Temporary commemoration and permanent commemoration in Berlin

The Berlin Wall Memorial, constructed in 1998, was extended in 2006 to encompass the entire south side of Bernauer Strasse, including a 60-meter-long original piece of the Berlin Wall. This remnant, which includes both the “east” and “west” walls with its “no-man’s land” in-between, as well as light poles and an original guard tower, is paradoxically a permanent memorial for a temporary construction. When the rebuilding of Berlin occurred after the fall of the Wall in 1989, various structures – Info-Boxes and similar edifices – were created to memorialise this transformation, turning Berlin’s construction sites into tourist attractions. Drawing attention to the redevelopment and rebranding of Berlin, they give both locals and tourists something to do while the city was in transition. Paradoxically, these were temporary memorials for the permanent constructions that followed. While it is often assumed that temporary initiatives are more likely to create opportunities for the influence of public opinion, these case studies reveal that the opposite may be true. Whereas the permanent Berlin War Memorial was the outcome of a grassroots movement, the temporary Info-Structures were introduced through a top-down marketing exercise that were created without reference to the opinions of the public.