United City, Divided Memories? Cold War Legacies in Contemporary Berlin by Dirk Verheyen (review)

In this interesting, well-written book, Dirk Verheyen provides a description of key aspects of Cold War history in Berlin as well as an analysis of how that history has been commemorated. With the opening of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the East German regime and its dreaded secret police (the State Security Ministry, or Stasi) ceased to exist, as did the Four Power occupation of Berlin by the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. Examining what remains of these, Verheyen divides his study into three parts related to the Four Power occupation, the Stasi, and the Berlin Wall. In each part, he first summarizes the Cold War historical developments related to each and then analyzes debates and controversies in Berlin from 1995 to 2007 about how to handle the history and legacy of the Four Powers, the Stasi, and the Berlin Wall and whether and how they should be highlighted in museums, memorials, and other sites.

Because Berlin was at the center of the Cold War and is full of history from earlier periods as well, Verheyen has a wealth of material on which to draw. In addition, in the aftermath of unification, Germans in public office have generally believed that just as the West Germans came to terms with the Nazi past from the 1960s on, so must united Germany come to terms (faster this time) with the East German past, particularly its most oppressive aspects, epitomized by the Stasi and the Berlin Wall, and with the role the Four Powers played in Germany. Many Germans take seriously the process of coming to terms with the past (Geschichtsaufarbeitung or Vergangenheitsbewältigung) and believe in the importance of a culture of memory (Erinnerungskultur) and policies to promote both of these (Erinnerungspolitik), using museums, monuments, and memorials as sites of learning (Lernort) about history.

Drawing on and explaining these German concepts as well as concepts related to memorials, monuments, commemoration, and identity from anthropology, sociology, urban planning, history, and political science, Verheyen sets up his case studies very well with two introductory chapters, "A City and Nation between Memory and Future" and "Capturing Memory and Crafting Identity." After summarizing how Germany has dealt with the Nazi past, he compares the processes of dealing with the East German and Cold War pasts with this earlier process. He also highlights the German debate after unification about whether German politicians, particularly at the federal level in the person of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, should be involved in handling history and trying to mandate some sort of "national history" concerning the period of German division and the Cold War or other periods.

The three core sections of the book provide an impressive survey of the memorial landscape related to the Cold War and East Germany and the processes and actors that have created this landscape, from local citizens' groups to government officials. Part I on the former occupying powers describes the activities and locations of occupying forces during the Cold War and then focuses on post-Cold War memorials of the Four Powers (especially Soviet memorials to the dead in World War II), the transformation of military and civilian facilities and airports, the creation of the Allied Museum in 1994 (in honor of the U.S., British, and French soldiers who served in West Berlin), and the creation of the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum in 1995 (highlighting the Soviet role in the defeat of Germany).

Part II examines the history of the Stasi in East Germany and the two key Stasi sites in Berlin preserved by united Germany: the old Stasi headquarters at Normannenstrasse and the memorial/exhibit at the main Stasi prison at Hohenschönhausen. Part III looks at the history of the Berlin Wall from 1961to 1989, its popularity with tourists before and particularly after it was breached, and how the Wall has been commemorated at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, the East Side Gallery...