Paradoxes of Political Architecture: What's Critical About the 'Critical Reconstruction' of Berlin?

The article presents information on the ways in which German architecture and politics intersect in Berlin's urban renewal after 1989. The author has tried to draw attention to what he called the rhetoric of "readability" prevalent among Berlin's most influential architects and planners. It is argued that this rhetoric, and the broader network of ideas about architecture and politics out of which it emerged, can only be understood in relation to the history of the Modern Movement in the early twentieth century.