Mapping Divided Cities and their Separation Walls: Case Studies from Berlin and Jerusalem

Abstract

This project compares two Separation Barriers and their urban landscape, in two very different cultural contexts: in the cities of Jerusalem and Berlin. The focus is on how different mapmakers cartographically represent both physical divisions - such as walls and barriers, as well as imaginary divides - such as geopolitical or socio-ethnic divisions in divided cities. Jerusalem and Berlin are particularly powerful symbols of political partition as the Berlin Wall split the city of Berlin for over 26 years and Jerusalem remains a divided city to this day. In particular this paper addresses such questions as: how do map-makers across the divides use representational strategies of inclusion or exclusion, mapping and naming to either unify or split divided cities and claim or expunge urban spaces? How do they cartographically represent, visualize or erase geopolitical walls and barriers? Also how has the rise of political tourism affected the visibility of geopolitical walls and barriers in maps and on the ground? By addressing these questions, this paper traces the changing politics of the visibility or relative invisibility of walls and the cityscapes they divide at any given time and place.