So, what is Berlin’s empty, silent space about? Can people "work off" the legacy of the past, either Fascist or Communist, as Habermas (The Berlin Republic, 1998, pp 17-40) insists? Is it possible, as the rulers of the former East Germany tried, to stave off the totalitarian tendency in humanity through the creation of an empty, silent, space – an area in between? Or is it better to render the past into a fetish commodity or media spectacle, while obliterating history’s actual significance and meaning, as Western capitalism does?