1 2 A MONUMENTAL MOCKERY The Construction of the National Holocaust Memorial in Berlin Simone Mangos Berlin 2007 3 4 LONSDALE brandishing youth on top of the memorial stelae. 2007 [Das Denkmal] wird von den Berlinerinnen und Berlinern, [...] und besonders auch von der jüngeren Generation angenommen wie kaum eine zweite Erinnerungsstätte. Vor allem aber: Es trägt dauerhaft zu einer Auseinandersetzung mit dem Holocaust als einem Teil unserer Geschichte bei, dem wir uns stellen. The memorial is accepted in a way unlike any other commemorative place by the Berliners, [...] and in particular also by the younger generation . But most of all: it contributes to a coming to terms with of the Holocaust as a part of our history to which we admit. — Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit. 10 August 2007, congratulatory address on the occasion of Peter Eisenman’s 75th bithday 5 Bilanz nach mehr als sechzig Jahren: Hitler, und was der Name symbolisiert, ist wohl militärisch, aber immer noch nicht geistig geschlagen, die zeitgenössische Variante des Nationalsozialismus dabei, sich parlamentarisch dauerhaft zu etablieren, und die Zahl der rechtsextremen Anschläge höher denn je. Was heftig an den mir von den Nazis injizierten Fluchtinstink appelliert — Deutschland ist mit seiner Hakenkreuzgeschichte nicht im reinen. — Ralph Giordano, Erinnerungen eines Davongekommenen , 2007 6 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 11 1. The origins of the German Holocaust Memorial 19 2. Silent liquidation – deliberate deceit 34 3. Die Ministergärten – a brief historical background 68 4. On ruinous foundations – the casting of the Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe 76 5. Faulty Towers – the commencement of building a Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe 95 6. Thierse’s tactics, Thierse’s tricks 99 7. Licht gegen das Vergessen – Light against forgetting 110 8. Den Holocaust hat es nie gegeben – The Holocaust never happened 114 9. Thierse’s treason 137 10. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others 144 11. Degussa’s long-term reference-object 155 12. Toothache 196 13. Un monument à elle toute seule 210 14. So macht die Shoah richtig Spaß 227 15. Ears, eyes and mouths well shut 250 16. Bagatelles pour un massacre 266 17. Conclusions 274 List of illustrations 296 Abbreviations and terms 298 Bibliography 300 7 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The origins of my research took place already in 1988, when I arrived in Berlin as an artist-in-residence. Living next to the Berlin Wall, and exploring its length, I came across what appeared to be an abandoned yet highly charged vacant lot. The site, with its illegible vandalized information signs, piles of twisted rubble and semi-excavated ruins, inspired my very first exhibition in this strange city. The Prinz-Albrecht-Gelände was situated at the southern end of Wilhelmstrasse. Abruptly cut off by the Berlin Wall, the road’s extension continued beyond, renamed in East Berlin as Otto-Grotewohl-Strasse. The terrain slated for the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, some ten years later, lay at the northern end of this extension. Writing about an artwork within the complex of the Holocaust and contemporary Germany, apart from the irrefutable historical facts, is essentially interpretive. The presumption of ‘scientific’ precision within this complex would be entirely inappropriate if not dishonest. As I have written this text for an English speaking audience, certain definitions became necessary, which are otherwise self-explanatory in Germany. Not having trained formally as a historian (but neither did Herodotus or Winston Churchill), I am indebted to the many historians and authors who have inspired my inquiry. These include Christopher Browning, Mary Fulbrook, Timothy Garton Ash and Anna Funder. I am grateful in particular to Ernst Klee, Ulf Schmidt and Henry Friedlander for their extraordinary and courageous examples. 9 I am thankful to Harald Fricke for the initial discussions about the language which composed the memorial-debates, as well as a collaborative book project, all of which planted the seeds of my research. My inquiry was prompted in part by my skepticism of the success to be derived from the way in which the project was being debated. Something seemed fundamentally wrong with the discussions around the Memorial. For example: Despite the ten-year long debate about the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, a shared fundamental understanding of why the memorial would be built and who — which people — it was being created for, had still not been made clear. It remained a confused issue, obfuscated under a deluge of circuitous argument. As late as 1999, the instigator of the memorial stated: “We only just wanted a memorial for the Jews.” This term became common in Berlin to refer to the project, yet, as tension mounted during the subsequent construction process, the weekly journal Die Zeit suddenly reprimanded in alarm “now, yet again, many people in Berlin