Cryptic Concrete

Ian Klinke is Associate Professor in Human Geography at the University Oxford and a fellow of St John's College. His work covers German geopolitics, Cold War landscapes and the politics of European (dis)integration.

"A serendipitous childhood discovery led the author on a personal and professional odyssey. Klinke immerses us in the zeitgeist of Cold War West Germany – a partitioned country created by post-war rivalries and foreign occupation. By investigating its subterranean qualities, he reveals a world far more complex and contradictory than accounts preoccupied with surface-level check-points and walls. Highly recommended." —Klaus Dodds, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London"Cryptic Concrete provides a fascinating and original exploration of how the distinctive German experiences of the Cold War and the aftermath of fascism can be read through their inscription in the architectural and landscape remains of atomic missile sites and nuclear bunkers. Ian Klinke reveals how the infrastructure of 20th century military destruction and survival informs the materiality of geopolitics in the present." —Rachel Woodward, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University

• Series Editor’s Preface viPreface vii1 Of Blood and Soil 12 Lebensraum and Its Underside 223 Return to the Soil 454 Nuclear Living Space 675 Spaces of Extermination 916 Enter the Void 1117 Conclusion 130References 142Index 167