Alexandra - Tsampika Manou

A movie and a book, W. Wenders and W.Benjamin, opened the doors to the city of Berlin. The unique European history of the century and nonetheless the city’s is revealed with the help of a flâneur and an angel, both bilateral in nature, on a reflecting place of the city; Kunsthaus Tacheles. Every change in the city’s scenery and appearance has marked an equal change in Tacheles. The route from Friedrichstrasse to Oranienburgerstrasse, as a passage from the old but memorable Friedrichstrasse Passage to today’s Tacheles, equivalent to the passage from Berlin of 1900 to today’s Berlin.

The flaneur, present in the passage through the bygone arcade, creates a moment of recollection. The passage embodies both the nascent Benjaminian flaneur and the narrator of Wenders’ story. The “ angel of history ”, from Benjamin’s “Theses on the philosophy of History” meets there his alter ego, the angel from Wender’s movie.