The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape

by Brian Ladd

In this compelling work, Brian Ladd examines the ongoing conflicts radiating from the remarkable fusion of architecture, history, and national identity in Berlin. Ladd surveys the urban landscape, excavating its ruins, contemplating its buildings and memorials, and carefully deconstructing the public debates and political controversies emerging from its past.

"Written in a clear and elegant style, The Ghosts of Berlin is not just another colorless architectural history of the German capital. . . . Mr. Ladd's book is a superb guide to this process of urban self-definition, both past and present."—Katharina Thote, Wall Street Journal

"If a book can have the power to change a public debate, then The Ghosts of Berlin is such a book. Among the many new books about Berlin that I have read, Brian Ladd's is certainly the most impressive. . . . Ladd's approach also owes its success to the fact that he is a good storyteller. His history of Berlin's architectural successes and failures reads entertainingly like a detective novel."—Peter Schneider, New Republic

"[Ladd's] well-written and well-illustrated book amounts to a brief history of the city as well as a guide to its landscape."—Anthony Grafton, New York Review of Books
 

Genres: History, Germany, Nonfiction, Architecture, European History, World War II, Travel

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to get into this book. The concept was brilliant: visit the architecture of Berlin that remains from the Nazi Era - this despite Allied bombing of the city and the harrowing Battle of Berlin between Soviet and German troops and armor. However, try as I might, the writing was simply too dry for me. I had to fight to finish each chapter and the book. You might have a different experience. As I say, the concept is brilliant.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers pretty much everything you want in a walking tour of a city (history and architecture, anecdotes and themes), apart from the thousand photographs you wish were in here. But mainly it's an analysis of issues of memory and politics and the German psyche in general, and how it affects (and is reflected in) the landscape of the city. Understandably, there basically isn't a brick in town that doesn't associate with it some measure of guilt and mourning. I bought this book because I'm off to visit the city and I wanted to learn a bit more about whatever it had to say. What I got was plenty. And I wonder if I'd have to go to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to find more burdened scenery.

Ladd is really smart, and a good writer. Now I'm a little ticked off since I have acquired a list of about 500 places I need to visit.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

What kind of Berlin can there be after the Holocaust and the Wall? The answer is more than complicated. The city's visitors feel like archeologists, digging for the layers under every building, every street name. Because the book focuses on the physical city, I'm guessing that it would feel too abstract for someone who had never visited. But for me it was a revelation, supplying details about the sights I have seen and leading me to new ones.

For example, there is the large office building on Wilhelmstrasse which would attract no attention on its own. But it was built by the Third Reich as a "document in stone displaying the reawakened military will and the reestablished military readiness of the new Germany." Ouch. The home of Hermann Göring's Ministry of Aviation, it is the sort of place with too much baggage to find continued usefulness. Except that it was not bombed, and this intact building fell into the Eastern sector. It was just too usable, so the GDR "converted" it to its purposes by mounting a mural (crafted by Meissen, which fell into the East!) along one wall to show the happy Socialist society. In 1953, a workers' uprising took place there (quelled, of course). So in 1993, the new Germany placed a commemorative plaque of that uprising.

And that's what you see: A Nazi war building, decorated with an East German mural and a post-Wall commemoration. But it does not really attract attention on its own. You need a little help getting there, and this book helps a lot. The book documents that Berlin and Germany have done a good job of coming to terms with history.

The book is now more than 10 years old, but it still works as a guide to Berlin as a work in progress. Now a city full of young people who remember little or none of this, Berlin rewards the persistent visitor as a vibrant and livable place, built upon a troubled past.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at a great second-hand bookstore in Seattle (Mercer St. Books) and almost didn't buy it because, even though it's right up my alley, it's also about 20 years old now and I wasn't sure it would have anything to say about the Berlin of 2018.

I was very wrong. It's an astute and still very relevant analysis of post-Wall Berlin and how the city grapples with its history through architecture (and grapples with its architectural history). The landscape of Berlin is a source of endless fascination to me, and I lapped up everything Ladd had to say about buildings and monuments in Berlin, and things that have been turned into monuments (like the Wall), and the layout of the city, and "heritage," and "authenticity," and commerce, and art.

