Marx-Engels Forum

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Marx-Engels-Forum, on the left the now demolished Palace of the Republic , on the right the Berlin Cathedral , 1991

The Marx-Engels-Forum (formerly: Park an der Spree ) in the Berlin district of Mitte is a green space that was created on behalf of the GDR leadership in 1974/1975 instead of the Heilig-Geist-Viertel that was destroyed in World War II and then demolished . It is surrounded by Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse in the north, the park by the television tower in the east, Rathausstrasse in the south and the Spree in the west. In the middle of the green area was a monument ensemble, inaugurated in 1986, which was moved to the north-western edge in 2010 because of the extension of the U5 underground line . It consists of two bronze sculptures for Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels by Ludwig Engelhardt , a marble relief by Werner Stötzer , two bronze reliefs by Margret Middell and four stainless steel steles by Arno Fischer and Peter Voigt . The future of the Marx-Engels-Forum has been discussed since 1990, with ideas ranging from preserving the green space to rebuilding the Heilig-Geist-Viertel.

History of origin and location problems

Planning for the political center of the capital

View from the town hall tower to the Heiliggeistviertel , behind it the city palace, 1891
Similar view of the Marx-Engels-Forum, behind it the Palast der Republik , 1987

The area from the central part of the Spree island to Alexanderplatz was intended as the political center of the GDR capital East Berlin . Before the Second World War, this area was characterized by narrow residential and commercial buildings, most of which had been destroyed by air raids during the war and which had been cleared of ruins after 1945 . In the 1950s, the architect Hermann Henselmann planned a government high-rise based on the models in Moscow ( Palace of the Soviets ) and Warsaw ( Palace of Culture ) on the site of the later Marx-Engels Forum . A 25 meter high monument to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was to be erected in front of this building . The planning was discontinued due to financial difficulties in the early 1960s. As a representative replacement for this high-rise building, the Berlin TV tower and on the Spree island the Palace of the Republic were built, between which a sequence of open spaces, open spaces and main routes were planned as "the most consistent and binding planning service of the GDR in Berlin urban space". Part of this sequence of squares was what would later become the Marx-Engels Forum. This is where the park on the Spree was set up as a green area in 1971, after the last remaining townhouses from the prewar period had been demolished . Before the 750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987, the nucleus of Berlin on the right side of the Spree was rebuilt, including the Nikolaiviertel planned by Günter Stahn and adjoining the area to the south , which, as a "traditional island", took up the dense development of the prewar city and a " Reference to the original ”. As a counterpart to this historical planning, the Marx-Engels-Forum was set up in 1983 on the site of the park on the Spree .

Planning for the Marx-Engels monument

At the request of the government , a memorial for the important theorists of communism was to be erected in Berlin's new center on what was then Marx-Engels-Platz , the central part of the Spree island . The art commission of the Ministry of Culture of the GDR decided on a design by the sculptor Ludwig Engelhardt . He had planned a rather inconspicuous monument: the two honorees should not be larger than one and a half times the size of a normal person, because they should also maintain the proportions to the other monuments by Scharnhorst , Gneisenau and the Humboldts in Berlin . Engelhardt did not want a very high pedestal either, but rather placed the bronze sculptures at eye level with the viewer. As a location, he had planned an area next to the former Schloss Freiheit, not in the middle of the square. In 1977 the sculptor was appointed as the artistic director of the project and selected other employees, including Werner Stötzer , Margret Middell , the photographer Arno Fischer , the documentarist Peter Voigt and, as project manager, Friedrich Nostitz.

The first model was created in the studio of the sculptor Norbert Blum in a former vegetable shop in what was then the Prenzlauer Berg district . A second model on a scale of 1: 1 made of plaster of paris and cardboard, set up on a meadow in Gummlin , where Engelhardt's studio was, enabled detailed steps and planning. An unofficial visit by Erich Honecker and Kurt Hager , who was in charge of culture in the SED's Politburo at the time , in Gummlin to inspect the model raised the question of why Marx should be shown sitting and Engels standing. Engelhardt compared Marx to a ruler sitting on the throne. Honecker and Hager said nothing more about it. But at an advanced stage, other artists who were busy building the palace presented an alternative: the two communists on a three-meter-high plinth and with flags placed at an angle. The project group succeeded in averting this intended change, instead the monument ensemble was no longer to be erected on the square, but behind the Palace of the Republic , on a meadow on the other side of the Spree, the later Marx-Engels Forum.

After all, Kurt Hager had examined the photo documents for the stainless steel steles and demanded that a living politician be included. This is how Honecker got into the story, which from the point of view of the project group was the only compromise. The last difficulties, such as the procurement of Böttger stoneware for the portrait studies and the provision of the unplanned amount of bronze for the casting, could still be overcome. Lew Kerbel, the scarcest ten tons of bronze, for the Thälmann memorial, which was produced at the same time, by reducing its wall thickness.

Establishment and inauguration

The Berlin photographer Sibylle Bergemann accompanied the creation of the monument from 1975 to 1986 in all work phases and captured them in a “grandiose series of black and white photos ”. The corresponding picture of the angel "floating on a crane hook" during the assembly of the monument was included in the permanent exhibition of the New York Museum of Modern Art .

After a preparation period of nine years, the Marx-Engels-Forum complex was inaugurated on April 4, 1986, just before the XI. Party congress of the SED . The population took little interest in this celebration after displeasure had arisen over the fact that the green area for the memorial had been partially leveled and paved. As part of his visit to the party congress, Mikhail Gorbachev laid a wreath in front of the memorial and praised the sculptor; the monument is "very German".

The extensive film recordings of the construction work from 1981 to 1986 were not made public after the displeasure of the population had become clear, but were only prepared for Jürgen Böttcher's documentary Concert Outdoors , which was shown for the first time at the 2001 Berlinale .

Design and reception

Old World marble relief by Werner Stötzer
Bronze relief The dignity and beauty of free people by Margret Middell , behind the stainless steel steles and the memorial

Various art objects are placed on a round, paved open space in the center of the forum. According to the Berlin monument conservationist Hubert Staroste, the “monumentality” of the complex is articulated “flatly”, so that one has to “experience” its message of a Marxist interpretation of history .

The main part of the ensemble and placed in the center is a sculpture by Engelhardt himself: larger than life bronze figures of Karl Marx (seated) and Friedrich Engels (standing next to them, height: 3.85 meters), the authors of the Communist Manifesto and father figures of socialism , on a flat base. According to Staroste, the scene shows a photo-like snapshot.

Eight double-sided, flat stainless steel steles, arranged in an arch around the Marx-Engels sculpture, were designed by Arno Fischer , Peter Voigt , Norbert Blum, Hans Gutheil, Jürgen Frenkel, Günther Köhler and Friedrich Notsitz. Positioned at eye level are 144 postcard-sized photo documents from the history of the labor movement; permanently eroded into the ground surface. Fischer and Voigt had selected the motifs from large photo agencies such as Magnum Photos and the State History Museum in Moscow . These steles with the burned-in photo documents were a world first at the time.

Staroste describes two meter-long sculptures as the “outer shell” of the monument as a whole, which close off the large round square in the middle of the forum in front of and behind the central monument. Behind the Marx-Engels monument is a five-membered Relief wall of Werner Stötzer from Bulgarian marble with the representation of groups of people in early capitalist environment (underdevelopment, oppression, threat and need of man). On the opposite side of the square are two bronze reliefs by Margret Middell that show scenes of life in a liberated society (the beauty and dignity of the liberated person). So between these “two alternatives of human existence” is the Marx-Engels monument - and thus “the proposed solution to the problem”.

Heinrich Gemkow , deputy director of the Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the SED , told the chief ideologist Kurt Hager that he was pleased that Marx and Engels were not portrayed as superhuman, but as equal in size, position and gestures - they could do better that way serve as role models. The art historian Peter H. Feist , who at that time had a leading role at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR , reported that the GDR leadership around Erich Honecker was "deeply disappointed" with the design that was influenced by Fritz Cremer ; the monumental, traditional sculpture of Ernst Thälmann by Lew Kerbel, acquired at the same time, for Ernst-Thälmann-Park was more in line with her ideas. A “published art-critical discourse” about the Marx-Engels monument was not allowed to take place in the GDR (see censorship in the GDR ). In West Germany the draft was discussed positively; Paul Otto Schulz praised Stötzner's "bright human frieze" as a "work of Matissian lucidity"; Middell's “four vertical waves of gentle, lyrical bodies” reminded him “of the Renaissance image of man”.

