Buildings aren't just bricks and mortar - they have meaning and say something. If you doubt that, think of the controversy in the German city of Potsdam where a plan to rebuild a church has set factions against each other.
The dispute is, of course, not over just any old church but one of the most significant in German history. The Garrison Church, or Garnisonkirche, was the parish and regimental church of the Prussian royal family. Bach played the organ there and the kings of Prussia, including Frederick the Great, were buried there.
But this is not why it is controversial. It is also the church in which Hitler was legitimised in the eyes of Germany's upper class. On 23 March 1933, the Nazis orchestrated a propaganda performance which transformed Hitler from someone the elite saw as a vulgar little man into someone they respected. "The Day of Potsdam", as it became known, opened the way for him to take all power.
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