Trailer Documentary AltlastPalast

Trailer for documentary about the last 6 months of the Palace of Republic in Berlin, Germany, before its demolition. The Palace was the official Chamber of East German Government but also a cultural and arts place. In Fall 05, many protests of former east German citizen as well as of architects and artists took place in Berlin. "Many Germans are more comfortable dealing with the distant past, however fraught. In recent years, for example, Berlin has happily renovated many of its Nazi-era landmarks, like the 1936 Olympic Stadium by Werner March, a building whose rigid geometrical forms were a stark expression of Nazi conformity. (It will be home to the 2006 World Cup soccer championship.) The most thoughtful young architects working today seem to have grasped this message. They recognize that buildings loaded with emotional meaning are often in the most need of protection - and that they raise the most interesting questions about how we shape a narrative of architectural history. The most promising future for the Palace, in fact, may be to seize on its structure as a framework for new ideas. How many sites present as rich an opportunity to investigate how a society can move forward without cutting itself off from the most sensitive parts of its history? In this regard, the government's support for a kitschy castle should be viewed as the worst kind of architectural crime: an act of cultural parricide that rules out the possibility of redemption." (Herald Tribune) Order DVD (German) and filmposter at http://typolis.net/monstamo