Museums and Memorials

It is a City unsurprisingly given Germany’s recent history that is full of memorial and remembrance.

A lot of the museums perform the dual function of museum designed to inform and educate and memorial a place of reflection and remembrance and often I felt to invoke remorse.

Berlin is full of memorials and monuments from the gaudy nelson column like Victory column (285 steps and great views from the top) to the Memorial to Homosexuals persecuted Under Nazism, a concrete cube with a video installation in a quiet corner of the Tier Garden.

Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism, a garden memorial with a reflecting pool of black water and time line of the persecution.

Then there is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe over 2000 concrete stelae set across nearly 5 acres of Berlin.

Along with their memorial function these are also pieces of public art and most not more than 20 years old. One of the other things is a lot of the audience or passers-by aren’t more than 20 years old either.

I watched other people in the city and realised watching the school trips how historical this must all be. I am old enough and privileged enough to have known people who fought in the 1st and Second world war. My great, great grandfather was interred as a German in the 1st world war, I remember the euphoria of the Berlin war coming down. I wonder how they feel and what they think about these spaces?