When Heinrich Heine spent three months in Potsdam in the spring of 1829, he wrote in a letter to Friederike Robert, whom he admired, after visiting Sanssouci Palace:

“… everything glows and blossoms, but how! Good heavens! It is all merely a warmed-up winter painted green, and on the terraces stand little fir trees disguised as orange trees.”

Although Heine’s visit and observations date back almost 200 years, his description of the city’s stage-like artificiality provides a point of departure for examining Potsdam’s urban development. Wartime destruction, demolition and urban redevelopment during the GDR era, followed by three decades of debate over the city’s transformation since the fall of the Berlin Wall, have shaped Potsdam’s urban landscape. Situation Room questions the authenticity of architecture by placing Heine’s quotation as large-format lettering on the façades along Werner-Seelenbinder-Straße.

The student residence, the construction site of the reconstructed Garrison Church tower, the Rechenzentrum, the Chapel of Reconciliation (Nagelkreuzkapelle), the façade of the Langer Stall, the Jewish community building, and a Baroque residential building span different architectural styles, functions, and historical periods. Together, they become sites for exploring urban continuity and the traditions of architectural representation in Potsdam.

Photos 4, 6: Kai-Hendrik Windeler