Reshaping identity

An architectural thesis about co-option of ‘tainted’ buildings by their successor regimes

Student report (2022)

Authors

B. Claver Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

J.C. Edens Teachers of Practice / A - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright: © 2022 Bart Claver
Identity Co-option
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Published Date

14-04-2022

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

The co-opting of buildings constructed by the Nazi regime is dependent on three different factors: the first is need for a resource that is scarce, the second is circumstance both political as well as economical, and the last is ideology. It is in ideology were the approach between east and west concerning their Nazi legacy greatly differs. For the east, socialism had been victorious over Nazism in a war of extermination, leading to the creation of a socialist nation. Co-opting the building that had represented Nazism represented the ideological victory over its constructors. In the west, it had been a war between the Allied powers against the Axis powers. They war consequently was portrayed to have been perpetrated by a small group of criminals. By the time that questions arose over the Nazi legacy of Western Germany, the identity of the buildings had already transformed.