Artist's project on Germany & Photography, in: Valokuva # 6, 1996
In October 1969 the GDR celebrated its 20th anniversary and the International Time Clock was inaugurated on Alexanderplatz. A few years later the transformation of this square into a functionalistic monument was completed.
A friend has told me how this clock-sculpture soon became the most celebrated meeting-point in the entire GDR. All school schildren in eastern Germany knew about the clock, where one may see what time it is in all parts of the world.
After German re-unification the clock has lost its grip on people's imagination and the Alexanderplatz is no longer the self-evident centre of Berlin.
Today a radical transformation of the architecture of Alexanderplatz is once again being planned.
Jan Svenungsson