The scientific and technological culture of divided Berlin as reflected in the museums

在现代社会中，不仅文学、戏剧、电影、艺术和音乐塑造了人们的自我理解和身份认同，科学技术也越来越多地决定了他们。因此，一部全面的文化史应该包括科技文化。柏林及其战后发展似乎注定要对这些社会和政治状况有更深刻的理解。毕竟，1945年之后，这是两种体系碰撞的地方，在一个被分割但各部分之间总是密切相关的城市里，文化竞争在各种渗透和隔离的星座中发生。在原子和太空时代，在人造卫星和“科学技术革命”的时代，这种竞争是激烈的，特别是在科学和技术领域。正如柏林有独特的音乐生活、艺术、电影和文学场景以及剧院景观一样，这里也有以博物馆和展览为形式的科技文化。到目前为止，它们在柏林文化史上的地位仍然是开放的。该项目旨在满足战后时期的这一需求，并分析科学与社会之间的交流和知识流通机构，特别是博物馆、展览和其他形式的科学和技术公开展示，如天文台和科学中心。作为展览媒介，它们对科学技术的社会话语做出了独特的贡献。没有任何地方能比博物馆和展览更直接地体验这些，更生动地讨论这些，但也更容易在意识形态和政治上被工具化。在第二次世界大战之前，柏林已经从一个居住城市迅速崛起为一个工业大都市，科学博物馆和技术展览已经成为市民日常生活的一部分。但战后重建这座博物馆景观的工作非常困难。为了满足对珍贵的旧博物馆和新机构的持续需求，西柏林的民间社会行动者和东柏林的个人和（国家控制的）组织的倡议经常参与到它们的重建中来。考虑到科学和技术在两种制度之间的竞争中所起的核心作用，以及由于柏林墙建成之前存在的独特星座，这使得柏林人能够从两种具有渗透性边界的政治制度中受益，即使在柏林墙建成后，两种政治制度仍保持着密切的相互关系，分裂的柏林为科学和技术文化的社会作用和政治条件提供了特别深远的见解。

Not only literature, theatre, film, art and music shaped the self-understanding and identity of people in modern societies, but also science and technology, which increasingly determined them. A comprehensive cultural history should therefore include the culture of science and technology. Berlin and its post-war development seem predestined for a more profound understanding of these societal and political conditions. After all, this is the place where two systems collided after 1945 and where, in a city that was divided but always closely related to one another between its parts, cultural competition took place in various constellations of permeability and isolation. In the atomic and space age and in the times of Sputnik and the "scientific-technical revolution", this competition was fought out, especially in the arena of science and technology. Just as there was a specific Berlin music life, an art, cinema and literature scene and a theatre landscape, there was a science and technology culture in the form of museums and exhibitions, too. Their place in Berlin's cultural history has so far remained open. The project aims to fill this desideratum for the post-war period and to analyse the institutions of exchange and knowledge circulation between science and society - in particular, museums, exhibitions and other forms of public presentation of science and technology such as observatories and science centres. As exhibition media, they made a unique contribution to the societal discourse on science and technology. Nowhere can these be experienced more directly, discussed more vividly, but also more easily instrumentalized ideologically and politically than in museums and exhibitions. Before the Second World War, Berlin, which had rapidly risen from a residential city to an industrial metropolis, had developed a rich landscape of science museums and technology exhibitions that were part of the everyday life of its citizens. But the reconstruction of this museum landscape proved difficult after the war. In order to fill the continuing demand for the cherished old museums as well as for new institutions, it was often civil society actors in West Berlin and individuals and initiatives of (state-controlled) organizations in East Berlin who became involved in their re-establishment. Given the central role of science and technology within the competition between the systems, and due to the unique constellation that existed until the construction of the Wall, which allowed Berliners to benefit from the offerings of two political systems with a permeable border, and which continued to exist in a close mutual relationship even after the Wall was erected, the case of divided Berlin provides particularly far-reaching insights into the societal role and political conditions of the culture of science and technology.