a time-deep mapping of wilhelm-anton-amo-strasse 40/41
This time-deep mapping project presents seven possible trajectories, whose stories each [articulate] the production of space within and around Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße 40/41. Starting from the current state of the building that today hosts the IfEE, the mapping unfolds only some of the multiple spatio-temporal narratives that speak of the building’s complex historical evolution and interaction with the immediate urban surroundings and events as well as its embeddedness within Berlin’s urban development. The ground floor of the IfEE and its adjacent built and unbuilt spaces thus emerge as a living archive of numerous influences that are inscribed in the very material of the property’s buildings, soil, voids and in-between areas.
Looking more closely, the inscriptions become traceable. Understood as spatio-temporal contexts, they help to capture some of the political, social and economic conditions that have led to the spatialisation of governmental decisions; processes of appropriation; changes in use and ownership; acts of resistance; destruction; transformation; and many other events.
At the centre of the mapping lies the current state of the building, conceived as an arrangement of interwoven architectural fragments, each shaped by different historical periods and socio-political contexts. From this point, trajectories unfold, reaching back in time and to distant places. The further they extend from the present, the deeper they dive into the layered histories that operate at varying scales.
These trajectories refer in parts to dominant historical narratives but most of all aim to uncover less visible, overwritten or forgotten processes that continue to shape the production of space at today’s Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße 40/41.
Authors: Kaspar Jamme, Dagmar Pelger (coopdisco)
Commission: Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
coopdisco+ 2026