Memorial in memory of the burning of books

Monument in the middle of Bebelplatz

The memorial in memory of the burning of books ("The Empty Library") is located on the Bebelplatz in the centre of Berlin next to the Unter den Linden. The memorial commemorates the 10th of May 1933, when students of the National Socialist Student Union and many professors of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (today Humboldt-Universität) under the musical accompaniment of SA- and SS-Kapellen, burnt over 20,000 books from many, mainly Jewish, communist, liberal and social-critical authors, before a large audience at the university's Old Library and in the middle of the former Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Platz (1911–1947), now Bebelplatz.

The memorial is a 5x5x5 metre underground room which is set into Bebelplatz. It is located at the height of the backfilled western ramp of the Lindentunnel, which was demolished for the construction over a length of 25 metres. On the walls of the completely whitewashed room there are empty shelves for 20,000 volumes. The empty room is not accessible. A glass plate in the pavement of the square gives visitors a view.

The design is by the Israeli artist Micha Ullman, the monument was inaugurated on March 20, 1995. In addition to the glass plate, two identically inscribed bronze plates embedded in the floor inform passers-by about the monument. They carry the following texts, which begin with a quotation from Heinrich Heine's tragedy Almansor:

"That was a prelude only, there

where you burn books,

you end up burning people, too."

— Heinrich Heine 1820

The costs for the care and maintenance of the memorial (for example, the special glass pane must be replaced every three months) are covered by Wall AG.

Gallery

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  Monument in memory of the book burning (in the background the St. Hedwig's Cathedral)
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  View into the monument
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  View into the monument; brightly lit at night
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  One of the memorials plaques