El déboulonnage del ‘Palast der Republik’: Ideología, iconoclasia moderna y la ‘Wunderkammer’ capitalista en Berlín

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to make a critical reading of the dismantling process of the ‘Palast der Republik’ in Berlin. We will compare it with the pulling down of the ‘Colonne Vendôme’ in Paris in 1871. If the overthrow of the ‘Vendôme’ can be read as iconoclasm from below (i.e. as class struggle) aiming at an appropriation of the space [Ross, 1988], with the demolition of the ‘Palast der Republik’ the space in the city centre of Berlin has been reappropriated from above (State power) and redefined according to the new social and cultural undertakings that the political and economical powers of the German Republic are pursuing today. Through this critical reading we will try to show that, similar to other historical cases of iconoclasm, the demolition of the ‘Palast der Republik’ can be examined on the score of class struggle and the symbolic construction of State power in which the ‘reproduction of the conditions of production’ as the ultimate condition of production comes to the fore [Althusser, 2003: 115]. The sheer interests of capital valorization and the construction of symbols of national identity collude to shape an adequate entrepreneurial city thought as a showcase of the reunified Germany.