In contrast, “intellectual scoffers” would soon have referred to the main monument to Marx and Engels as “jacket and jacketti”, while in 1987 the Spiegel interpreted the name as a parody of the vernacular ( Berolinism ) of the socialist heroes Sacco and Vanzetti . Another ridiculous name was the local traffic monument - because someone always had to stand.

Staroste, who belonged to the “Commission for dealing with the political monuments of the post-war period in the former East Berlin”, judged the overall conception of the plant in 1994 to be complex and quite remarkable, which is why it was worth preserving as a whole.

Discussions and planning since 1990

Marx-Engels monument with the inscription "We are (in) guilty", 1991

After German reunification in 1990, the Marx-Engels Forum became the subject of debate, much like the nearby Palast der Republik . The art historian Jon Berndt Olsen sees two poles: On the one hand, the proponents of a reconstruction of the "historical" Berlin, who want to integrate the area with development into the planned Humboldt Forum , on the other hand, those who consider the monument and park as a total work of art and three-dimensional Want to receive evidence of contemporary history. At the same time, the wishes of former GDR citizens were voiced not to see places with their own memories tied to completely disappear.

In the time of upheaval, the monument ensemble was viewed with irony. On the flat base of the monument there was the graffito “Next time everything will be better” in January 1990 and “We are innocent” in October of that year (the “un” was sprayed over in 1991). According to the historian Cornelia Siebeck, in front of the empty Palace of the Republic, which had been demolished over time, Marx looked as if he were sitting on packed suitcases while Engels had already risen to leave.

The Borough Assembly (BVV) center named on 1 December 1991, the neighboring, previously Marx-Engels Forum about said road while keeping them back into the Rathausstraße einbezog to which they had belonged to their individual appointment on 16 February 1,983th In 1993 the Berlin Monuments Commission decided not to remove the Marx-Engels statue from its ancestral location: It honors two historically significant Germans whose social impact was greater than the GDR propaganda claimed. The monument has become a draw for tourists, especially as one of the most popular places to take selfies . As the Tagesspiegel 2018 found, its popularity as a photo motif is demonstrated by Marx's hands, knees and shoes that have been polished by public contact. However, the monument has no more political function than any other monument; Unlike at the socialist cemetery, for example, there are no honors on Marx's birthday . A QR code on the base of the monument leads to the 'Talking Statues' project, as part of which visitors can hear explanations of the history of the monument by politician Gregor Gysi ( Die Linke ) on their smartphones .

Designs for the urban space

Heiliggeistviertel instead of today's Marx-Engels-Forum, excerpt from the Straubeplan, 1910

From 1990 there were a number of design considerations for this area of ​​the inner city of old Berlin . As part of the international ideas competition “Berlin Morgen”, organized by the German Architecture Museum at the end of 1990, the Berlin architect Hans Kollhoff proposed a block perimeter development for the area at Berlin eaves height and with a more closely meshed street network than in the pre-war development; and Mario Bellini designed a densification of the area arcaded houses around a large square and a pedestrian bridge over the river Spree. The “Stadtforum” citizens' dialogue, initiated by the Senator for Urban Development, Volker Hassemer , agreed to make the area one of the citizens and not of the state, but otherwise remained divided; While residents and East Berliners praised the place's quality of stay as a recreational area, West Berliners and non- residents described the place as barren and draughty. In 1994 the result of the “Spreeinsel ideas competition” followed. Their winner, Bernd Niebuhr, planned to develop the entire area between the Spree and the television tower with a series of narrow, equally-sized blocks of houses at a short distance from one another.

According to the inner city plan , which was developed from 1996 by the Senate Building Department under Hans Stimmann and which was adopted by the Senate in 1999 as an urban planning guideline, the open space of the Marx-Engels Forum was to be largely retained - as a compromise - but enclosed by a few large building blocks. There was much criticism of these plans based on a critical reconstruction ; The architectural historian Michael S. Falser wrote of the “gradual confiscation of public space and the willful destruction of post-war socialist urban structures through increasingly banal perimeter block development”. In 2001 Werner Durth also criticized the complete implementation of GDR urban planning: The “arbitrary setting of irrelevant structures” in the re-planned forum appeared “no less monolithic”; the central open space should not be built in too quickly and thus withdrawn from the public domain. In a Tagesspiegel opinion article in 2008, with regard to the planned reconstruction of the city palace on the other side of the Spree, Stimmann spoke out in favor of rebuilding the forum, which refers to the historical street grid of the Heilig-Geist-Viertel and street names such as Heiligegeist-Straße , Bischofsweg and Neuer Markt should make the former core area of ​​Berlin visible again; it must “move back into urban life. The two philosophers could remain at their current location and would move from the center of a state axis to the center of society. "