What was perhaps most remarkable was just how much things *haven't* changed in 20 years. Structures have been torn down and many others have been (re-)built, but Berlin is still struggling with the same issues it's faced basically since 1945 - and this book does great justice to that.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Berlin is one of my favorite cities in the whole world, and my first trip there back in '97 coincided with the release of this fascinating study of architecture-as-politics, though I'm pretty sure I didn't read it until after I'd gotten back. Re-reading it now, years later, and after a number of other, eventful and fun-filled trips to the city Karl Scheffler described as "condemned forever to become and never to be" gets the ol' journey juices squirting again, just to see how far things have come over the last quarter century since Ladd wrote this.
Back then, the newly-moved capital was just beginning to rebuild and subsequent trips there over the next decade linger in my memory as a beautiful, fun city that resembled a gigantic construction site. Ladd's book explains why, in part, but also discussed how the titular phantoms linger and loiter uncomfortably in the background of German reunification. His focus is mainly on the Nazi period and the Cold War, with great sections on Nazi architecture, what happened to it after 1945, the Wall, divided Berlin and the (somewhat) contrasting architectural styles, and finally how all this is sifted through in the wake of '89 and the resulting reunification.
All of this is backed by fascinating histories of buildings, streets, and quarters, and would benefit the merely curious or anyone wanting to know the background of what they're seeing in this most ausgezeichnet city!

[Simon Wolff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Succinct and eloquent summary of Berlin‘s urban history as well as the fierce debates of post WWII Germany about its national identity and collective memory and how they affected and continue to affect Berlin‘s architecture and cityscape.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

not bad, but Koshar's "Germany's Transient Pasts" is a better academic treatment of a similar topic.

[Tom Glaser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Urban planning is always contentious, but post-Wall Berlin's ideological and political battles over its monuments, ruins, vacant spaces and even street names were extraordinary. This was a city that in the space of a lifetime had been the seat of of an empire, a democratic republic, a genocidal dictatorship, and, in its eastern precincts, a repressive communist regime. It was also a commercial and cultural center.

With the Wall's destruction and the collapse of the the German Democratic Republic, Berlin was suddenly poised to become the capital of a newly unified Germany. Large sections of what would become the no-longer-divided city's center were vacant or neglected because they were adjacent to the Wall or within the no-man's land that separated East and West Berlin.

Architects, politicians, historians, city planners and ordinary citizens immediately began debating how Berlin's cityscape should reflect the newly unified Germany's complex history and aspirations. In a city with such a tumultuous recent past, every decision about preservation, reconstruction, demolition, and memorialization was fraught with controversy. Ladd explains these debates clearly and succeeded in giving me an appreciation of the stakeholders' various perspectives.

I read the book after returning from a trip to Berlin this summer, a city I first visited in 1975 and again in 2008. In retrospect, I should have read it before my last two trips. I would have understood more of what I was seeing and likely paid closer attention to some of the structures the author focuses on, like the Berlin Palace/Humboldt Forum, the Neue Wache, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I also would have sought out some places that I missed.

Unfortunately the book is now quite dated. It was published in 1997, when many of the projects the author discusses were still evolving. In the 2018 expanded edition, Ladd updated the book with an afterword, but this newer edition misses more recent developments, like the failure to complete the Unity Seesaw monument.

For readers who are more interested in urban planning than in Berlin history, the book could be a useful introduction to the politics of urban renewal. Although there's no dominant figure like Robert Moses at the center of this story, it could appeal to some fans of The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. Readers interested in ongoing debates about the Confederacy and how it's memorialized in places like Richmond and New Orleans may also find useful the discussion of Berlin's struggle with its Nazi and Communist past.

[Gabe Steller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just went to Berlin and Love love loved it, and I also find historical memory to be possibly the most interesting aspect of history, so this was very up my alley! While a little in the weeds-y was in parts super duper fascinating, because Berlin is such a good location for this sort of analysis. I mean theres the obvious reasons but also cuz it was never really a storied European capital like London, Paris, Amsterdam etc, But people were constantly trying to make it one.
and then some disaster would hit and somebody else starts over, to the point that its honestly the ReBrand capital of Europe.
Or as a smart German guy more eloquently put it Berlin “is forever condemned to Become, and never to be”

Interesting tid bits!
Hitler had absolutely gonzo plans to like basically destroy the whole city and make these gigantic creepy racist boner buildings but he was too busy losing the war so none of them got built really BUT! they did make a lot of the underground parts so theres all these old nazi tunnels and basements underneath Berlin! eeeeeeek!
The communist east refused to call the Wall a wall and instead called it an Antifascist Protective Rampart, which is embarrassingly overwrought, clunky and funny.
In an interesting twist both sides came to see the Wall as a border between past and future. For the west, by building a wall around their authoritarian state communists were once again emphasizing their true nature as just as another ugly face of anachronistic backward medieval tyranny. This last ditch effort was sure to eventually be torn down and East Berlin/Germany would achieve their destiny and become Free individuals of the future!
The Communists on the other hand was the wall as a forward redoubt, protecting their fledgling proletarian state from the last flailing tentacles of the dying systems of capitalism and fascism.

the libs were right the wall would break, but were the commies wrong the there was some that fasch-y still swimming around over there? You decide! just kidding there is absolutely a right answer.

