The memorial to the memory of the book burning is a memorial on the
Bebelplatz in the center of Berlin next to the street Unter den Linden.
The monument erected in 1995 commemorates the book burning in May 1933
on this square.
Reason
The memorial is an authentic reminder
of May 10, 1933, when, among other things, students from the National
Socialist Student Union and many professors from the Friedrich Wilhelm
University (today Humboldt University) read over 20,000 books from many,
especially Jewish, communist, liberal and socially critical authors, in
front of a large audience, from the old university library on the square
and burned them in the middle of what was then Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Platz
(1911-1947), now Bebelplatz.
The memorial is a 5 × 5 × 5 meter underground space embedded in
Bebelplatz. It is located at the level of the filled west ramp of the
Linden Tunnel, which was demolished over a length of 25 meters for the
construction. Along the walls of the completely whitewashed room are
empty shelves for 20,000 volumes. The empty space is not accessible. A
glass plate in the paving of the square allows visitors to look inside.
The design comes from the Israeli artist Micha Ullman, the monument
was inaugurated on March 20, 1995. Next to the glass plate, two
identically inscribed bronze plates embedded in the floor inform
passers-by about the monument. They bear the following texts, which
begin with a quote from Heinrich Heine's tragedy Almansor:
"It
was just a prelude, there
where they burn books
you end up burning
people too."
Heinrich Hein 1820
On May 10, 1933, National
Socialist students burned the works of hundreds of freelance writers,
journalists, philosophers and scientists in the middle of this square.
"Library" memorial "The book burning of May 10, 1933"
Built by
Micha Ullman in 1994/95
Wall AG assumed the costs for the care
and maintenance of the memorial until the end of 2018. For example, the
pane made of special glass has to be replaced every three months. After
the contract expired and after reports in the media about the condition
of the scratched pane, the Mitte district office commissioned and paid
for the replacement in February 2019. Since the end of March 2019,
former entrepreneur Hans Wall has assumed the costs of maintaining the
monument. A new glass plate costs him about 2,000 euros, which,
according to Wall, can still be afforded. "It would be fatal if the
impression were created that Berlin is not taking care of the monument,"
said Hans Wall in March 2019.
Trivia
A memorial that is comparable in approach and goal has existed in the
old town of Salzburg since 2018. The book skeleton on Residenzplatz
commemorates the burning of books there on April 30, 1938, shortly after
the so-called annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany.