The idea of a central memorial to the Jews murdered by the Nazis was first proposed in 1988, when German Jewish journalist Lea Rosh founded a group to support its construction and to collect donations. But a year later, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany was busy with the tasks of rebuilding and reunifying the two Berlins and the two states.
The idea was proposed again a few years later, and a resolution was passed by the Bundestag in 1998 to erect the memorial. This time, its completion was delayed by bureaucratic hassles, disagreements over concept and design, and opposition from many Germans.
In June 1995, the plan of Christine Jackob-Marks (a large sloping concrete surface with the names of the victims chiseled in) was declared the winner, but Bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl rejected it.
A plan by Peter Eisenman, a New York architect, emerged as the winner of the next competition in November 1997. In June 1998, the Bundestag decided in favor of Eisenman's plan, modified by attaching a museum, which Eisenman would also design.
Construction of the memorial began in April 2003. In October 2003, it was discovered that the German company Degussa provided some materials for the memorial and construction was halted - because a daughter company of Degussa had produced the Zyklon B poison used to murder people in the Nazi gas chambers. After some discussion, construction was resumed one month later, with continued involvement of Degussa.
On December 15, 2004, the memorial was finished. It was dedicated on May 10, 2005, as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of V-E Day. It opened to the public on May 12, 2005.
The memorial consists of about 2,700 concrete slabs ("steles") arranged in a grid pattern covering 19,000 square meters. The steles are 2.38m long, 0.95m wide and vary in height from 0.2m to 4.8m. The ground slopes unevenly. Visitors are encouraged to walk between the steles; the memorial can be entered from all sides and offers no prescribed path.
This feeling of groundlessness or instability which one feels as soon as you enter the memorial is thought to be an attempt to evoke the experiences of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust; visitors can wander through the stelae until they reach a disorientating claustrophobia, unsure of where they are and how to get out.
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