Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Dedication
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: The Making and Remaking of Ideologies through Space
- 2 Municipal Socialism and Housing in Red Vienna (1919–1934)
- 3 Short-Lived Great Berlin : Tabula Rasa and the Reinvention of Nature (1945–1949)
- 4 Divided City I: East Berlin and the Construction of Socialism (1949–1970)
- 5 Divided City II: West Berlin and the Reconstruction of Liberalism (1949–1970)
- 6 Conclusion and Postcards from the Past
- References
- Index
4 - Divided City I: East Berlin and the Construction of Socialism (1949–1970)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2023
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Dedication
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: The Making and Remaking of Ideologies through Space
- 2 Municipal Socialism and Housing in Red Vienna (1919–1934)
- 3 Short-Lived Great Berlin : Tabula Rasa and the Reinvention of Nature (1945–1949)
- 4 Divided City I: East Berlin and the Construction of Socialism (1949–1970)
- 5 Divided City II: West Berlin and the Reconstruction of Liberalism (1949–1970)
- 6 Conclusion and Postcards from the Past
- References
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter examines the reconstruction of East Berlin in the name of socialism through the lens of mass housing. It shows how the search for socialist semantics regarding the rebuilding of housing and the capital city oscillated between the reinvention of national traditions due to Stalin’s doctrine of ‘socialism in one country’ and the outright elimination of this doctrine by standardization and prefabrication. The latter would prevail: the prefabricated concrete tower, the Platte, became a symbol of socialism. It signifies a ‘liquidating abstraction’ (Adorno) and, at the same time, a radical and appreciated commitment to social equality. One prominent counter-space to the Platte was the allotment garden, a space that was simultaneously located within and outside of the socialist state.
Keywords: East Berlin, socialism, socialist realism, industrialization, Platte, allotment garden
For the Soviets, Hans Scharoun and his collective’s plan for Great Berlin turned out to be too modernist. Stalin summoned his East German acolytes to resuscitate national traditions committed to monumentality instead. Ironically, as this chapter shows, it was the socialists, formerly committed to internationalism, who would retap the notion of Heimat, which had been dear to the Fascists. ‘Socialism in one country’ (Stalin 1954) and a return to the ‘beautiful, truly German city’ were the architectural dictums in the early years of the Cold War, of which the showcase ‘workers’ palaces’ on East Berlin’s Stalinallee turned out to be a prominent manifestation (see section 4.1). Yet, as will be also illustrated, behind the facades of national traditions and monumentality, new building practices were already being experimented with, practices of Taylorism that emphasized efficiency via rationalization. Once decried as the epitome of worker-unfriendly, dehumanizing ‘imperial capitalism’, Taylorism was gradually integrated into socialism, which in East Germany meant Marxism-Leninism (shaped by one-party-rule, a centralized state, a planned economy, and an emphasis on techno-scientific progress). In the immediate post-WWII years, Taylorism was coupled with shock work: the expectation of an above-average work ethic in the service of building socialism (due to a shortage of labor and machinery). Many workers agreed to perform above average in their jobs but failed to move any closer to the promised fruits of their labor nonetheless: a decent standard of living.
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- Information
- Rebuilding Cities and CitizensMass Housing in Red Vienna and Cold War Berlin, pp. 87 - 122Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2023