Widespread Cracking Found in Berlin's Holocaust Memorial

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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Widespread Cracking Found in Berlin's Holocaust Memorial

By Josh Ward in Berlin

A surprising number of cracks have been found in Berlin's 2-year-old 
memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Germans are asking what 
is to blame. AP

IT WAS hailed as a design that could withstand attacks from neo-Nazis 
and even graffiti artists. But in the end, the memorial couldn't be 
protected from the materials used to build it ... or the weather.

An estimated 400 cracks have appeared in the 2,711 concrete slabs of 
the 2-year-old Holocaust memorial in Berlin.

The memorial, known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, 
is dedicated to the Jewish victims of the Nazi regime in World War 
II. It was designed by American architect Peter Eisenman and erected 
by the firm Geithner Bau from 2003 to 2005 at a cost of ¤10.5 million 
($14.5 million).

"It's really not a surprise at all," said a spokesman for the 
Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which oversees 
the memorial. "We already had it written up in the contract with the 
producer that this would probably happen."

The cause of the cracking, which first appeared shortly after the 
memorial opened, is not known for sure, though  it might be due to 
extreme temperature fluctuations in 2005 and 2006, according to the 
spokesman.

"These things happen with concrete," he added.

Though no firm causes have been named, German media has speculated 
that the cracks are due to tremors caused by construction projects 
adjacent to the site, including the new US Embassy, or even vibration 
caused by commuter trains that pass beneath the memorial.

Costs for repairs have yet to be estimated, but they will be shared 
by the foundation and Geithner Bau, according to the spokesman. 
Repairs should begin and be completed this coming winter using 
injections of synthetic resin.

'A Purely Aesthetic Issue'

The spokesman also added that the memorial will  remain open and that 
there is no danger to visitors. "This is a purely aesthetic issue," 
he said. "Those slabs will stand for years."

The memorial's concrete slabs reach up to 4.7 meters (15.4 feet) and 
average over eight tons in weight. They are arranged in a grid 
pattern in an area of over 13,000 square meters (3.5 acres) in a 
central location, one block away from the Brandenburg  Gate. The 
monument attracts over 3 million visitors each year.

In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, designer Eisenman 
played down design or construction flaws and attributed the cracking 
to the nature of concrete construction.

"Whenever you build something that is going to sit out in the rain, 
in the sun and in the frost, sooner or later you're going to have 
problems, and especially in a climate like Berlin's," he told the 
newspaper. "Every construction has to be taken care of, repaired and 
mended. It's completely normal."

Visitors to the memorial on Wednesday generally remained unworried, 
with some even backing Eisenman's reasoning.

"It's to be expected," said Wilhelm Theisen, 63, a vacationer from 
Trier. "No concrete is going to last in these extreme conditions. We 
shouldn't be critical. We should just fix it."

Others even found a silver lining in the development.

"I don't find it that bad, really," said Angela Hiller, 44, from 
Springer, who came to show the memorial to her 12-year-old son. "It 
could also serve as a good symbol of the fall of morals and cultures. 
And it's good that a memorial can have a living function."

Original worries about the memorial's construction focused on the 
possible effects of weathering, fading and graffiti. A controversy 
arose in 2003, when it was discovered that Degussa, the company which 
provided the anti-graffiti chemical coating for the slabs, had 
connections with the company that produced poison gas for the Nazis.