Memorial Landscapes: a Difficult, an International, a German Issue
Designing memorials as open spaces, as opposed to buildings with defined functions, is one of the most complex and precarious tasks in the built environment. In Germany there are many such difficult places and the practice of sinai landscape architects have an impressive record of designing them, dealing with the questions and demands they involve, as well as the processes leading to potential solutions. Examples include the cemetery for the victims of the March Revolution of 1848; the open spaces of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp memorial site and of three other former National Socialist sites; Platz des 9. November 1989, the place of the first Berlin Wall opening on November 9, 1989; and the site of the last full remains of the Berlin Wall, where fifty years after its construction the Berlin Wall Memorial was built.
The projects are documented and presented to a broad audience in the landscape architect's plans, photos by Klemens Ortmeyer, texts by Thies Schröder, and a comprehensive essay by the world-renowned expert in the field, Peter Reichel.