Spasms Of Modernity: Berlin Infrastructures 1900 – 1945

In the early 20^th century Berlin becomes arguably the most advanced metropolis in Europe, largely due to the rapid advances in electrification, transportation, and communications enabled by the industrial giants AEG and Siemens. The investigation acknowledges the complex, interrelated, and continually reconfiguring relationships of state and non-state actors in early 20^th century Berlin, as means by which infrastructure is realized and represented in this mapping. The developments in infrastructure are further organized into the five thematic lenses of production, leisure, dwelling, movement and energy. Particular emphasis is paid to the continuities and discontinuities in the configurations of actors through a period in which Berlin experiences extreme political reconfigurations, and becomes known as the electrical capital of the world.