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Berlin is dotted with structures damaged by war or eroded by neglect. Since unification, several groups have appropriated such spaces for alternative cultural and social projects, intentionally displaying architectural decrepitude. Cultural centres such as the Tacheles and the Haus Schwarzenberg stand out against freshly painted façades and commercial enterprises. They react against gentrification and urban beautification, both of which have characterised Berlin's urban and architectural makeover since 1989. The display of ruination also attempts to represent a conflicted history, and is related to Germany's fraught relationship to memory. This article groups these projects, and their attitude towards decay, under the rubric of ‘counterpreservation’ and suggests that the fascinating spell of counterpreservation is inseparable from the ‘irresistible decay’ that Walter Benjamin associated with ruins. Through a close reading of the Haus Schwarzenberg building, it teases out the evocative potential of ruined spaces as they engage the embodied perception of space in unscripted, unpredictable ways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the use of counterpreservation in the treatment of historical structures in cities, like Berlin, Germany. The author argues that preservation and restoration can affect the dynamic character of history. Counterpreservation of historic buildings in the city, like the Haus Schwarzenberg Cultural Center, involves cleaning and reconstruction according to records of the building's original state.

The article investigates the renovation of Potsdamer Platz that began in 1990 in order to discuss national identity in post-reunification Germany. The author argues that the area provides a fertile site for examining late 20th-century capitalist culture, and how it has imposed itself upon Germany's sense of national self. She connects the erasure of the area's past with the German desire to deny, erase, and rewrite its history, particularly Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust, and its replacement with the sense of success embodied in capitalism.