Contested Memories: Divided and United in Berlin

245 Pages·2012·2.75 MB·English

by  E G

Contested Memories:

Divided and United in Berlin

Gerti Wilford

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for an MPhil in
Social Anthropology

Goldsmiths College, University of London

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I hereby certify that, except when explicit attribution is made, the work
presented in this thesis is entirely my own.

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Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................ 5
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 7
List of Illustrations ...................................................................................... 9
Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................... 10
Introduction ................................................................................................... 10
Memory and its vicissitudes ........................................................................... 10
Berlin as modern conundrum ........................................................................ 14
Fields of Memory ............................................................................................ 17
‘Last Orders’ .................................................................................................... 22
Was this a revolution? .................................................................................... 24
The Consequences: winners and losers .......................................................... 25
The past as future: Questions for research .................................................... 26
Berlin as context for the research .................................................................. 28
The Chapters ................................................................................................... 30
Outline of a Methodology .............................................................................. 35
Formal and Informal Interviews: Research Activities .................................... 37
Chapter 2 .................................................................................................... 44
The challenge of uniting what was divided: A Review of the Literature ........ 44
Aims of the chapter......................................................................................... 47
History, Narratives, Memory .......................................................................... 48
Transitional processes following transformation .......................................... 51
Uncertainties and Consequences in East Germany ....................................... 54
Processes of Transition and Transformation in Post-socialist States............ 59
The cost ........................................................................................................... 61
Time and Spatial Markers: The East German Experience .............................. 65
Critical Events in History................................................................................ 67
Inner Exile – pathway to Identity? .................................................................. 70
Contested Memories and ‘Aufarbeitung der DDR’......................................... 73
Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 75
Chapter 3 .................................................................................................... 76
The House for Others: Glimpses through a Fractured Lens .................... 76
A hidden past .................................................................................................. 81
A Voyage into the Past and back into the Future ........................................... 84
The new Past is hidden- we only remember the Old ..................................... 87
A Neighbourhood enterprise “from the bottom up” ...................................... 91
The Tour of the House .................................................................................... 97
The Self-Help Contact Centre ......................................................................... 98
The Intergenerational Project Bureau and Photo Archive ............................99
The Neighbourhood House and ‘moskito’ ................................................... 100
The Art Gallery, F 92...................................................................................... 103
The Workshop, hive of creativity ................................................................. 106
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 107
Chapter 4 .................................................................................................. 108
The Square: an ethnographic exploration of a place in time ....................... 108
The Square ......................................................................................................111
The Kiez and its history. ................................................................................ 115
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Multicultural and class divisions .................................................................. 121
The Pfefferwerk Empire and Neighbourhood-building ............................... 123
Urban regeneration – A better future? .......................................................... 125
Continuities and Change: Local Voices ........................................................ 126
‘Leute am Teute’ ............................................................................................. 131
Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 135
Chapter 5 ................................................................................................... 138
One Nation – two People: An incomplete Revolution .................................. 138
New Starts – Old Skills ................................................................................... 138
Stories of the past for the future .................................................................. 140
Letti’s story .................................................................................................... 143
An Epilogue? ................................................................................................. 150
Gains and Losses in the Lives of the ‘Others’. ............................................... 151
Gender issues ................................................................................................. 152
Selma’s Story .................................................................................................. 154
New Voices .................................................................................................... 169
Contested memories in 2009 ......................................................................... 171
Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 174
Chapter 6 ................................................................................................... 176
The Past in the Future: Ghosts Revisited ............................................... 176
The Anti-Racist Campaign in Berlin 2006/7 .................................................. 177
Fighting Windmills or Monsters? ................................................................. 184
A visit to the local High School in February 2007 ......................................... 190
Memorials and counter monuments ............................................................ 194
Racial tensions in the East............................................................................ 196
Conclusion .................................................................................................... 202
Conclusion ............................................................................................... 204
Building Bridges and laying Anchors ............................................................ 211
Outcome of the research ...............................................................................214
References ................................................................................................. 219
APPENDIX ................................................................................................. 237
Appendix 1 ................................................................................................ 238
Appendix 2................................................................................................. 241
Appendix 3 ............................................................................................... 242

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Abstract

This thesis explores the legacy created by the process of unification of the
formerly divided city of Berlin. It is a micro study of a local community-
based organisation in the East of the city, where primarily local people from
East and West Berlin had set up a Neighbourhood Centre, using as their
model existing neighbourhood houses in the West of Berlin. This micro-
study is located in the context of global and localized processes that
contributed decisively to the final collapse of the East German State. The
research explores how the often cataclysmic changes and ruptures in their
customary life and work affected citizens, especially women, following the
fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent unification with West Germany in
1990. Women played a crucial role in the everyday life and management of
the organization in question. Their life stories and experiences inform much
of the analysis contained in this thesis. The ethnography consistently
involves people’s narratives and the transmission of different historical and
intergenerational discourses and the comparative views about the previous
and the current quality of life under different political and economic
systems. The House, in which the Centre is located, reflects the broader
history of the region. It was a Jewish Children’s Home until 1940 and thus
carries the narrative of a past that was both German and Jewish. It
continued to serve largely child and adolescent groups in subsequent
political systems. Today, that legacy is marked and commemorated and is
fundamental to the Centre’s aim of contributing to the transmission of
memory to younger generations. The research explores how the often
cataclysmic changes in customary life styles affected citizens and how they
individually and collectively translated their experiences and life stories into
‘workable scripts’ for the present. The present is frequently framed in
relation to the multiple layering of memories and the individual and
collective negotiation of disillusionment. Since the Unification has been and
is still being acted out in the context of global economic and geopolitical
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relationships, the absence of a real consensus about what kind of society
people want in the light of their joint and separate experience is an ongoing,
interesting and challenging process and again part of a larger discourse.

