Steidlville

A Berlin Childhood, inspired by Walter Benjamin’s memoir, A Childhood in Berlin Around 1900, reflects the coincidence of history and everyday life. Benjamin distills the poignancy of a lost childhood from vividly remembered places, things and experiences. Aura Rosenberg was introduced to these writings shortly after coming to Berlin with her husband and young daughter in 1991. In the daily routines of raising a child, she found herself moving through the very spaces Benjamin once had walked about. What she found was a city that had, although vastly altered, subtly remained the same. It held an uncanny attraction for Rosenberg. Her family had fled Germany in the 1930s and tracing Benjamin’s childhood intermingled with reconstructing her own family history.
Her goal became to produce photos to match each entry in Benjamin’s book. This volume of about 160 pictures is the result of that quest. In each section Rosenberg also juxtaposes excerpts from Benjamin with accounts of her own investigation. What emerges is a multilayered allegory that offers a look back to the origins of modernity through the lens of contemporary Berlin.