Politics of History in Berlin since the Renunifaction

The transformation and remodeling of the historical center of Berlin as symbolical core of the republic following its designation as capital proved to be a symbolic-political brinkmanship and still triggers intense debates. Apart from the »return to history« the strive towards a new future, and apart from the political continuity of the »Bonner republic« the new self-confidence of a .Berliner republic. was supposed to be signalized. Additionally, Berlin was declared as »Werkstatt der Einheit« (workshop of unity) in which the East and the West should grow together in harmony.
In order to grasp the conflictual process of the development of Berlin as symbolical capital in its general social meaning, this article first discusses and embroadens Edgar Wolfrum.s definition of the »politics of history«. Through the analysis of the discussion on the capital in the year 1991 and the long-standing discourses on the »Berlin republic« the difference between the symbolical concepts of »Bonn« and »Berlin« shall be illustrated. And finally, by using the example of the remodeling of the Reichstag, the debates concerning the architectural formation of the historical center and the »Mahnmal«-discussion, I would like to show in what way the »Berlin republic« occupies and forms the historically multiply fragmented space between the building of the Reichstag and the Schlossplatz since 1991 and what problems it thereby confronts.