Berlin, Aug. 4, (dpa/GNA) - Major renovation work on the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin will keep large parts of the site off-limits to visitors for the indefinite future.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which was built in the heart of the German capital in 2005, has been in need of repair for almost 15 years. Many of the concrete stelae that make up the memorial are showing cracks.
The memorial, located not far from Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate, is made up of more than 2,700 concrete stelae, or pillars, that vary in height and are built on top of uneven ground.
The exhibition in the underground information centre below the memorial attracts almost half a million visitors every year.
“The restrictions that visitors are experiencing due to the work on the Field of Stelae are very regrettable,” said a spokesman for Germany’s minister of state for culture, Claudia Roth. “Nevertheless, the renovation of the Field of Stelae is not only necessary for safety reasons, but also to secure and preserve this important memorial for future generations.”
More than 40 of the stalae, which stand up to 4.7 metres tall and weigh as much as 16 tons, had to be temporarily secured and reinforced with steel collars as a cheap short-term solution. The memorial covers about 19,000 square metres.
Disputes over the rapid deterioration of the memorial led to a court fight and civil trial beginning in 2008, only three years after the memorial was built at a cost of nearly €28 million ($31 million).
According to the foundation that administers the memorial, after years of court and out-of-court proceedings, an engineering contract was agreed upon in 2021 with experts from the University of Aachen to devise a plan to renovate the stelae and close the cracks.
Experts spent two years measuring temperatures on the stelae during various seasons to determine whether temperature fluctuations inside the hollow concrete blocks might be causing the cracks.
Renovation plans should be ready by September or October. Then the parties involved will need to agree on how to proceed and split the costs.
Separate work to repair the lighting at the memorial, which has not functioned since 2007, is also ongoing and should be completed by the end of August, according to the foundation.
GNA