U.S. architect Peter Eisenman talks to the media between concrete pillars at the construction site for the Holocaust memorial in Berlin July 12, 2004. The approximately 19,000 square-metre-site for the Memorial is located on the edge of the Grosser Tiergarten between Ebertstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse and was part of the Ministers' Gardens until 1945. In the course of the 19th century, government authorities and ministries of the Prussian kingdom and later the German Reich were based here. photo from REUTERS
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Peter Eisenman's Holocaust Memorial in Berlin is half completed. It is set to be formally inaugurated in May 2005. (frm Reuters)
FYI - the holocaust memorial website has construction images and more information.
Holocaust memorial reaches half-way stage
Mon 12 July, 2004 17:12
By Katie Allen
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has celebrated reaching the half-way stage in building its long-awaited central memorial to six million murdered Jews as builders pledged to complete the monument by next May.
Almost six decades after the Holocaust and 17 years after the memorial was first envisaged, the project's backers marked the completion of an information centre which will stand under the vast labyrinth of 2,700 concrete pillars in central Berlin.
Builders said on Monday delays had been overcome and costs were on track to stay around 27 million euros (18 million pounds).
"It looks very good. All my fears that it would look too monumental and imposing have disappeared. I think the memorial is impressive," said Lea Rosh, one of the driving forces behind the memorial since it was conceived in 1987.
She said the newly unveiled underground centre, which has yet to house any exhibitions, would give Holocaust victims their identities back by listing millions of names and playing individual biographies over speakers.
The monument dedicated to the murdered Jews of Europe is set to be formally inaugurated in May 2005 -- coinciding with ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe.
Lobbying for the memorial started in 1988, but the project was repeatedly held up by disputes over its location, design, cost, building materials and a demand by the German parliament for the information centre to be incorporated.
The project was also held up last year when it emerged the monument's foundations and stones contained products made by Degussa, a firm closely linked to the gas used in Nazi death camps. Despite criticism from some Jewish groups, the monument's backers decided to continue building with Degussa.
"The fact it has succeeded despite some short-term delays ... was thanks to all the people who work here," Wolfgang Thierse, chairman of a trustees board overseeing the project and speaker of Germany's parliament, told Monday's ceremony.
Designed by U.S. architect Peter Eisenman, the memorial is a stone's throw from the landmark Brandenburg Gate and backers hope it will make both tourists and Berliners stop and contemplate persecution under Adolf Hitler's dictatorship.
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