Jean SteinBen Sonnenberg
Berlin's Skeleton in Utah's ClosetAuthor(s): Mike DavisSource:
Grand Street,
No. 69, Berlin (Summer, 1999), pp. 92-100Published by: Ben SonnenbergStable URL:
Accessed: 25/12/2009 16:43
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SiKELETONINUTAH'SCLOSET
I..:.ii...
Ai_-Iif--:----'-.--^^-...i
BERLIN'S MOST FAR-FLUNG,secretand orphan
suburbsits in the saltbushdesert aboutninetymiles
southwest of Salt LakeCity."German Village, " as it
is officially labeledon declassifiedmaps of theU.S.
Army'sDugwayProvingGround,is the remnant famuch larger,German-Japanese omposite "doomtown"onstructedbyStandardOil in I943.Dugway
playedacrucial role in the New Deal's last great
publicworks project:the incinerationfcities ineasternGermanyand Japan.
Twoyears ago,theArmy allowedmeto tour
GermanVillage brieflywith a dozenof my studentsfromtheSouthernCalifornia Institute fArchitecture.Dugway isslighdybigger thanRhodeIslandandmore toxically ontaminatedthan
theNuclearTestSiteinnearbyNevada.Asthedevil'sownlaboratoryorthreegenerationsof U.S.chemical,incendiary,ndbiologicalweapons,ithasalwaysbeenshroudedinofficialsecrecyandColdWarmyth.A recent threatfbase restructuring,
however,haspromptedtheArmytomountasmall
publicrelationsampaignonDugway'sbehalf
Sincenapalm, botulismandbinarynervegasare not
conventionaltouristattractions,theProvingGround insteadadvertisestspreservationfanoriginalsectionoftheLincolnHighway.Mostvisitorsarepioneeringmotorists whocome toadmire thedecrepit,one-lane bridgethatcrosses
a swampy patch in Baker Area, not far from
thecontroversial io-warfare abwhere theArmy
tinkers ith andromeda trains,guardedby adouble perimeter frazorwire. GermanVillageis
adozen or somilesfurther west,ina sprawling
mazeofmysterious test sites and targetareas thatDugway's commander is reluctant o includeonthevisitor itinerary.erelented nlywhen weconvincedhispress officethattheVillage hadanimportant estheticaura thatmight enhance"baseheritage":twasdesigned byone ofModernism's gods,theGerman-JewishrchitectEricMendelsohn.BurningBerlin's RedDistrictsIn I943, theChemicalWarfareCorpssecretlyrecruited endelsohn toworkwith StandardOil
engineers tocreateaminiatureHohenzollem slum
intheUtahdesert.Nothingintheappearance fthesurvivingtructure-a doubletenementblockknownasBuilding8ioo-identifiesitastheproductofthe samehand thatdesigned suchlandmarks fWeimarBerlinastheofficesoftheBerlinerageblatt,heColumbushaus,theSternefeldvillainCharlottenburg,rtheWoga ComplexontheKurfiirstendamm.bsolute"typicality"n all
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