Memorial and information point for the victims of the National Socialist “euthanasia” murders

The memorial and information center for the victims of the National Socialist “euthanasia” murders is a memorial in Berlin . It commemorates the victims of the murders during the Nazi era from 1939 to 1945. It is located at the historic location at Tiergartenstrasse 4 in the Mitte district . From the building at this address, the " Central Office T4 " organized the systematic murder of patients from sanatoriums and nursing homes in the German Reich. The memorial site was opened on September 2, 2014.

The memorial and information site is located near the other central memorial sites in memory of the victims of the Nazi crimes at the Großer Tiergarten , the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe , the memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism and the memorial for the homosexuals persecuted under National Socialism . Like the latter, the memorial and information center for the victims of the National Socialist “euthanasia” murders is administered by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe .

The historical place

The NS organization commissioned to carry out the euthanasia murder program had its headquarters in a villa at Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin since April 1940. This address led to the code name “Central Office T4”. In 1944 the building was badly damaged by a bomb , by which time large parts of the T4 administration had already moved to the Nazi killing center in Hartheim . In the 1950s, the building was demolished due to the war damage. The building ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic, designed by Hans Scharoun , was built nearby in 1963, and later a terminus for several bus routes with a turning loop.

First forms of commemoration

Berlin Junction , Stahl, 1986

It was not until the 1980s that civic groups began to remember the former location of the Nazi perpetrators. In 1987 a small historical exhibition conceived by the historian Götz Aly was shown as a "Mobile Museum" in a double-decker bus that parked for several weeks at the bus stop in front of the Philharmonie. The debate about the historic site, which was also triggered by this action, ultimately led the city of Berlin to rededicate the large-format steel sculpture Berlin Junction by Richard Serra , which was erected there in January 1988, as a memorial for the victims of the “euthanasia” crimes. The sculpture consists of two large, almost vertical, rusting steel plates (about 3 cm thick and 3 m high), which together form a narrow, slightly curved corridor that can be entered by visitors. In order to strengthen its function as a memorial, the Berlin Senate placed a commemorative plaque in the floor next to the sculpture:

"Tiergartenstrasse 4 / Honor the / forgotten victims"
At this point, at Tiergartenstrasse 4, the first National Socialist mass murder was organized from 1940 onwards , named after this address ' Aktion T4 '.
Almost 200,000 defenseless people were killed between 1939 and 1945. Her life was described as "unworthy of life", her murder was called "euthanasia". They died in the gas chambers of Grafeneck, Brandenburg, Hartheim, Pirna, Bernburg and Hadamar, they died from execution squads, from planned starvation and poison.
The perpetrators were scientists, doctors, nurses, members of the judiciary, the police, and the health and employment services. The victims were poor, desperate, defiant, or in need of help. They came from psychiatric clinics and children's hospitals, from nursing homes and welfare institutions and hospitals, from camps.
The number of victims is large, the number of convicted perpetrators is low. "

- Berlin Senate : inscription on the commemorative plaque

Memorial plaque at Tiergartenstrasse 4

The design of the memorial site was criticized because the memorial plaque is very inconspicuous and easy to overlook, and the sculpture, which was only subsequently assigned to the memorial, was perceived more as art on site than as part of a memorial for "euthanasia" victims: " The question of an appropriate national commemoration of the victims of the “euthanasia” murders is urgent, since the current memorial site in front of the Philharmonie, albeit at the historical location, is hardly perceived as such. ”The representatives of the federal and Berlin state government expressed the desire to design an adequate memorial.

To complement the Serra sculpture and the memorial plaque, an information board was set up on the sidewalk in Tiergartenstraße in 2008. Also in 2008, the mobile memorial of the gray buses stood at the bus stop in front of the Philharmonie. In 2013, as part of the Berlin theme year Destroyed Diversity, there was a temporary open-air exhibition on the T4 campaign on the Philharmonie grounds: using the example of patient Anna Lehnkering, the suffering of the victims until their death is traced.

Decision on a place of remembrance and information

New memorial and information site, 2014

The expansion of the existing forms of remembrance into a place of remembrance and information was decided by the German Bundestag on November 10, 2011 . The parliamentary groups of the CDU / CSU , SPD , FDP and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen had emphasized the special importance of the place for the German culture of remembrance in their joint application: "For the general social perception of the" euthanasia "murders and their victims [...] the documentation of the crime and the appraisal of the victims in Berlin, at the place of the perpetrators in Tiergartenstrasse 4, the historical site of the planning of the crimes, of overarching national importance. "Therefore, an" upgrade of the existing memorial for the victims of "euthanasia "Murders as well as their appropriate appreciation at the historical location of the planning and organization of 'Aktion T4' in Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin" is necessary.

Part of the description of the memorial and information site, 2014

The design competition awarded in 2012 was won by the design of a working group consisting of the architect Ursula Wilms , the landscape architect Heinz W. Hallmann , who was married to her (they also created the winning design for the Topography of Terror Documentation Center ) and the artist Nikolaus Koliusis . Their concept places a transparent, light blue 30-meter-long glass wall on a dark surface made of anthracite-colored concrete paving that is slightly inclined towards the center. An elongated desk with information texts, images, audio and video stations was built around this glass wall. The memorial is located north of the Philharmonie building on the area of the former bus stop.

Old memorial and new memorial and information site next to the Philharmonie , 2014

Web links

Commons : place of remembrance and information - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Memorial and information point for the victims of the National Socialist “euthanasia” murders

↑ Peter Sandner: "Euthanasia files" in the Federal Archives. On the history of a long-lost inventory. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 47, 1999, p. 395 f. ( PDF )

↑ Tiergartenstrasse 4 - memorial and information point for the victims of the National Socialist “euthanasia” murders - Tiergartenstrasse 4

↑ Stefanie Endlich: Paths to Remembrance - Memorial sites and places for the victims of National Socialism in Berlin and Brandenburg. Metropol, Berlin 2007, p. 33, ISBN 3-938690-45-3 .

↑ Invitation flyer (PDF; 1.0 MB)

↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Appeal as a PDF document @1@ 2