In the tradition of Stimmann, State Secretary for Culture André Schmitz and Klaus Wowereit also spoke out in favor of relatively narrow development in the former Berlin city center in the 2000s. Philipp Oswalt , director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation , criticized in 2009 that this guideline was “a further attempt to eradicate the architectural heritage of the GDR” after the Palace of the Republic was demolished. The forum is accepted by the people, especially since there is extremely little public open space in the eastern part of Berlin's inner city. The deputy mayor of Berlin-Mitte , Joachim Zeller , pointed out planning difficulties due to the property situation in 2009. The open space between the Spree and the television tower was partly declared a green area during the GDR era and partly after 1990. Some of the former owners of the former, small-scale developed plots of the later Marx-Engels-Forum have been compensated according to the rates for green spaces, which is why any planning for a development of the area will result in claims from former owners in the hundreds of millions and possibly years of legal disputes. The Humboldtbox originally planned for the Marx-Engels-Forum failed because of this question.

The inner city plan was replaced in January 2011 by the revised Inner City plan , which no longer provides for building on the Marx-Engels area. At the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing , it is treated as part of the Rathausforum , which is to be retained as a “place of great dimensions”, as a “public, green space that reveals a large panorama of the insignia of Berlin”. At the same time, a “broad-based discussion process” was suggested in which “the meaningfulness, nature and focus of use of this space” should be discussed. Christian Voigt described the Town Hall Forum 2012 as “so far mostly weak gravitational field” with “design deficits”. In 2015, the Senate Building Director Regula Lüscher started the dialogue process “Old Middle - New Love”, which was intended to bring broad target groups into an exchange about the future of the area between the Spree and the television tower. "Citizens' guidelines" were drawn up that create parking areas and traffic-calmed zones, but should not change the Marx-Engels area - the "current share of green areas" should therefore be preserved as well as the "visual links between the television tower and the Spree". The Gesellschaft Historisches Berlin organized a series of workshops with citizen participation in 2016 and 2017 that dealt with the city ​​center of Old Berlin . The Marx-Engels-Forum was treated as an area with particular difficulties, but also potential for possible development and more intensive use. In April 2016, Lüscher suggested using the forum as the new location for the Central and State Library in Berlin , which met with resistance because of the different citizen guidelines. The new Senator for Construction Katrin Lompscher started a new "City Debate Berlin Center" in mid-2017, which is to develop an overall concept for the historical center and deal with the topics of housing, trade, traffic, the environment and archeology. For the Marx-Engels-Forum, ideas are to be developed for a temporary design of the open spaces with a focus on "historical discovery".

In March 2019, the architect Gert Eckel and the futurologist Rolf Kreibich published a draft for the redesign of the open space in front of the Rotes Rathaus and the Marx-Engels-Forum. It provides a central “democracy square” with archaeological windows, awnings and open-air stages. The Stiftung Zukunft Berlin criticized the fact that such an isolated design did not take into account the overall development of the inner city. She proposed the establishment of a world garden for the area that would correspond with the neighboring Humboldt Forum. The Berlin CDU is campaigning for residential development on the area as part of a reconstruction of the historic center of Berlin. The Senate Department for Urban Development announced the implementation of a realization competition for the open space Rathausplatz and Marx-Engels-Forum in 2020.

Whereabouts of the monument

Marx-Engels monument after being moved to Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse

In the various designs submitted for the area from 1990 onwards, the central monument with the figures of Marx and Engels was often retained at this point in smaller urban spaces. Due to the further construction of the U5 subway line to the Brandenburg Gate , the site was cleared in September 2010 and the monument was moved to the edge of the green area towards the Liebknecht Bridge on September 27, 2010 . Former site manager Friedrich Nostitz and architect Peter Flierl carried out the implementation. In the new position, the gaze of the two figures is directed to the west instead of the previous east, i.e. towards Manchester , as Nostitz was satisfied. The round square of the monument was destroyed by the construction work. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe had undertaken to restore the monument ensemble to its original condition, which the Berlin Senate has meanwhile moved away from. The future of the monument will be decided in a public discussion process for the overall urban development context. By November 2017, however, the Marx-Engels-Forum was opened to the public again and the previous paths through the green area were restored.

