Nazi Buildings, Cold War Traces and Governmentality in Post-Unification Berlin

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Bringing together approaches from cultural and urban history, as well as German studies and political theory, Clare Copleys probing study reflects on post-unification responses to iconic Nazi architecture to reveal insights into power, legitimacy and memory politics in the Berlin Republic. Analysing public debates, physical interventions into the buildings and the structuring of the memory landscapes around them, the book demonstrates that the politics of memory impact not just upon the built environment of the post-dictatorship city, but upon the way decisions about it are made. In doing so, Nazi Buildings, Cold War Traces and Governmentality in Post-Unification Berlin makes the case for conceiving of a specifically post-authoritarian governmentality and uses the responses to constructions like Goerings Aviation Ministry, Tempelhof Airport and the Olympic complex to explore its features.

Reviews

An exquisite blend of history, cultural geography and politics, this book takes the study of memory traces in the contemporary urban environment to a new level. * Neil Gregor, Professor of Modern European History, University of Southampton, UK *
Exploring how modern Germans looks at, and argue about, three iconic Nazi buildings in their capital city, this study is both subtle and theoretically sophisticated. * Maiken Umbach, Professor of Modern European History, University of Nottingham, UK *
Nazi Buildings, Cold War Traces, and Governmentality is a richly layered exploration of government practices, urban space, and the politics of memory in post-reunification Berlin. Copley expertly shows how a preoccupation with practicing liberal democratic values infuse Berliners debates about how to preserve and memorialize Nazi monumentalist architecture and constitute a specifically post-authoritarian governmentality. * Nicole Eaton, Assistant Professor of History Boston College, USA *

Author Bio

Clare Copley is Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Central Lancashire, UK.