Story as a Monument. A Method of Narrative Reconstruction
Wolfram Höhne
Architectural monuments are transient. Material decay, deliberate destruction, natural forces or simply a lack of former significance can lead to their loss. When a loss is foreseeable, preservationists document the structural condition of the building in plans and images. Little attention is often paid to the historical circumstances under which a building was constructed, used and eventually became obsolete. In this book, the author has written a history of the planetarium in Halle (Saale), which was demolished in 2018 – a lost architectural testimony to the GDR. At the same time as the demolition, he compiled documentary fragments such as images, films, plans, documents, construction drawings and interviews with contemporary witnesses into a historiographical text. What form should a text take in order to tell the story of the building appropriately? Criteria for the selection and arrangement of the documents are established in consultation with historiographical theories. The building biography begins on the wasteland at the former site of the building. Starting in the present, the narratives associated with the building are traced back to the origins of socialist utopias of progress. The narrative reconstruction contrasts contradictory interpretations of the building’s history, leaving it up to readers to evaluate the controversial demolition decisions for themselves.
Book series “Forschungen zum baukulturellen Erbe der DDR”, Volume 11
Bauhaus Universitätsverlag Weimar
2025, Softcover, 20×20 cm, 200 Page
Link to the publishing house https://asw-verlage.de/katalog/eine_erzaehlung_als_denkmal-2574.html
The book contains 84 QR codes that link to audiovisual media content on the Centre for Documentary Architecture website.