PROJECT SUMMARY
Working with previously unresearched archives, this collaborative PhD will: 1) define the values that people and authorities have attached to Berlin’s iconic Checkpoint Charlie over the past 60 years; 2) investigate the site’s changing role in understanding Cold War Berlin’s cultural significance in a fast-changing city; then 3) create new guidelines for the future management of similar heritage sites whose values are fluid and contested.

White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH) funded Collaborative Doctoral Award between Department of Archaeology, University of York and Stiftung Berliner Mauer (The Berlin Wall Foundation)

Lead Academic and Partner Organisation Supervisors:
Professor John Schofield
Department of Archaeology
University of York

Professor Axel Klausmeier
Director
Stiftung Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Foundation)

PHD PROJECT DESCRIPTION
What is the Project About?
Values are central to debates around heritage significance, informing heritage protection and planning decisions. Yet values are often contested and change over time. Nowhere are these two factors more evident than at the Berlin Wall whether it survives as fragment, void or memory. This timely and collaborative project will use previously unresearched heritage archives combined with interviews to analyse changing views of the Wall over the past 60 years and examine the implications of this fluidity for future management of this and other contested heritage sites, not least in the UK.

Originality and Importance
Sixty years ago, American and Soviet tanks faced-off at Checkpoint Charlie, and the Cold War nearly became reality. The Berlin Wall (of which Checkpoint Charlie forms a significant part) stands as a globally-known and iconic example of contested heritage. Yet a deep analysis of its changing cultural (including local) significance has never been undertaken.
As well as being highly original, the project is also timely. Proposed developments at Checkpoint Charlie, including a major new memorial site with a Cold War exhibit managed by Stiftung Berliner Mauer, are throwing the global cultural significance of this event, and of the site at which it occurred, into sharp focus.

Research Questions
1. How have heritage values relating to Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall changed over the past 60 years, as the Wall transitioned from lived experience into memory?
2. How can a deep understanding of values help shape the site’s future management and draw consensus from a divided past?
3. Do authorised views of the site correspond with or contradict those held by citizens; and,
4. To what extent do these locally-held views vary between communities, recognising that a young and multicultural generation now exists within Berlin?

Research Scope and Methods
To address these questions, the project will draw on archives and conduct interviews and opinion surveys resulting in qualitative data. The previously unresearched archives will include: conservation archives within Berlin’s Landesdenkmalamt; the Federal Archives of
Germany, including the East German Stasi archive; and the Berlin State Archive. Combined, the two sources will help determine changing professional and public attitudes to an iconic heritage location over time.

Engagement, outreach, dissemination and impact initiatives
The student will support Stiftung Berliner Mauer in terms of its public engagement and impact role, by:
- generating new data that will form an essential baseline from which future decisions (e.g. in the area of audience analysis/development) will be taken;
- publishing results of the research on the website (and social media channels) of Stiftung Berliner Mauer alongside academic publications;
- providing information that will influence the concept for the memorial site and its exhibitions and be incorporated into them;
- presenting and discussing the research in various workshops, for example with members of the ‘Zentrum Kalter Krieg’ association, a coalition of scholars who are advocating for a Cold War Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, at the Cultural Heritage Centre - Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus, and at conferences and
symposia on cultures of remembrance, heritage and dealing with historic sites;
- presenting the results at a public event organized by Stiftung Berliner Mauer.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Studentships for doctoral research are 40 months in duration for full-time study. Awards are subject to satisfactory academic progress. Awards must be taken up in October 2022; no deferrals are possible. Awards will comprise fees at Research Council rates and a maintenance grant (£15,609 in 2021/22). The grant pays the fees at the Home/UK rate; international students are, however, eligible to apply for this Studentship and the difference between the Home/UK and International fee will be met by the University of York for a successful international applicant. Awards may be taken up on a part-time basis if a student is eligible to undertake part-time study; international applicants may be required to study full-time by the terms of their visa.

QUALIFICATIONS
Applicants must have a good first degree and a good Masters degree (ideally with Distinction) in subjects related to heritage studies. Such subjects might include (but are not confined to): Archaeology, Geography, History, Public History, History of Art, Sociology. A strong candidate is also likely to have some relevant work experience in the heritage sector. The successful candidate must be highly proficient and ideally fluent in German.

Requirements of the Studentship
WRoCAH students are required to undertake a bespoke training package and to complete a Researcher Employability Project of at least a month, a Knowledge Exchange Project, and to engage with Internationalisation.
All WRoCAH students must submit their thesis for examination with the funded period. This is a requirement of the Arts & Humanities Research Council, which provides the funding for WRoCAH, and is a condition of accepting a Studentship.