Date of Completion

2024

Thesis Type

College of Arts and Science Honors

Department

Global and Regional Studies

First Advisor

Pablo S. Bose

Keywords

Berlin, Germany, Urban Voids, Urban Green Space, Parks, Civic Participation

Abstract

“Gemeinsam mit den Bürger*innen”, meaning “together with the citizens” in German, is a bilingual museum exhibit and website that explores the uses, community connections, and personal meanings of Berlin, Germany’s Tempelhof Field. Formerly the Tempelhof Airport, the Tempelhof Field it is now the world’s largest, urban, open-space, and is currently protected as public space under law. As a site with a long and complex history, contestation over the field’s current and future uses endures. Conflicting development and preservation interests threaten the field’s status as public space, while a plethora of educational, recreational, and civic activities fill the 953 acre site.

I conducted research under the guiding question: who uses Tempelhof Field and what does the space mean to them, using a mixed methods approach combining interviews, photography, and archival research in English and German. The project aids in expanding literature concerning the emotional and personal connections between those who use the Tempelhof Field, the site itself, and the city of Berlin. Analysis of findings led to three central conclusions concerning citizen’s relationship to the field: it’s a unique site that facilitates community connections and collaboration between diverse groups; reflects larger discourses of urban change in Berlin; allows users to create their own meanings on the space.

The decision to produce a museum exhibit and website was informed by the benefits of multisensory interpretive strategies for making research communication effective, engaging, accessible, and inspiring. Exhibit components prompt active engagement with material, empathetic learning in context, conversation, and narrative creation among visitors.

The website, which includes components and media from the museum exhibit can be found at this link.

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