Art Against Forgetting: stumbling over Germany’s sordid past

By Vera von Kreutzbruck
– Germany –

Ever since the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe was inaugurated in Berlin two years ago, it has become a major tourist attraction. The vast monument consists of a sprawling field of 2,700 stone slabs near the Brandenburg Gate and is dedicated to the millions of victims as a whole. Together, the slabs symbolize a collective loss. But it’s not the only memorial in the capital city. A daring German sculptor has implemented an original project to remember individual victims.

Inattentive pedestrians might miss them, or maybe inadvertently step on them. They are called “stumbling stones” – or Stolpersteine in German- and are the creation of the Cologne-based sculptor Gunter Demnig. Around Berlin, mostly in the Kreuzberg and Mitte districts, there are 1,400 of them.

The idea is both simple and original. These discrete yet provocative memorials are small brass plaques containing the personal details of victims of the Holocaust, embedded into the sidewalk in front of their former homes. About six million Jews were murdered in Germany and Europe, as well as political dissidents, homosexuals, gypsies and people with disabilities.

The plaques cost 95 euros each (about $113) and can be sponsored by individuals or groups. The artist laid the first memorial stone ten years ago and his project has resonated widely in Germany and across Europe. So far Demnig has installed over 11,000 stones in his Germany, as well as in Austria, Italy, Holland and Hungary.

The idea for the Stolpersteine came to him when an elderly woman approached him while he was working on another project in 1993 – one which traced the path of the gypsies that were forced into deportation camps. The woman said: “it’s nice what you are doing but gypsies didn’t live here”. Demnig thought, maybe she never knew that her neighbors were gypsies. This commentary was the catalyst for his valiant artistic project.

The 60-year-old artist named his project Stolpersteine because their purpose is to make passers-by “stumble” over these stones and think about the past on an intimate level. “(Stolpersteine) is personal, big monuments are abstract,” Demnig said when he presented the project over a decade ago.

Throughout Germany there are numerous monuments to commemorate the victims of National Socialism. However, they symbolize a collective loss, a mass of peoples with no real individual identity. But with Deming’s project, one by one, the names of the victims return to their homes. “Auschwitz was the destination and end point, but the unimaginable, the horror began in these flats and houses,” the artist told the German press when he inaugurated the first memorial stones in Cologne where he lives.

However successful the memorial project has been, not every city has welcomed it. In 2004, after a heated debate between the artist and the mayor of Munich, Christian Ude, the latter finally rejected the Stolpersteine. Similarly, the former president of Munich’s Israelite Religious Community and current President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, was also against the memorial stones. For their community, the fact that people would be walking over the names of those killed was unacceptable. Further criticism came from some property owners in the southern province of Bavaria, who said that the presence of the Stolpersteine in the sidewalk of their buildings made it more difficult to sell their flats.

Nevertheless, the positive reactions have heavily outweighed the criticism. Supporters say the effectiveness of this project lies in its focus on the individual, something difficult to achieve with monumental memorials. The Stolpersteine are a unique example of how to use art against forgetting the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime.

About the Author

Vera von Kreutzbruck was born in Argentina. She started her career in journalism at the English language newspaper, Buenos Aires Herald. After a fellowship in Germany three years ago, she decided to settle in Berlin. She currently works as a freelance journalist contributing to media in Europe and Latin America. Her articles focus on international news and culture in Germany and the European Union.