No Man's Land

As a student of architecture Neil Wenman was interested in the theory and philosophy of architecture as much as in actually making buildings. This drawing was inspired by Wenman’s visit to Berlin to meet Herman Koch, a former member of the Stasi, the much-feared security police of communist East Germany. As a young cartographer in 1961, Koch had the task of mapping the location of the Berlin Wall. In 1990 he managed its demolition.

From conversations with Koch, Wenman developed the concept of ‘mapping’ the history of Berlin in a single drawing. The drawing shows former land use along one stretch of the wall. A graveyard, water wells and the sites of former houses are indicated through rectangular apertures of varying sizes, layered one beneath another.

A book by Wenman, Writing the City: Das Berliner Palimpsest, accompanies the drawing (Museum no. E.3022-2004).