Free Berlin by Briana J. Smith

Author:Briana J. Smith [Smith, Briana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Berlin; Political art; art activism; West Berlin; East Berlin; Cold War Berlin; German Democratic Republic; Urban Politics; Berlin Wall; Joseph Beuys; Martha Rosler; Creative Cities; socialist realism; action art; 1989 East German Revolution; German Reunification; Socially engaged Art; Community-based art; Participatory art; Kunst-Werke; Grassroots politics; Tempelhof Field; Right to the City; Media Spree; Neoliberalism; Gentrification; Rent Crisis
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2022-08-23T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.11

Barbara Petersen and Kurt Jotter, Office for Unusual Events and Artistic Initiative, Unhealable Germany flier, December 1989. Courtesy of Kurt Jotter.

Figure 4.12

Barbara Petersen and Kurt Jotter, Office for Unusual Events and Artistic Initiative, Unhealable Germany demonstration, 9 December 1989, Kurfürstendamm, West Berlin. Courtesy of Kurt Jotter.

The thousands of marchers gathered for the Unhealable Germany demonstration indicate a more contested mood vis-à-vis the prospect of reunification than is typically conceded. In fall 1989, marchers gathered on the streets of East Berlin demanding democracy, now or never. At the year’s end, marchers gathered to defend those grassroots impulses from the destructive forces of untethered market capitalism. Nevertheless, three months later, during the GDR’s first free democratic election on 18 March 1990, East German voters rewarded the party coalition offering a fast track to joining the Federal Republic—bananas and all.

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