My own participation in the activities in the House and in the
neighbourhood shows how men and women involved in the construction of
neighbourhoods and landscapes find themselves far from being victims of
history and events beyond their control. Methodologically the participation
in a variety of activities was central to the process of research, building
relationships, gaining trust and insights into people’s different views.

The research demonstrates how personally relevant and engaging
relationships built around common goals and needs, can mitigate the
frequently traumatising and debilitating effects of rapid transformation. The
research also raises questions about the future of such small enterprises in
the constantly changing climate of financial constraints.

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Acknowledgements

The completion of this thesis has only been possible with the support of many
individuals and institutions. It could not have been written without the
extensive cooperation of those who agreed to be interviewed and who were
generous in providing time and answers to the frequent questions by a
‘participant observer’. I am particularly grateful to the teams at the
Neighbourhood Centre in Berlin, the management team at the Pfefferwerk
Organisation and the people connected with the different projects and
activities that are associated with their work in the locality. It would be unfair
to single out particular persons in the teams or in the network of contacts but
there are clearly some with whom I had closer involvement than others and to
whom I am particularly indebted.

I would like to thank the Department for Ethnology at Humboldt University,
Professor Binder and Professor Kaschuba, who each gave me valuable advice
and invited me to attend seminars; I found the special ethnographic editions I
was given by Falk Blask extremely useful. I am grateful to the
Zeitzeugenboerse (Agency for Time Witnesses) and Eva Geffers for their
informative discussions and to Inge Franken who provided the background to
the research for her book on the former Jewish Children’s Home.
In London I found the librarians at the Goethe Institute, at Goldsmiths and at
the German Historical Library extremely helpful. I am thankful for early
encouragement and enthusiasm for the subject matter from the late Professor
Olivia Harris, Professor Brian Morris, Dr. Anna Cole, and to Professor Sophie
Day for her constructive comments.

The thesis would never have been completed without the active and sustaining
support of Dr. Victoria Goddard and Dr. Frances Pine at Goldsmiths who
always knew how to infuse new energy at critical times. They provided me
with indispensable guidance and the benefit of their experience and wisdom.
The staff in the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths and my fellow
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Chapter 1 Introduction

students deserve praise for being constantly prepared to engage in stimulating
and in helpful seminar discussions. A special thank-you is due to Dr. Elena
Gonzalez-Polledo for her help in the final stages.

Lastly I would like to thank my family for endless patience in putting up with
my preoccupation throughout these years and for their encouragement and
tireless support in bringing this thesis to a close.
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Chapter 1 Introduction

List of Illustrations

Page

Fig 1 Neighbours will always exist; places to meet need to be alive 30
© NBH am Teuteburger Platz Platz, Poster 2008
Fig 2 The NB House Team 2007-2010. © NBH am TB Platz 43
Fig 3 The Neighbourhood Centre Building, 20 © G. Wilford 80
Fig 4 Copy of the original boat model, 2007 © G. Wilford 87
Fig 5 The Teutoburger Platz in 1928 Berlin 91
© (Bauinspector Barth), Bundesbeshaffungsamt
Fig 6 Gallerie of Photoarchive A. Pisarek © NBH am TB Platz 99
Fig 6a The Gardenside of the House in the 1930s
© Abraham Pisarek Archive 103

Fig 7 Family Event at the NBC May 2007 © G. Wilford 105
Fig 8 Arial view of tenement blocs and TB Platz
© S.T.E.R.N Archive 2005 108
Fig 9 Work Group of local residents in 1950
© Ostchronik, NNR Prenzlauer Berg Museum 114
Fig 10 Platzhaus, TB Platz, June 2007 © G. Wilford 115
Fig 11 Residents Association Inauguration, June 2007 © G. Wilford 133
Fig 12 Locals in the Square, May 2007 © G. Wilford 137
Fig 13 ‘Divided Opinions’ by H.Sandberg 1948 © G. Wilford 138
Fig 14 9th November 1989: The Fall of the Wall © dpa Berlin 164
Fig 15 Campaign Poster September2006 © DPW Berlin 178
Fig 16 Visitors from Israel and New York Sept 2007 © G. Wilford 218

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 1

Introduction

What we are faced with – what we are living - is the constitution of
both ‘group membership’ and individual ‘identity’ out of a dynamically
chosen selection of memories, and the constant reshaping, reinvention
and reinforcement of those memories as members contest and create
the boundaries and the links among themselves (Boyarin 1994:27).

Boyarin’s quote above summarises the relational and political processes I
encountered once my ethnographic research in Berlin had begun.
This introduction will first problematize the key theme about the ways in
which memories in private, collective and public narratives may be consensual
or contested and how the potency of expressed or silent narratives and
memories interact with the present and, by implication, the future. I shall
outline the reasons for choosing Berlin as a city and then describe the site, its
organisational context and location. This will be followed by an outline of the
themes addressed in each chapter, followed by a description of the
methodology used to gain evidence and a discussion of its limitations as well
as the ethical considerations adhered to.

Memory and its vicissitudes

I embarked on my research with the intention of finding out how people in
East and West Germany dealt with the transmission of memories through the
trajectory of narratives, in public or private commemorations, through silence
or oppositional practices, peacefully or violently. In the context of German
history and, in particular, the more recent collapse of the entire state system,
which resulted in the unification of Germany, this is a broad field to enter in
order to understand how the memories of the past forty years might still affect
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