Berlin: palimpsests of a great city

Can there be another European city that has undergone so many dramatic transformations over the past hundred years as Berlin? The city has seen so much of history, created, and been the subject of, so many stories, and thus comprises so many versions of itself. The present article explores how Berlin films contain multiple historical and textual palimpsests, focussing on Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin: Symphony of a Great City as the urtext of all subsequent Berlin films. Particular attention will then be paid to Berlin Symphony, Thomas Schadt’s riposte to Ruttmann’s film seventy-five years on, and the more recent Symphony of Now, directed by Johannes Schaff and which, in effect, responds to both. This article argues that these films, in complementary ways, uncover the cultural, historical and architectural palimpsests inscribed within the fabric of the city in their response to Ruttmann’s urtext.