ABSTRACT
Each regime has its emblematic “palaces,” and the communist regimes of Poland and the GDR literally called their “sacred” buildings with this name. Because revolution means radical redrawing of the symbolic boundaries between the “sacred” and “profane,” what had been considered an asset by the hegemonic narrative before the change can easily become a liability afterward, a symbolically polluted manifestation of the rejected regime. Whether or not this happens depends on a cluster of interconnected socio-material factors. Contrasting again the stories of Berlin and Warsaw and their prominent buildings, this chapter explains an apparent paradox: why the East German “Palace of the Republic” was destroyed despite being defended by many, while the Polish “Palace of Culture and Science” was preserved and listed as monument despite being resented by many. Retelling of these stories helps specify the conditions under which icons either gain or lose their legitimacy, as well as the ramifications of “iconic power” of objects and space. One of the key findings is that revolutions occasion staged ritualistic destructions of profane icons regardless of date, country, or ideology. However, these rituals are neither arbitrary games of power discourses nor automatic or ‘necessary’ effects. Rather, they are iconic practices coordinated by unique constellations of material-cultural factors.
