Preserve and rebuild: the built environment, status transformations and identity construction in eastern Germany after reunification

The reunification of Germany in 1990 has prompted far-reaching debates about German identity, history and tradition. One framework for these debates is provided by the extensive urban development and building activities which have commenced in Eastern Germany since 1990. In a case study of the city of Dresden, this thesis explores the complex symbolic meanings of these building processes through an analysis of the social field of preservationism and urban planning. This field provides the setting for status struggles between East and West German elites, and for power contests over the symbolic control over competing identity narratives - local, East German and panGerman - attached to the Dresden built environment. These processes will be traced from the time of the GDR when the communist state officials were challenged in their absolute power by oppositional preservationists, through to the present time of reunified Germany, when the same preservationists have to contend with the representatives of the new political system. The thesis aims to contribute to the analysis of the German reunification process, as well as more generally to a better sociological understanding of the role of the built environment for identity construction and for social power contests.