Opened in 1976, East Berlin's Palast der Republik stood until its demolition in 2003 among and against the other buildings on Berlin's Museumsinsel. This article examines the circumstances surrounding the construction and demolition of the GDR's prestige construction and its storied location, now the site of the Stadtschloss and Humboldt Forum. This narrative analysis acknowledges recent vigorous debates concerning Germany's colonial history but focuses in particular on the East German past. In examining the iconoclastic impulse and the corresponding resistance to extirpation in the period since unification, the article questions the social power of the buildings at that site, their political symbolism and what the acts of demolition and reconstruction tell us about political desires and especially about Germany's unsteady handling of history since unification. Had the Palast remained, it is suggested, its awkward presence (whether as renovated structure or as ruin) might have better served the future as a reminder of uncomfortable pasts, a historical monument and a catalyst for ongoing, necessarily difficult discussions about history and heritage rather than an attempt to side-step East German history.
