thanks nick, for the wonderful post and the quite colorful (or rather grey) picture of yourself as a young student. although i know that you cultivate a quite decent lifestyle (i remember you once described mario and you cruising around berlin on your rickety bikes because you had no money to go to the cinema... although this nearly moved me to tears it's also a quite effective way to avoid post-thirty-something-boredom) it was good to correct that image of the jet-setting, gadget-enthusiastic, consumer-friendly bohemian that got revived especially during the VICE discussions i guess. and it also reminds me of my own schizophrenic situation being at least a "salon-marxist" by heart while i earn my living in the ultra-capitalistic television business... and still being poor anyway.
the German capital, a city which lovingly restores its communist murals rather than tearing them down
unfortunately that's not true. at least on the level of the executive politics of the city. quite the contrary it seems the berlin senate tries to get rid of as many examples, architectural monuments and buildings of the post-war "DDR-Moderne". testimonials of the socialistic east-german vision of modernism and democratic urban development like e.g. the folded concrete shell of the "Ahornblatt" (www.aujourd-hui.de/html/initiativen/ahornblatt_abriss.html) by legendary architect Ulrich Muether (http://deu.archinform.net/arch/21347.htm?ID=VeRFMLGhkacZr7XY), inventor of a unique and economical method of concrete shell structures, in favor for faceless glass, steel and sandstone slab-constructions that try to imitate historical urbanity and accommodate offices, hotels and shopping-centers all over the world. like Rem Koolhas has pointed out in an interview with Der Spiegel on the topic of the disappearance of east germany's buildings: " ... when germany was unified, in my opinion the tremendous potential of showing respect for the different cultural and social projects on both sides was thrown away. i am still very upset by the way that east german buildings are aggressively erased, especially when this happens in the name of history. It's absurd to eliminate the historical in the name of history." you can read some more excerpts and also some interesting thoughts on the phenomenon of "Ostalgie" here: www.hemmungen.com/archives/cat_eastgerman.html (i guess someone finally has to tell me how to make proper links instead of quoting the urls...). another current example for a building in the prevailing east-german style of the 60s/70s with bronze-mirrored windows that will get demolished this year is the "Palast der Republik" on the bank of the river spree (). it served as the parliament building of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik but also accommodated a lot of public utilities like restaurants, bars, a bowling alley, an ice-skating rink etc... it seems like we are going to witness another example for the erasement of a part of the (german) history that the officials like to ignore. that in mind it's even more important to carry on the emotional communistic flame...
sorry if i went a bit berserk concerning the length of this reply and excuse my clumsy english. nick, the direction that the new album might take sounds very promising. and i am especially curious how your voice and the narrative aspect will integrate.
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Date: 2005-03-23 12:40 pm (UTC)although i know that you cultivate a quite decent lifestyle (i remember you once described mario and you cruising around berlin on your rickety bikes because you had no money to go to the cinema... although this nearly moved me to tears it's also a quite effective way to avoid post-thirty-something-boredom) it was good to correct that image of the jet-setting, gadget-enthusiastic, consumer-friendly bohemian that got revived especially during the VICE discussions i guess. and it also reminds me of my own schizophrenic situation being at least a "salon-marxist" by heart while i earn my living in the ultra-capitalistic television business... and still being poor anyway.
unfortunately that's not true. at least on the level of the executive politics of the city. quite the contrary it seems the berlin senate tries to get rid of as many examples, architectural monuments and buildings of the post-war "DDR-Moderne". testimonials of the socialistic east-german vision of modernism and democratic urban development like e.g. the folded concrete shell of the "Ahornblatt" (www.aujourd-hui.de/html/initiativen/ahornblatt_abriss.html) by legendary architect Ulrich Muether (http://deu.archinform.net/arch/21347.htm?ID=VeRFMLGhkacZr7XY), inventor of a unique and economical method of concrete shell structures, in favor for faceless glass, steel and sandstone slab-constructions that try to imitate historical urbanity and accommodate offices, hotels and shopping-centers all over the world.
like Rem Koolhas has pointed out in an interview with Der Spiegel on the topic of the disappearance of east germany's buildings: " ... when germany was unified, in my opinion the tremendous potential of showing respect for the different cultural and social projects on both sides was thrown away. i am still very upset by the way that east german buildings are aggressively erased, especially when this happens in the name of history. It's absurd to eliminate the historical in the name of history."
you can read some more excerpts and also some interesting thoughts on the phenomenon of "Ostalgie" here: www.hemmungen.com/archives/cat_eastgerman.html (i guess someone finally has to tell me how to make proper links instead of quoting the urls...).
another current example for a building in the prevailing east-german style of the 60s/70s with bronze-mirrored windows that will get demolished this year is the "Palast der Republik" on the bank of the river spree (). it served as the parliament building of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik but also accommodated a lot of public utilities like restaurants, bars, a bowling alley, an ice-skating rink etc...
it seems like we are going to witness another example for the erasement of a part of the (german) history that the officials like to ignore. that in mind it's even more important to carry on the emotional communistic flame...
sorry if i went a bit berserk concerning the length of this reply and excuse my clumsy english.
nick, the direction that the new album might take sounds very promising. and i am especially curious how your voice and the narrative aspect will integrate.
haveafriendlyday
eRiC from bErLiN