Dancing in the Ruins

Ulrich Gutmair’s 'The First Days of Berlin' provides a glimpse into the squats, galleries, and techno clubs that sprung up after the fall of the Wall — but what were the political underpinnings of that scene and what is its legacy?

Green flowerpot Trabant in Berlin's Tucholskystraße (Zöllner / ullstein bild via Getty Images)

The history of twentieth-century Berlin can be told through its urban landscape, though specific details of destruction, division, and détournement are rarely legible when walking its streets today. The private members’ club Soho House Berlin sits on Torstrasse in Mitte in a building that opened as a department store in the late 1920s. The property […]

Sorry, but this article is available to subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.