"Ostzeit: Stories from a Vanished Country"

The New Statesman (sic) reports on this photographic exhibition organized by the Sibylle Bergemann, Ute and Werner Mahler and Harald Hauswald, four of the most well known east German photographers, and founders of the OSTKREUZ agency, at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin to lead into a review of the issues of memorialising German history. Writer Dave Rimmer notes in his article:

The latest memorial controversy concerns a monument to German unity intended for a site near the former Palast der Republik. The government promised €15m and an open competition was announced - but out of 400 designs submitted, not one has been deemed suitable. Now, as debate rages between greens and conservatives, Ossis and Wessis, there is to be a second, invitation-only competition. Berlin, it seems, is just not ready for a monument to unity. In fact, despite all the projects designed to bind it back together - such as the commercial cluster around Potsdamer Platz and the new central station - Berlin is still a divided city.

Details of the book to go with the exhbition are available here.

http://holy-disorder.blogspot.com/2009/09/ostzeit-stories-from-vanished-country.html