Paper short abstract:

Romancing the future, imagining the past: The dismantlement of the Palast der Republik, and its monumental character, provides the ground for this paper to discuss imagination and the perception of historical time.

Paper long abstract:

The Palast der Republik was the parliament building of the former German Democratic Republic and an entertainment center for its folk. It is currently being dismantled in a lengthy procedure that will last for a period of three years. The extended present of the buildings removal comes in the center of this paper's interest, which intends to examine the ways in which the building becomes memory as it de-materializes. Throughout the presentation, the monumental characteristics of the dismantlement and it's physiognomy as a monument to temporality will be discussed.