Back in Berlin

After a long excursion, it felt good to be back in Berlin a kick our feet back. After sleeping in a bit, I got up and got my routine Dunkin Doughnuts and met up with the group around lunch time to visit the Topographies of Terror and the Jewish Museum.

The Topographies of Terror (above) is the site where the Gestapo Headquarters were located as well as many prisoners were kept prior to the concentration camps. The site is now barren and covered with gravel to prevent the site from simply becoming another park. Also on the sight is a museum commemorating the activities that occurred. It is really quite frightening to imaging to sorts of heinous acts that went on with these grounds.

Next, is the Jewish Museum (above) by the renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. Some may be familiar Libeskind through the World Trade Center Competition, the Denver Art Museum or simply the fact that Mr. Caldwell used to work for him. The Museum is based conceptually on the timeline of Jewish history with the scar of the Holocaust creating a scar within. Unlike most projects we have seen within Berlin, the Jewish Museum has no relation to the context around it as its strives to make a statement. It was really interesting to get a tour from someone with some architectural relation to the project rather than an employee who simply memorized facts because it allowed one to really understand what went down to make this project a realization.

Inside the museum, one's eye follows many intersecting lines as nothing seems to be parallel, similar to the nature of the Fire Station at Vitra. Wall treatments inside the museum were also quite important as they were stripped to bare concrete where the scar of the Holocaust intersected the meandering plan.

Possible the most powerful part of the museum was installation called Shalechet (Fallen Leaves,above) within one of the voids. Though the visuals of the crying faces seem disturbing, the true eeriness came from the clanking noises echoing through the shaft as guest walked across the field. The video below does a fair job in showing this, however, one can't truly experience the feeling unless they are actually their. The clanking is both reminiscent of the clanking of a train hauling victims off to concentration camps and more simply the cries of all those murdered.