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6: AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRON CURTAIN<br />
Holtorf suggests that it is not necessarily the public that need a better<br />
understanding of archaeology but the archaeologists that need a better<br />
understanding of the public (Holtorf 2007:6). If we do not understand how<br />
the past that we see in the present has been created we cannot understand<br />
different people’s connections with it and why people interact with it the<br />
way they do.<br />
There is also an issue of how we value these different parts of the puzzle.<br />
In Berlin the stories that have arrived out of the narratives and the<br />
metaphor have a very high significance to the story of the Berlin Wall. But<br />
still the narratives and the metaphor have a need to be authenticated with<br />
material ‘proof’ such as barbed wire on a film poster, the objects in museums,<br />
the remains left in the landscapes in Berlin and to some extent in<br />
Slovenia where it is used, especially at the watchtower museum and the<br />
remains in the railway museum, to connect with a wider European history.<br />
These items are there to confirm the narrative. Not to provide another type<br />
of story. This is very common. In a way, in the Czech Republic where some<br />
remains have just been left they are easier to follow and understand as they<br />
have not been clearly put into a historical narrative. Here they just stand<br />
without being forced into a story or trying to fit in with the Iron Curtain<br />
metaphor.<br />
What happens when the metaphor and the material do not correspond<br />
Often there is a need to make them match which raises the question: is it<br />
easier to change an established narrative or the material So strong are the<br />
narratives that we create and so difficult is it for us to think in other terms<br />
that the two have to be made to fit together, even if it means changing the<br />
physicality behind it or at least the stories of which they speak. It is clear,<br />
through looking at this research, that the metaphor and historical narratives<br />
of the Iron Curtain have had a major impact on not just its own story but<br />
also on Cold War history in general. It is a problem when the material does<br />
not fit into the narrative and it therefore appears we need to change and<br />
adapt to make it fit better. The problem is therefore not that they tell<br />
different stories but rather that we are not allowing them to. As conservation<br />
architect Leo Schmidt demonstrates there are no sections of Berlin<br />
Wall left today that corresponds with people’s views (Schmidt 2005:16, see<br />
Chapter 2). This has created major tension in discussions of managing the<br />
remains of the Berlin Wall today. The problem, as I see it, is not the fact that<br />
there are different stories that appear from different sources, the problem<br />
arises when we insist on forcing them together even when they do not fit.<br />
Like trying to piece together many different puzzles into one, sawing and<br />
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