[janna ✭ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an immensely interesting read, that made me realize how little I knew about Berlin's architectural history. However, it became quite repetitive, bland, and boring after a while. I really struggled to get through it and probably wouldn't have finished it if I didn't have to. The writing often dragged and lingered on topics that I didn't think needed this much diving into, but, overall, I would say this is a really good starting point for anyone interested in Berlin's history and urban landscape.

[Matthew Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating discussion of the different ways in which German history and politics revealed itself in the architecture of Berlin, and the often-difficult attempts of post-unification Germany to address this history through architecture and monuments. Elegantly-written, lucid and informative.

[Patrick Kornegay, Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive history of Berlin, told through its architecture and the various regimes that proclaimed it as their capital city, from Frederick the Great to the Kaiser, Hitler, and the DDR. Great for understanding the German concept of "Vergangenheitsbewältigung," which I find a way to use every day in regular discourse.

[Robert Varik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Üle pika aja üks nõnda põnev ajalooraamat, mida ei saanud lihtsalt käest panna.

[Cecilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a class. Book was meh class was 10/10

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

In urban landscapes, sites often have multiple histories. How do we determine which histories are to be remembered and which are to be forgotten? Moreover, how do these choices impact the citizens who engage with urban sites on a daily basis? Brian Ladd’s book is a fruitful meditation on these questions. Ladd recounts the histories of several of Berlin’s high-profile public sites from the medieval period through reunification. While each site has a unique trajectory and ultimate fate, what shines through in each case is Ladd’s thesis that public sites serve as loci upon which discourse over what it means to be an urban citizen and, moreover, a national citizen, are centered.

My only major complaint about the book is that it is now dated. Written in 1997, not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the book seems chiefly concerned with how citizens of Berlin and Germany will negotiate their identities in the wake of Communism. He is ultimately skeptical that Germany will ever be able to come to terms with its past. I would be curious to see how Ladd would treat certain sites built after his book was published (like Potsdamer Platz), particularly in light of Germany’s dominance of the EU. Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in German history, memory, or urban planning, particularly if they are interested in seeing how those fields can be used in conjunction with one another. I would also recommend the book to those wanting to see how a narrative can be constructed from creative non-archival sources, such as street signs and tourist site guestbooks. Finally, I would even recommend Ladd’s book as simple pleasure reading; his mode of storytelling is so compelling that the book is a pleasure to read.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the rating, this is a mist read if you plan to visit Berlin. While the information is excellent, unfortunatley the writing is not.
In spite of the circular writing, i found the rich history of the city of Berlin to be incredibly fascinating and truly helps you understand the culture of Berlin and Germany as a whole with respect to the events of the 20th century.
The author provides plenty of anecdotal information that can be easily compiled as a guidebook for those interested in digging deeper into the history of this amazing, dynamic city.

[Jamie Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

There may be no other city in the world with as complicated an architectural history as Berlin. It is amazing that anything ever gets built in the welter of competing and conflicting historical narratives. There is the old, medieval Berlin, the imperial city of the Hohenzollerns, Weimar Berlin, Nazi Berlin, Communist Berlin, and now the modern city. Each of these previous epochs has its own proponents for historical preservation and, like an archaeological dig, in some cases you cannot preserve one layer unless you destroy the ones on top of it. Being a planning commissioner for Berlin must be an interesting job.

As if that were not enough, some buildings from the Nazi era remain not because they are loved but because it would be too expensive or disruptive to replace them, so an uncomfortable silence falls over their past. Some of the worst of the Nazi government buildings were removed, such as the ones containing Gestapo or SS cells where prisoners were tortured, and their previous locations appear to have been deliberately obscured. The signs that purport to show where these terrible things occurred are not, in fact, in the right place. In one case the actual location is an unmarked area beneath the parking lot of an apartment building.

