Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin, Germany

Peter Eisenman

2005

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Aerial photograph of many concrete slabs in an empty lot surrounded by buildings. — After years of controversy, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was established in central Berlin, close to the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall, which once divided the city. It consists of a grid of 2,711 concrete pillars of varying heights, spaced closely to allow only one person at a time to pass between them. At some points, the ground slopes and the pillars tower over visitors. The designer, Peter Eisenman, intended to create a confusing atmosphere, a feeling of being trapped, and the sense of an ordered system run amok. The work lends itself to many other interpretations, however. Some feel it resembles a cemetery or rows of coffins, though the artist says this was not his intention.

Credits

Image courtesy of Eisenman Architects.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 10.

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Creator Bio

American architect Peter Eisenman was a member of the New York Five, a group of architects whose work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967. That same year, he became founding director of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, an international think tank for architecture in New York. Eisenman’s works, such as his series of numbered houses (1960s–1970s) and the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts in Columbus, Ohio (1989) reflect his post-Functionalist outlook in his striving to liberate form from meaning. Eisenman received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award by the International Architectural Biennale in Venice in 2004.

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