At this time, before my final analysis, I think that it is necessary to include at least a brief description of Eisenman II, the final version of the memorial that will sit in the center of Berlin, as well as some of the intended effects of this heavily debated, and repeatedly altered design (the present project is slightly different than the original synthesis). I have simply translated much of the information in this section from a brochure that the Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe⁶⁰ provided. All other sources will be noted in the endnotes of my essay.

 The monument will sit directly in the center of Berlin, between the newly renovated Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate and the “biggest construction site in the world”, Potsdamer Platz. A more noticeable and significant site would be difficult to imagine, as the memorial’s major surroundings are all symbols of the new, reunited Germany. The Reichstag building is the now the seat of Parliament after the government’s move from Bonn to Berlin, and the Brandenburg Gate is the symbol of German reunification. Furthermore, the Potsdamer Platz is the new commercial center of Berlin, featuring the new European headquarters of Sony, a Daimler-Chrysler complex, as well as shopping complexes, hotels, and state-of-the-art movie theaters.

Eisenman II will consist of approximately 2,700 concrete pillars arranged in a grid-like pattern. Each pillar will be just under one meter high and 2.38 meters wide, differing only in the depth to which they are installed, and the spaces between the pillars will be just ninety-two centimeters wide. Visitors will be able to enter from all four sides of the field of pillars, whose “movement” Eisenman compares with a billowy field of grain.

 According to the foundation’s brochure, the field of pillars has no beginning, no middle, and no end, and therefore visitors will have to find their own way in and out of the memorial. Walking through the field of slightly sloped pillars, which appear to stand on undulating ground, is supposed to elicit a feeling of uncertainty.

 The monument will be supplemented by a Place of Information, which will be located underground in the southeast corner of the grid, and divided into four rooms: Silence, Fate, Names, and Places.⁶¹  The central function of the Place of Information will be to substantiate the abstract form of remembrance that the memorial procures, and to supplement this abstract memory with information about the victims of the Holocaust. The information center will attempt to assemble as many names of murdered Jews as it possibly can, and to personalize and illustrate remembrance with the documentation of the fates of a great number of individuals and families. The Place of Information is dedicated to discovering the heritage of the honored victims, and will attempt to document the extent of the Nazis’ mass murder throughout all of Europe.
 
 

 At the same time, the information center will provide information and details on the authentic sites of remembrance, most especially the concentration camps. It aims to serve as a gateway to the “multifaceted remembrance landscape” of Germany, and with the help of new media will attempt to produce a link from the memorial to the authentic sites of remembrance both within the country and outside of its borders, as well as to other groups of victims.

   When viewed as a whole, Eisenman says that the concept will have the unmarked, silent monument representing the “conscious world, which can never explain the Holocaust.”⁶²The underground information center will represent the dark subconscious, which Eisenman suggests is perhaps the only place that can explain such a horrific chapter in history.⁶³

60 Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, Das Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, October 2000.

The Foundation for the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe will be responsible for the maintenance of the memorial after the conclusion of construction. The Foundation’s board of trustees has twenty-three members. All parties of the German Bundestag, the federal government, the state of Berlin, the Sponsor Circle, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the Jewish community of Berlin, the Foundation for the Topography of Terror, and the Working Community of Concentration Camp Remembrance Sites in Germany have representatives on this board. The board has elected a three-person management committee that includes Wolfgang Thierse, Speaker of the German parliament, Michael Naumann, and Christoph Stölzl, the Senator for Sciences, Research, and Culture of the state of Berlin. This committee in turn maintains a branch office that coordinates the work on the memorial and provides scholarly assistance. An advisory board appointed by the trustees consists of members from Holocaust survivor groups, historical research institutions, museums, sites of remembrance, and youth initiatives. The future work of this advisory board will be to include the other groups of victims in the work of the foundation and to keep alive the remembrance of the discrimination, persecution, eviction, and extermination of human beings in the public conscience.

61 Associated Press, “Shoah memorial in Berlin a slow process,” Jerusalem Post, 10 July 2000.

62 Ibid.

63 Ibid.