, after all.

Yet, this stadium has a lot of memories attached to it. It has many, many ghosts. Millions of ghosts. Because Berlin's Olympic Stadium wasn't built just because they needed a track; it was built to showcase the glories of the Aryan race and the benefits of membership of National Socialism to the entire world. It was built for Nazi public relations purposes. This stadium was never neutral sporting territory; it was the first battlefield of the Second World War.

Which brings us back to the original question: At what point in time does a building lose the memories---bad memories, in particular---associated with it? When does usefulness trump bad memories?

I don't know the answer, and I surely don't expect anyone else to, either, but it's interesting to ponder.

Posted by Kathy at January 16, 2006 02:00 AM | TrackBack