In January 2012, Federal Building Minister Peter Ramsauer called for the bronze figures of Marx and Engels to be taken to the socialist cemetery in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde - there is “a kind of socialist remnants center” there. His advance caused protest. The Berlin Senate declared that the monument was part of the city's history as a "historical document of the times"; Senator for Construction Michael Müller called Ramsauer's idea “forgotten about history”. The governing mayor of the 1990s, Eberhard Diepgen , spoke up and said that Ramsauer had stabbed “the wasp's nest of sensitivities”. He considered it wrong to "dispose of" the characters as protagonists of German history after Friedrichsfelde or the Spandau Citadel (for the permanent exhibition "Berlin and its monuments" ), but the monument in its large-scale form stands for the claim to rule of socialism and contradicts it thus pluralistic values, which is why he advocated inserting the monument less dominantly into the previous urban space. In February 2018, the “Historische Mitte” association proposed moving the Marx-Engels monument to the grounds of the Humboldt University on Unter den Linden , where both had studied.

literature

  • Dietmar Eisold : The monument ensemble for the Marx-Engels-Forum. In: Fine arts . No. 3, 1986, pp. 104-108.
  • Peter Müller: Search for symbols. The East Berlin center planning between representation and agitation (=  Berlin writings on art. Volume 19). Gebrüder Mann, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-7861-2497-3 (also dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin, 2002), especially chapter 3.3: “The Marx-Engels-Forum”, pp. 106–154.
  • Paul Sigel: Address Search. Marx and Engels, Heiligegeist-Straße No. 16. Transformation of urban space ideas in Berlin-Mitte. In: Timea Kovács (Ed.): Half-Past. Urban spaces and urban living environments before and after 1989. Lukas, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86732-082-5 , pp. 128–157.
  • Jon Berndt Olsen: Tailoring Truth. Politicizing the Past and Negotiating Memory in East Germany, 1945–1990. Berghahn, Oxford / New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-78238-571-4 , especially pp. 81–87 and 184–196 (see register p. 258, "Marx-Engels-Forum" and "Marx-Engels monument" ).
  • Bruno Flierl : The central location in Berlin - for the spatial staging of socialist centrality. In: Günter Feist , Eckhart Gillen , Beatrice Vierneisel (eds.): Art Documentations SBZ / GDR 1945–1990. Articles, reports, materials. Dumont, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7701-3846-5 , pp. 320-357. Reprinted in ders .: Built GDR. About town planners, architects and power. Critical Reflections 1990–1997. Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-345-00655-3 , pp. 121-171.
  • Rolf Hecker : The Marx-Engels-Forum in the middle of Berlin: On the history of its origins and the political mandate for Heinrich Gemkow. In: On the arduous search and the happy finding. In memoriam of Prof. Dr. Heinrich Gemkow, Part IV (=  Pankower lectures. Issue 218). Helle Panke, Berlin 2018, pp. 18–29 (excerpt) .

