Alexanderplatz, Berlin

Alexanderplatz has long survived as the symbol of a city burdened by its ruinous past. In 2012, twenty-year-old Jonny K. was beaten to death on this infamous Berlin square-and Germany's first multicultural murder brought another shock to a country that's seen its share. Before the trial, the question of guilt already had an ideological slant: Was Alexanderplatz itself to blame? Was the socialist architecture? The brutality of capitalism?

Georg Diez pursues the mystery of Alexanderplatz in a ...