The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, one of the most evocative and controversial monuments to the Holocaust, was designed by the American architect Peter Eisenmann. The Holocaust Memorial is located in the center of Berlin, laid out on a 4.7 acre site between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate.
The centerpiece of the Holocaust memorial is the “Field of Stelae”, covered with more than 2,500 geometrically arranged concrete pillars.
You can enter and walk through the unevenly sloping field from all four sides. The strong columns, all slightly different in size, evoke a disorienting, wave-like feeling that you can only experience when you make your way through this gray forest of concrete.
The architect Peter Eisenmann says about his unique architectural concept:
»The enormity and scale of the horror of the Holocaust is such that any attempt to represent it by traditional means is inevitably inadequate ... Our memorial attempts to present a new idea of memory as distinct from nostalgia ... We can only know the past today through a manifestation in the present.« (Peter Eisenman, 1998)
The adjacent information center is an underground museum, which is located below the field of pillars.
It offers an exhibition on Nazi terror in Europe and holds the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims, obtained from the Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem.
The names are projected on the walls of a room, while a short biography is read over loudspeakers; a powerful and very personal presentation.
All texts in the exhibition center are in English and German.
Cora-Berliner-Straße 1
10117 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0) 30 - 26 39 43 36
Opening Hours of the Information Center:
April – September: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (last entrance 7.15 p.m.)
October - March 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (last entrance 6.15 p.m.).
closed on Mondays, except public holidays.
Guided Tours (1.5 hours) provide general information on the history and design of the Memorial and the Information Center; no reservation required
Saturday and Sunday 11:00 a.m.; 2:00 p.m. (in German)
Sunday 4:00 p.m. (in English)
Cost: 3 Euros
Audio Guides
The Audio Tour (1 hour) offers an overview of the historical background of the Holocaust in Europe, including testimonies of witnesses and historians.
Cost: 3 Euros
See more photos of the Holocaust Memorial here.