Web links

Commons : Marx-Engels-Forum  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marianne Ricci: Function and design of places in East Berlin. Using the example of Marx-Engels-Platz and Alexanderplatz (1950–1970). Akademische Verlagsgemeinschaft, Munich 2014, p. 72 ; Cornelia Siebeck: “Dismantling instead of demolition” - or: What is a place of memory? In: Alexander Schug (Ed.): Palace of the Republic. Political discourse and private memory. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2007, pp. 84-107, here pp. 84 f.
  2. ^ Rainer L. Hein, Steffen Pletl: Redesign: Criticism of plan for Marx-Engels-Forum. In: Berliner Morgenpost , May 3, 2009 (also for the following).
  3. ↑ a b c Friedrich Nostitz: Looking back on a controversial monument and an unusual state contract. “The question arose why Marx is sitting and Engels is standing”. In: Berliner Zeitung , 11./12. September 2010, p. 4.
  4. ↑ Benedikt Erenz: Sibylle Bergemann: Engels on the hook. In: Die Zeit , November 4, 2010; Friedrich Nostitz: Looking back on a controversial monument and an unusual state contract. “The question arose why Marx is sitting and Engels is standing”. In: Berliner Zeitung , 11./12. September 2010, p. 4. Bergemanns Martin Schieder's "commissioned work" : Affirmation and difference. The "Documentation of the Origin of the Marx-Engels Monument" by Sibylle Bergemann. In: Sigrid Hofer, Martin Schieder (eds.): Photographing in the GDR (=  series of publications by the Working Group Art in the GDR. Volume 2). Dresden 2014, pp. 68–88. See the series and the angel picture The Monument. In: Dossier: Ostzeit. Federal Agency for Civic Education , 2009; Sibylle Bergemann: German, 1941-2010. In: Museum of Modern Art ( English ).
  5. ↑ Cornelia Siebeck: “Dismantling instead of demolition” - or: What is a place of memory? In: Alexander Schug (Ed.): Palace of the Republic. Political discourse and private memory. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2007, pp. 84–107, here p. 85.
  6. ↑ In contact with Marx and Engels. In: Neues Deutschland , April 17, 1986; Friedrich Nostitz: Looking back on a controversial monument and an unusual state contract. “The question arose why Marx is sitting and Engels is standing”. In: Berliner Zeitung , 11./12. September 2010, p. 4.
  7. ^ The place: Marx-Engels-Forum. In: Spreeinsel.de .
  8. ↑ For the following Friedrich Nostitz: Looking back on a controversial monument and an unusual state contract. “The question arose why Marx is sitting and Engels is standing”. In: Berliner Zeitung , 11./12. September 2010, p. 4; Hubert Staroste: Political monuments in East Berlin in the field of tension between cultural policy and monument preservation. A report on the work of the “Commission for dealing with the political monuments of the post-war period in the former East Berlin”. In: Florian Fiedler (arr.): Iconoclasm in Eastern Europe. The monuments of the communist era in transition (=  booklets of the German National Committee ICOMOS , International Council for Monuments and Protected Areas. Volume 13). Lipp, Munich 1994, pp. 84-86, here p. 85, doi : 10.11588 / ih.1994.0.22527 .
  9. ^ Matthias Dell: Peter Voigt Archive in Berlin: An image database on two legs. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur , September 26, 2018.
  10. ^ Jon Berndt Olsen: Tailoring Truth. Politicizing the Past and Negotiating Memory in East Germany, 1945–1990. Berghahn, Oxford, New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-78238-571-4 , p. 188.
  11. ↑ Peter H. Feist: Fixed Signs. Ritual Moments in Iconography and the Use of Monuments in the GDR (1996). In other words: gleanings. Essays on fine arts and art history. Lukas, Berlin 2016, pp. 90–96, here p. 95.
  12. ↑ Peter H. Feist: Fixed Signs. Ritual Moments in Iconography and the Use of Monuments in the GDR (1996). In other words: gleanings. Essays on fine arts and art history. Lukas, Berlin 2016, pp. 90–96, here p. 95.
  13. ↑ Approach you reddish . In: Der Spiegel . No. 7 , 1987 ( online ).
  14. ↑ a b c Jon Berndt Olsen: Tailoring Truth. Politicizing the Past and Negotiating Memory in East Germany, 1945–1990. Berghahn, Oxford / New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-78238-571-4 , p. 230.
  15. ^ Hubert Staroste: Political monuments in East Berlin in the field of tension between cultural policy and monument preservation. A report on the work of the “Commission for dealing with the political monuments of the post-war period in the former East Berlin”. In: Florian Fiedler (arr.): Iconoclasm in Eastern Europe. The monuments of the communist era in transition (=  booklets of the German National Committee ICOMOS , International Council for Monuments and Protected Areas. Volume 13). Lipp, Munich 1994, pp. 84-86, here p. 85, doi : 10.11588 / ih.1994.0.22527 .
