Public Spaces

In the last years of the 19th century, from 1876 onwards, the city of Berlin created a number of public works and public spaces for the safety and health of its citizens. A sanitation system (Kanalisation), a central butcher's market, market arcades (Markthallen) in various districts, public hospitals, swimming pools, bathhouses, and parks helped make the city one of the healthiest and cleanest cities in Europe at the time (Ribbe and Schmädeke 125-126). It also increased the amount of public spaces, spaces used by people from all walks of life, upper and lower classes, tourists and Berliners.

The development of public spaces is a key moment in the life of cities, contributing to the creation of a shared city identity that transcends boundaries like class, race and culture. Public spaces, and the people in them, have also shaped debates over the years. From ordinances prohibiting particular political demonstrations to the Nazi orders that Jews must wear yellow Stars of David in public, it is clear that public spaces are a contested site. These contests have not ceased; most recently, because it is a tradition for Turkish families in Berlin to barbecue in the park on the weekends, various borough governments in Berlin have tried to pass ordinances prohibiting grilling in public areas. Meanwhile, discussions continue as to the exact shape and location of a Holocaust memorial, and controversy ensues when it is suggested that a square be renamed "Marlene-Dietrich-Platz."

The question of use and regulation of public spaces is intimately related to the city's identity, and is an area where architecture and population meet - public meets space. The investigation of the architectural history of Berlin's public spaces has been done, and done well, by Brian Ladd and Michael Wise; but an investigation of the public in these public spaces still remains to be done. Fredric Jameson asks, "Is the aesthetic of the individual building radically to be disjoined from the problem of the urban in such a way that the problems raised by each belong and remain in separate compartments?" (183) - and any study of Berlin must take this question into account, considering how intimately architecture, city planning, and people are linked in urban spaces.