The Erasure of Antifascist Memory in the Built Environment of Berlin, Germany

Since reunification in the 1990s, the German government has often been lauded by the international community for its Erinnerungskultur, or “remembrance culture.” Berlin itself is a city full of memorials and monuments; one can barely walk two blocks without coming across some structure referencing the tumultuous political eras of the 20th century. While Holocaust remembrance is the primary focus (and rightly so), the diversity of dedications has only increased in the years since reunification. However, the process of reunification could more accurately be described as a process of absorption, specifically of West Germany overtaking East Germany. The following years would entail the newly unified federal government reshaping the image of its capital city, so that it would convey messages of an idealistic democratic future. In doing so, the government chose to, at least on the surface of the cityscape, sanitize its storied past of political activism. Throughout the course of Berlin history, the German government, like many others historically, has manipulated its public through usage of political architecture. By eliminating certain sites and preserving others, the German government directly impacted the way in which Berlin and its history is understood. The choices displayed through analysis of these sites depict a prime example of how architecture can shape public memory through manipulation of the physical landscape, especially as it relates to political ideology. This analysis will focus on the erasure of antifascist memorialization throughout the cityscape of Berlin, contributing to the general rightward shift of German society.