Amnesiopolis : modernity, space, and memory in East Germany / Eli Rubin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rubin, Eli, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public housing--Germany (East)--History--20th century.

Public housing.

Housing policy--Germany (East)--History--20th century.

Housing policy.

Berlin (Germany)--Social conditions--20th century.

Berlin (Germany).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (209 p.)

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Amnesiopolis explores the construction of Marzahn, the largest prefabricated housing project in East Germany, built on the outskirts of East Berlin in the 1970s and 1980s, and touted by the regime as the future of socialism. It also focuses especially on the experience of East Germans who moved, often from crumbling slums left over as a legacy of the nineteenth century, into this radically new place, one defined by pure functionality and rationality; a material manifestation of the utopian promise of socialism.

Contents:

Cover; Amnesiopolis: Modernity, Space, and Memory in East Germany; Copyright; Dedication; Acknowledgments; Contents; List of Figures; List of Abbreviations; Plates; Introduction ; Chapter 1: From the Slums to the Tabula Rasa: Germany's Working Class, the Housing Program, and the Marzahn Plan; THE HOUSING CRISIS IN POST-WAR EAST BERLIN; THE HOUSING PROGRAM; THE DNA OF UTOPIA: THE PLAN FOR MARZAHN; Chapter 2: Moonscape on the Mark: Socialism, Modernity, and the Construction of a New World; "PIONEERS OF THE FIRST HOUR"; ETERNAL RETURN: DIGGING UP THE PAST IN MARZAHN; RECREATING A GREEN UTOPIA

CRANES AND COSMONAUTS: CONSTRUCTION SITES AS PROPAGANDAChapter 3: Rainbows and Communism: Material, Sensory, and Mnemonic Ruptures; MOVING OUT OF THE MISERY QUARTER; BABIES AND BUREAUCRATS: THE STRUGGLE TO LAND A NEW APARTMENT; "A GIANT EMPIRE APPEARED"-ZERO HOUR ON THE GRÜNE WIESE; MUD AND RAINBOWS: A NEW WORLD OF THE SENSES; Chapter 4: Growing with Marzahn: Childhood, Community, and the Space of Socialism's Future; ARRIVAL IN A NEW KIEZ; PLATTENBAU INTERIORITY: ABSENCE, PRESENCE, AND MODERNITY; GROWING WITH MARZAHN: CHILDHOOD SPACES

DIFFERENCE AND REPETITION: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD IN MARZAHNChapter 5: Plattenbau Panopticon: The Stasi, Durchherrschung, and the New Housing Settlements; THE CLANDESTINE HAND: THE STASI AND THE BUILDING OF MARZAHN; SEEING LIKE A PLATTENBAU: SURVEILLANCE IN THE WBS 70 AND THE SPACES IN BETWEEN; DEFENDING UTOPIA: THE STASI IN THE FABRIC OF THE NEW COMMUNITY; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; PRIMARY SOURCES; Archives; Periodicals; Films; Printed Sources; SECONDARY SOURCES; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-179657-3

0-19-104618-3