  16. ↑ Stephan Franke (Copyright): East Berlin: Next time everything will be better? - The Marx-Engels monument at the Palace of the Republic. Photography. In: Chronicle of the Wende , January 26, 1990.
  17. ^ Jon Berndt Olsen: Tailoring Truth. Politicizing the Past and Negotiating Memory in East Germany, 1945–1990. Berghahn, Oxford / New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-78238-571-4 , page 230. On page 229, a photo in the "We are un guilty" for the previous state: We are innocent. Photo, October 7, 1990, Robert Havemann Society .
  18. ↑ Cornelia Siebeck: “Dismantling instead of demolition” - or: What is a place of memory? In: Alexander Schug (Ed.): Palace of the Republic. Political discourse and private memory. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2007, pp. 84–107, here p. 85.
  19. ^ Marx-Engels Forum . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein .
  20. ↑ Bernd Matthies: Birthday visit to Marx and Engels. In: Der Tagesspiegel , May 5, 2018.
  21. ^ Rainer Haubrich : After the turning point. This is how architects wanted to design the city center in 1990. In: Berliner Morgenpost , May 12, 2009.
  22. ↑ See archive: Downtown plan. In: Stadtentwicklung.Berlin.de (with a map of the urban development model for the city center).
  23. ↑ Michael S. Falser: Pseudo-plausibility and its destructive power - Berlin neo-myths for urban redevelopment after 1990. In: Wilhelm Hofmann (Ed.): City as experiential space of politics. Contributions to the cultural construction of urban politics. Lit, Münster 2011, pp. 35–58, here p. 45.
  24. ^ Paul Sigel: Address search. Marx and Engels, Heiligegeist-Straße No. 16. Transformation of urban space ideas in Berlin-Mitte. In: Timea Kovács (Ed.): Half-Past: Urban Spaces and Urban Living Worlds Before and After 1989. Lukas, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86732-082-5 , pp. 128–157, here pp. 149 f .
  25. ↑ Hans Stimmann: Reconstruction: The Resurrection of Berlin's Old Town. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 30, 2008. Discussed with Paul Sigel: Address search. Marx and Engels, Heiligegeist-Straße No. 16. Transformation of urban space ideas in Berlin-Mitte. In: Timea Kovács (Ed.): Half-Past: Urban Spaces and Urban Living Worlds Before and After 1989. Lukas, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86732-082-5 , pp. 128–157, here p. 129.
  26. ↑ Axel Dürheimer: Bauhaus director criticizes Berlin plans. In: Detail.de , June 3, 2009.
  27. ^ Rainer L. Hein, Steffen Pletl: Redesign: Criticism of plan for Marx-Engels-Forum. In: Berliner Morgenpost , May 3, 2009. See plan drawing for the current use of the land use plan. In: Stadtentwicklung.Berlin.de .
  28. ↑ See plan for the inner city: historical center. In: Stadtentwicklung.Berlin.de .
  29. ↑ Living worlds and everyday life at the Rathausforum. Working approach and first observations from a current urban planning potential analysis. At: Historical Commission to Berlin (Ed.), Christiane Schuchard (Red.): Alte Mitte, neue Mitte? Positions to the historical center of Berlin. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2012, pp. 199–206, here p. 205.
  30. ↑ Citizens' guidelines and process recommendations for the future of the space between the television tower and the Spree. Press release. In: Berlin.de , March 22, 2016.
  31. ^ Workshop City Center Old Berlin. In: Gesellschaft Historisches Berlin , 2016/2017.
  32. ^ Uwe Aulich: Marx-Engels-Forum is being investigated as a location for the state library. In: Berliner Zeitung , April 14, 2016.
  33. ↑ Mike Wilms: Beauty OP Alte Mitte: Senate wants citizens to decide. In: Berliner Kurier , August 18, 2017.
  34. ^ Christian Latz: A promenade instead of a concrete desert: New plans for the Rathausforum. In: Berliner Morgenpost , March 2, 2019. Reinhart Bünger, more precisely on the draft: Berlin's historic center should be a “place for everyone”. In: Der Tagesspiegel , September 3, 2018. Christian Latz: Marx-Engels-Forum could become a world garden. In: Berliner Morgenpost , June 19, 2019; Robert Kiesel: CDU wants to build on Marx-Engels-Forum in Berlin. January 24, 2020.
  35. ^ A b Uwe Aulich: Senate counters Ramsauer's proposal Berlin is committed to Marx and Engels. In: Berliner Zeitung , January 18, 2012.
  36. ↑ Klaus Kurpjuweit: The drilling work for the U5 is progressing. In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 21, 2017.
  37. ↑ Eberhard Diepgen: Controversy over sculpture: Marx and Engels - where in the cityscape? In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 22, 2012.
  38. ↑ Sabine Flatau: Marx and Engels statues are to move to the Humboldt University. In: Berliner Morgenpost , February 5, 2018.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 6 ″  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 15 ″  E