A Tale of Two Cities: Rome, Berlin and the Power of Urban Images IN PERS

Triumphs and Laments: Uses and Pitfalls of Rome’s Imaginary in the 21st Century

Martin Baumeister (LMU Munich)

There are few cities in the West that can boast as great a wealth of landmarks, images, and narratives related to their history and identity as Rome. As a whole, this urban imaginary constitutes a ‘myth of Rome’, or romanità, that implies claims to uniqueness, universality, and eternity. Starting with some examples of how elements of romanità are currently used in the context of an increasingly globalized real estate market and international tourist and consumer economy, the lecture discusses how commercial ‘branding’ in and of the ‘Eternal City’ interferes with deeper strata of ideas of power and identity, materializing in an urban landscape shaped after 1870 by the Italian nation state and particularly the Fascist regime. It then explores some political implications of this process.

Martin Baumeister held the Chair in Contemporary European History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich from 2003 to 2017. Until 2024 he was the director of the German Historical Institute in Rome. He has published widely on the history of contemporary Southern Europe and the Mediterranean with a focus on Italy and Spain.

Berlin: The Modern Rome

Hanno Hochmuth (ZZF Potsdam)

The city of Berlin was all too often at the centre of events in the 20th century. Berlin was a monarchical, a democratic, a fascist, and a socialist capital. It was the place where two world wars were launched, which then returned to the city with great force. Berlin saw the Cold War reach its peak, as well as its symbolic end. The city was at the centre of world history, just as Rome had been two thousand years earlier. In his lecture, Hanno Hochmuth will explain why Berlin has often been considered the modern Rome. He will approach the city's contemporary history in a topographical and photographic way.

Hanno Hochmuth is a historian at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) and lecturer in public history at the Freie Universität Berlin. He co-curated the exhibition East Berlin: Half a Capital for the Stadtmuseum Berlin. His latest book, Berlin: Das Rom der Zeitgeschichte, was published in 2024.

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