Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book proposes the discussions surrounding Checkpoint Charlie revealed a phenomenon that has been largely ignored in the social sciences and cultural studies to date - namely, the formation of a heritage industry in the middle of Berlin. It takes a dual approach to doing so: the first part of the book takes stock of the Anglo-American debate surrounding heritage, and it examines how this debate was structured according to different schools of theory. The theoretical section of the book can therefore also be read as an appeal to make the subject of heritage its own field of research in sociology. It uses the previously mentioned example of Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin to show that although the concepts and findings of heritage researchers have yet to find a wide audience in Germany.