The Empty Centre (1998)
By Hito Steyerl
Before WWII, it used to be the centre of the city, the centre of it ́s power. Then it became an deadly minefield, enclosed between the borders of the Cold War. In 1989, the Berlin Wall comes down. The area between the walls, the empty margins of the border, is open. Now, the centre returns. After German reunification, Potsdam Square is rebuilt by transnational companies. In the same process, people are shoved out to the outskirts of the city. They are marginalized by the recentering of Germany ́s political and economic power. "The Empty Center" closely follows the processes of urban restructuring that have taken place in the center of Berlin for the last eight years. In 1990, squatters proclaim a socialist republic on the death strip. Eight years later, the new headquarters of Mercedes Benz arise in the same location. The film makes use of slow superimpositions to uncover the architectonic and political changes of the last eight years. It focusses on Potsdam square to discover traces of global power shifts, and the simultaneous dismantling and reconstruction of borders. At the same time, it traces back the history of ostracism and exclusion, especially against immigrants and min…
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