TOPOGRAPHIES OF TERROR: READING REMNANTS AND TRACES ON THE GESTAPO GELÄNDE Georgina Webb-Dickin Abstract The Topography of Terror in Berlin marks the space where several historically significant buildings once stood. Constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on Prinz- Albrecht-Straße, the buildings were associated with Prussian imperial grandeur until their appropriation by various factions of Germany’s National Socialist government in the 1930s. These links with regrettable pasts led to their being razed in the mid-twentieth century and to their histories being temporarily forgotten. Material legacies were excavated some years later, however, and the process of negotiating the area’s complex topographies continues into the present. Today, the site comprises an outdoor exhibition space and a documentation centre, but it also incorporates a long remnant of the Berlin Wall; a 210 metre segment of the West-facing border Wall which was given listed monument status in 1990. Surrounded by a protective fence, the segment is presented as separate from the rest of the exhibition and, to an extent, it is treated differently from the other objects on site. This article explores the histories of the so-called Gestapo Gelände (Gestapo terrain), their rediscovery in the 1970s and their relationship with the Berlin Wall remnant, considering how the relics of seemingly different eras are presented as constituents of the same landscape. It uses a variety of theories, including those of Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Andreas Huyssen, to approach the site, investigating the potential of working through the landscape as a topographical document. Ultimately, the article suggests that by reading the Topography of Terror as a palimpsest of equally significant traces, diverse and varied images can be revealed. These images document a much wider period of time than anticipated, making new meanings available for the site and new interpretations possible. Key Words: Topography of Terror, Berlin Wall, palimpsest, Gestapo, landscape, Benjamin, Foucault ***** The Topography of Terror is a site in central Berlin whose complex histories were neglected and rediscovered during the second half of the twentieth century. It is now most famous for its occupation by National Socialist organisations between 1933 and 1945, but this has not always been the case. This article explores the area’s evolving landscape, in particular that of its bordering street, and investigates the rediscovery of the Gestapo Gelände at a time when the city was better known for its division by the Berlin Wall. 1 It also explains how the material legacies of apparently different pasts are presented on the site and proposes more inclusive ways of reading its intricate web of topographies. The article begins by detailing briefly the histories of the area, from the construction of Prinz-Albrecht-Straße in 1891 to its occupation by the Gestapo, SS and SD in the 1930s. It goes on to discuss the neglect of the street in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and explains how its histories were renegotiated later. Finally, it considers the manifestation of the Berlin Wall border strip on the site and asks how its remnants can be read alongside the material legacies of earlier pasts.