Atlantica - 01.01.2006, Page 34

32 AT L A N T I CA
BERLINa
“It’s what the architect wanted,” said one of the security guards work-
ing at the monument. “It’s not forbidden to play.” The security guard
is not just apologizing to me for the noise. The architect didn’t see the
Memorial as a depressing place.
“...There will be fashion models modeling there and films will be shot
there,” Eisenman said about the Memorial, in an interview with the
German weekly Spiegel, days before the public inauguration on 12 May
2005. “...What can I say? It’s not a sacred space.”
CHANGE IS A CONSTANT THEME in Berlin. Each passing year,
the East sheds more of the landmarks of its communist past. Because
of Berlin’s divided past, the city has multiple train stations; Zoo Station
(yes, the name of the U2 song) is the main station in the West and
Lichtenberg and Ostbahnhof Stations in the East. (The city also has two
airports, one each for the East and West.) In the spirit of simplification
rather than unification, a new central train station is under construction.
Set to open in 2006, the sophisticated-looking station, designed by the
same firm that renovated Berlin’s famed Olympic Stadium for the 2006
World Cup, will be the largest rail hub in Europe.
The new face of Berlin is not limited to the construction of modern
glass buildings, shopping malls or train stations. Bundled in my thick
winter jacket, I’m standing next to a reporter from the German TV
station MDR, just south of Schlossplatz, across from Museum Island.
He’s filming protesters who are marching against the planned demoli-
Not the Mall of America, but still a massive mall in Potsdamer Platz, once no-man´s land.
034-41ATL106 Berlin.indd 32 16.12.2005 12:06:08