The "Berlin key"

A key with two symmetrical blades? To Bruno Latour there was something surrealistic about the forced-locking key, or “Berlin key.” The technological enigma led him to its sociological dimension. Inside and outside, openness and control, concierge and tenants, spouses and lovers, occupants and thieves, having and not having: nearly all these topics are attracting the WZB’s attention in 2014 and 2015.

The French sociologist Bruno Latour became acquainted with the “Berlin key,” while working at the WZB before the fall of the Berlin wall. His essay on the curious object lent the title to a collection of essays published in 1993: Le clef de Berlinet autres leçons d’un amateur de sciences. The article appeared in German (translated by Gustav Roßler) as a WZB Discussion Paper in 1994. Long out of print, the essay has now been republished by Botopress Berlin.