Germany’s Holocaust memorial, a solemn maze of concrete gray slabs in central Berlin commemorating the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, split public opinion when it was erected five years ago.
But now, ahead of next month’s anniversary, the splits are all too real as a viciously cold winter, inferior building materials and possible building flaws have resulted in cracks in more than two-thirds of the 2,711 columns.
“Can the Holocaust memorial still be saved?” mass circulation Bild asked.
PHOTO: AFP
The head of the foundation that manages the memorial, which stretches over 19,000m² at a site close to the Brandenburg Gate, said a committee of experts was looking into the problem.
The committee’s report should “help to clear up what caused the cracks and who is responsible for them, but also to work out an appropriate method of repairing the damage,” Uwe Neumaerker said.
“We’ll find a solution. Whatever happens it will be repaired. But we don’t know exactly when. We have to wait for the results of the report,” said Leonie Mechelhoff, the foundation’s spokeswoman.
The cracks in the columns, which vary from ankle height to 4.7m, “are not dangerous,” said Mechelhoff, adding she was confident the monument would be restored quickly to its former state.
But the fissures are the latest in a series of controversies to dog the memorial, situated near the site once occupied by Adolf Hitler’s chancellery and the bunker where he committed suicide.
Construction of the memorial was delayed in 2003 when it emerged that the company which made an anti-graffiti covering for the blocks had also supplied Zyklon B, the poison gas used in the Nazi death camps.
When the memorial was unveiled on May 10, 2005, some critics asked why it did not also pay tribute to the Nazis’ non-Jewish victims.
The memorial’s architect, Peter Eisenman, said he did not want names on the blocks because he feared that would turn the site into a graveyard when he hoped it would rather be “a place of hope.”
Eisenman was also conscious of the dangers of cracking and had originally intended the columns to be made of natural stone, which is less likely to split.
However, because of the higher costs involved, concrete was used instead and the construction work entrusted to German firm Geithner.
The concrete was not supposed to crack, but Joachim Schulz, an expert in the material, said: “You cannot stop cracks appearing in concrete, you can only reduce their size.”
However, “a new procedure was used which had not been sufficiently tested, and that was risky,” he said.
In addition, the slabs were made of “non-reinforced, hollow concrete,” making it more vulnerable to cracks, said Schulz, who said it would be “difficult” to repair the columns.
Indeed, the first attempts at “papering” over the cracks in recent months have proved disappointing, on an aesthetic level as well as on a practical level.
“It’s a shame that this problem is attracting all the attention,” said Mechelhoff. “We would have preferred the slabs to be intact” for the fifth anniversary of the monument’s opening, set to be marked by a host of events.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was