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3: THE MATERIALITY OF THE BERLIN WALL
with me now studying both the exhibit and the effect it has on these teenagers,
their jolly chitter-chatter quietens down and they start looking around more as
individuals than a group. At the exit they stop for a moment, make sure they
are all there. “You know we’ve read all about this stuff but now I can really feel
it!” says one of the boys in the group to his friend.
Figure 13: Checkpoint Charlie in
2009 with Haus am Checkpoint
Charlie and a replica of the 1960s
border checkpoint in the
background and an image of an
American soldier staring into
former East Berlin in the
foreground. Photo: Anna
McWilliams.
Back to nothing
After days spent in the city centre where memorials and recreated wall
heritage have informed me almost every step of the way I find myself back
in the nothingness, the voids where the wall has been ripped out of the
ground but yet not been replaced. This is the situation in several areas
outside the centre. In many areas, even close to the centre of town, large
areas of the death strip have not yet been developed but run like a
wilderness straight through the townscape. During the Cold War these
areas were kept under total control, as was the vegetation within it. This has
kept larger vegetation such as trees at bay but the complete lack of attention
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