The Empty Center(1998)

The Empty Center is an experimental documentary that examines how transnational corporations reshaped Berlin after German reunification. The film traces a stark transformation: in 1990, squatters established a socialist republic on the city's death strip; eight years later, Mercedes-Benz built its new headquarters on the same ground. Through slow superimpositions and layered imagery, director Hito Steyerl maps the physical and cultural displacement of Berlin's residents, pushed toward the city's periphery as the economy shifted and borders were redrawn. The film amplifies marginalized voices often erased by rapid urban reconstruction, documenting how geopolitical change and corporate expansion reshaped both the landscape and the lives of those caught between old and new Berlin.