believe that a memorial ‘for the Jews’ is being built”. It is a memorial “for the non-Jewish Germans”, corrected Jörg Lau. Consequently, this definition was readily adopted by many Berliners. Hence, at a later moment in a conversation with art critic Brigitte Werneburg, I once casually referred to the ‘Jewish Memorial’ in passing, in a bid to abbreviate the official pedantic title of the monument. “No,” she quickly admonished, “it is not for the Jews, it is for the Non-Jewish Germans! And that is where everybody gets it wrong.” The lack of a shared understanding of this fundamental starting point, the dedication and reason for the memorial and more specifically — in whose interests it was being built —, remained unresolved. Take the example of what is referred to as a war memorial. We understand that a war memorial is not dedicated to war but to those (usually the armed forces) who lost their lives to defend their nation and or concepts of freedom and democracy. Similarly, the term ‘Jewish Memorial’ is not 10 offensive and can be used to describe a monument in commemoration of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The fact that this basic self-evident understanding simply does not and cannot exist in Germany is part of the underlying trouble enmeshed in the entire fraught enterprise. The 20,000 square metres concrete outcrop ‘Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe’, inaugurated in 2005 remains to this day without a sign or plaque indicating its purpose. I wish to thank the University of New South Wales and the College of Fine Arts for their support in the form of a research grant. Thanks also go to the staff at the University for their patience and cooperation in supporting my project. I especially wish to thank Ian Howard. I would also like to acknowledge the spontaneously generous and untiring support given by Peter R. Fuchs from the Landesdenkmalamt in Berlin. I offer warm thanks to the helpful staff at the Büro für Geophysik Lorenz, and in particular Bernhard Lorenz. I am especially grateful to Ludger Derenthal at the Museum für Fotografie for his open-mindedness and support. For his untiring interest, scrupulous observations, intellectual, historical and literary insights and precision, I am indebted to Melchior de Wolff. His monumental support helped to make this book a reality. 11 INTRODUCTION Germany’s national Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe will necessarily define Germany’s own contemporary memory of the Holocaust. Deutschlands nationales Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas wird notwendigerweise Deutschlands eigene gegenwärtige Erinnerung an den Holocaust definieren. Information issued to invited competitors for the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, 1997 1 Anti-Semitism and right extremist attacks have reached the level of bluntness and aggression as seen after 1933. Antisemitische und rechtsradikale Attacken haben eine Offensichtlichkeit und Aggressivität erreicht, die an die Zeit nach 1933 erinnert. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, 2006 2 Löwen-Treff, a typical Munich beer hall, is well visited on this warm July day in 2006. Guests seated at the outdoor Visitors Terrace for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe may choose from a wide range of German sausage and cuts of pork, which are on offer along with the beer. Weisswürste, Bratwurst, Nürnberger, Kasslerbraten, Bayerischer Leberkäse and so on are neatly spelled out on the blackboard. However, if one isn’t in the mood for beer, the Visitors Terrace (spanning the length of the Memorial to the 1 Engeres Auswahlverfahren. Aufgabenbeschreibung und Rahmenbedingungen. Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur. 1997 2 Spiegel Online, Rechtsextreme Gewalt Zentralrat der Juden warnt vor Verhältnissen wie zur Nazi-Zeit. 24 October 2006, Spiegel Online 24 October 2006 www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,444405,00.html 12 Murdered Jews of Europe) also offers donuts, fish ’n chips, falafel, Currywurst, pizza, as well as an assortment of Holocaust memorial postcards and souvenirs. No doubt after a thick sausage washed down by a beer or two, one may be excused for feeling sleepy. No problem. The warm grey stelae of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe provide wonderful relief to those seeking a mid-day snooze or simply an undisturbed opportunity to sun-bake. German flags flap proudly from cars parked along the perimeter of the memorial — emblems of Germany’s new found confidence in the wake of the World Cup — whilst a ‘Nostalgia’ bus makes its tourist rounds of the grey monument. One year has passed since the opening of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe — yet the abstract undulating grey volumes amidst the tourist paraphernalia remain without a title, a sign, or even a dedication. Only a pink ‘Dunkin’ Donuts’ sign hovers above the stage of concrete stelae, which in turn are continuously surmounted by tourists and visitors jumping triumphantly to the highest heights.