ABSTRACT
Some of the contributions to this volume are important reminders that the impacts of imperialist capitalism have been acted upon and reacted to for the past century. Berlin, though evidently affected heavily in the past two decades by the end of the Cold War and the consequent market liberalization, also bears the traces of earlier phases of globalization. In the notes that accompany his 1991 design for the rebuilding of the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, which is discussed below, Daniel Libeskind makes an observation that helps explain the surfeit of academic and cultural projects that have been associated with the city in the past two decades. He writes: ‘Berlin could be seen as an exemplary spiritual (geistig) capital of the 21st century, as it once was the apocalyptic symbol of the 20th century’s demise’ (Libeskind 1997: 58).