Potsdamer Platz was once the busiest intersection in Europe, and was the site of the first traffic light on the Continent. However, when the city was divided between East and West after World War II, it was carved up based on local government districts established decades before, and Potsdamer Platz found itself on the border, on the East Berlin side. It had been heavily damaged by Allied bombing and the Communist government cleared everything away, turning it into an empty 200 meter wide killing zone to prevent those unsatisfied with the socialist workers’ paradise from voting with their feet. With the fall of Communism that empty land became valuable once again, and Potsdamer is now a bustling center-city neighborhood.

The book was published in 1997, and much has certainly changed, but some of the disagreements that the newly-reunited city was having are thought provoking. In the West we usually see Communism as irredeemably bad, a historical atrocity, and sure enough, the initial impulse of the West-dominated government was to remove all traces of Marxism-Leninism and its dismal decades. However, for the people who had grown up in the East, these were their childhood memories, the cultural artifacts that grounded their lives. The arguments were fierce between the Destroy and the Preserve camps, and when the book came out an awkward compromise had been reached where some of the statues and plaques were allowed to remain. With the passage of twenty more years, and the fading of the Communist legacy it would be interesting to see what remains of those artifacts. Perhaps they are still there, used as kitschy props for tourists to take selfies in front of. There is some humor in the thought that Lenin, an enthusiastic proponent of terror as an instrument of social control, has been reduced to a cartoon villain like Darth Vader.

[Eran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berlin endured 4 distinct eras in the 20th century. The imperial capital became the center of the Weimar Republic after the Kaiser abdicated during WWI. Communists and Nazis fought each other in the 20s until the Nazis won and ruled the city until the end of WWII. The Allies and Soviets split the city for 30-odd years. Finally, the city was reunited and the Wall was torn down in '89. Germans, at the end of the century and the beginning of the new millennium, had to deal with all this baggage. How do you commemorate what the Nazis did? Is a Kaiser worth remembering? How quickly should atrocities be forgotten? Was Communism all that bad? The book is a tour guide of how Berliners tried to respond to these and other questions. It helps explain why Berlin looks the way it does.

When I moved to Berlin nearly a decade ago, there was a major construction project underway in the middle of the city. I learned that there was an almost universally hated project to rebuild a castle. Three facades are replicas of the old castle, one is a shopping mall, and the inside is completely new. Decorative statues are sponsored by right-wing nationalists. Weird. I learned from this book that the site was also home to the DDR's main government building, which was shuttered because of asbestos. My fondest memory of the building is one Christmas the workers hung a tiny Christmas tree from the end of a crane dangling over the building site.

I learned lots of interesting tidbits and enjoyed reading it.

Side note: there are four other books with the title "Ghosts of Berlin" on Goodreads.

[James (JD) Dittes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ach Berlin!

This bustling town, as Ladd's title indicates, is a place full of Ghosts. So many of its buildings, created for the glories of a present age in Germany (the German Empire under the Wilhelms, the Third Reich) provide haunting reminders of history's lessons.

I'm preparing for a trip to Berlin this summer, and this book gave me insights into the deep history of places on my list (and some that were added). I'm really looking forward to stepping into the Neue Wache, a site that has been a guard house (Empire), a memorial to the dead of the Great War (Weimar & 3rd Reich), a memorial to the victims of fascism (DDR), and now serves as a memorial to the victims of war & oppression everywhere. Yet within it lies Kathe Kollwitz's unforgettable Pieta, and I can't wait to go there.

I was also interested in the Topography of Terror that arose when plans were announced to develop a flattened lot on Prince Albrecht Strasse that had once housed the Gestapo headquarters. The ground cries out, and plans to rehabilitate a place of such suffering were quickly scrapped.

Such it is with Berlin, a city of Ghosts and a dream of the future.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic look at the history of Berlin via architecture and landscape. The book really shines when it discusses the human drama surrounding these monuments and buildings, the little personal stories that highlight everything. The use of design contests was surprisingly frequent, as was the total disregard for the winning design. By far my favorite story was about the Linné Triangle and the only mass flight from West Berlin to East Berlin.

Also excellent was the way the author explained the controversies related to the decisions by successive governments on what to keep, what to tear down, what to replace and how - and believe me, everything was a controversy. And rightly so. A monument to communism looks like a monument to oppression in the eyes of a West Berliner, but a decision to remove a monument to communism says to East Berliners that their personal history is of no value.

I've used this book a few times to take N to interesting places and then read the related snippets aloud, and it's been a successful form of low-key walking tour.

[Cherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating analysis on some the famous landmarks/historical sites in Berlin. The historical and political insight behind the construction, destruction and in some cases reconstruction of these places paints a more nuanced picture of places that are commonly known, as well as ones that I otherwise may have overlooked. Berlin has a much more contentious history than most cities which makes the task of city planning that much more difficult, but also more interesting. The book clearly lays out many philosophical considerations surrounding the preservation of various buildings and monuments without being partisan. The afterword in the updated version 20 years after it was originally published was helpful as well - some projects like the palace and Holocaust memorial weren't finished until after the original book was written so it was nice to know what decisions ended up being made. A great companion for a trip to Berlin!

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

My partner recommended this because I was traveling to Berlin and she was 100% correct. Ladd is an architectural history professor but he writes without jargon and with a fair amount of elegance. The photos are also essential. This book may make you look at your own hometown differently; though it probably has not gone through the trauma of Berlin, Ladd gives you a frame to see all buildings as a contest between preservation and the needs of the people who live in the city at the time, as well as creations of the desire to remember or forget at the time period. Think confederate monuments. Think internment camps. Think our memory of the genocide of Native Americans. There's probably something ugly or beautiful that your city destroyed because it reminded them of something they wanted to forget.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brian Ladd takes an unusual angle on the layered and varying history of Berlin/Germany by focusing on architecture and monuments. This provides a very interesting story of cultural and national identity and a very fascinating look at how history unfolded.

The book is dated - published in the 90s so some sections were no longer relevant or missing the full story - so the best parts were looking back and analyzing from the turn of the 20th century to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I recommend this if you’ve been to Berlin. There aren’t enough pictures to match his thorough analysis of locations so it helps if you are familiar with the city’s layout.

I also recommend this if you like Germany history because this is a really different way of understanding its past.

[Amaan Pirani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty repetitive tbh.

Overall, the author compellingly demonstrates how Berlin specifically is a city whose urban landscape is largely shaped by its deep history. The author points out how different parts of the cities history resulted in its present structure ranging from
1. The east/west Berlin divide resulting in distinct architectural styles in both halves of the country
2. Continuous arguments around what parts of German history could and should be represented (i.e. should Hitler's bunker still be around). Ultimately these arguments manifested in nearly every part of the city - from how and whether buildings were restored, to which buildings stood, to the names of various streets. Unfortunately, these arguments were a bit repetitive for my taste, albeit at times interesting

[Hugolane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I have much original to say about The Ghosts of Berlin Ladd is a gifted historian. I remember reading his first book as I prepared for prelim exams and I remember learning a lot about Cologne under Konrad Adenauer, and the modernization of cities in line with new understandings of public health and well being. Here Ladd turns to Berlin and its architectural history as means to explore how deep the contestation of the city's history goes. Having lived in Berlin in 1987-8 I wish I had known more about it and had used it to explore the city more. If I return again, I might well turn back to this book, even though it is now over 20 years old.

[Delphine Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really excellent history of historical preservation of monuments, buildings, and sites in Berlin. I learned a lot about the struggle to say what needs and needed to be said about Hitler and all the populations who were killed in Germany. The book provides so much food for thought about how best to say something by how an area is presented architecturally and with monuments as well. I really liked learning about Berlin, a city I knew little about.

[Kayleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an almost perfect book for me to read on a trip to Berlin. I spend all my time in foreign cities walking around looking at buildings and wondering what their stories are, and this is a perfect set of some answers for a particular strange city. It was engaging, informative, and made my whole trip more meaningful. My only wish is that it could be written again in the current decade.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic of Berlin’s urban landscape is fascinating but reading Ladd’s overwrought sentences and omniscient narrative voice is a chore. At its best when simply describing the political controversies of various projects, e.g. the Holocaust memorial. At its worst when making vague, pseudo intellectual digressions about historical memory - i.e. the ghosts in the title.

[Alex Roznovsky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to read this for class. I don't trust Ladd's political outlook one bit. This thing is full of false equivalencies and selective misdirection that most would generally assume makes it seem more "neutral" and "impartial" but really just makes it sickeningly centrist. Doesn't help that the writing style is dreadfully boring too.

[Noam Levinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for class while I was studying in Berlin for a few weeks, I have to say it was pretty compelling for an architectural history. If there’s anything I took from the book, it’s that Berlin has changed so much that it’s impossible for it to have one firm historical identity. Unlike Nietzsche, I think this is probably a good thing.