A matter of memory - the new Exile Museum Berlin

Image: the new Exile Museum, behind the remaining section of the Anhalter Banhhof in Berlin, courtesy of Dorte Mandrup

Future Cities Forum is anticipating the opening of the new Exile Museum in Berlin this year, which uses the architecture fragment of Anhalter Bahnhof, where inhabitants of the city were forced to leave their homes, during the rise of the Nazi regime.

Architect Dorte Mandrup who has designed the new museum writes:

'Architecture reflects and responds to human existence. The buildings and landscapes surrounding us are central characters in our individual and collective memory, helping us relate to time and space and recollect defining moments in our past. The process by which the built fabric informs our collective identity is continuously evolving. Past, present, and future weaves together, allowing us to comprehend our role and presence in time. Preserving and understanding even the most uncomfortable physical traces of the past is important to fostering an evolving, cohesive, and well-informed society. However, how we respond to places inhabited by difficult content is a sensitive and complex matter that requires a precise and critical examination of the place, its history, and the layers of memory accumulated there over time.

'The remaining fragment of Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin carries heavy layers of emotion and embodies an essential element in our collective European memory. It is a monument to a promising, modern capital at the heart of a creative 1920s Berlin. Yet simultaneously it bears witness to the devastations following the rise of Nazism, being the stage from where countless lives were forced into exile during the totalitarian regime. Few buildings from before 1945 have been preserved around Anhalter Bahnhof, and the fragment stands as a single object, out of scale and without purpose. Despite the little physical evidence, the layers of emotion retained within this context make it a very poignant place to build.

Above: image from www.mir.no of the new Exile Museum showing the void between the new building and the historic fragment of the Anhalter Bahnhof (courtesy Dorte Mandrup_

'When designing the new Exile Museum, we wanted to respect and embrace the fragment, not replace or reconstruct it or create historical continuity. Instead, we preserve the historical layers, using the shape of the new building to emphasize the fragment's character and create a void representing what has been lost while allowing a dialogue between past and present. Inside, the spatial expression is formed by distorted vaults, out of balance and symmetry, with large continuous spans that abstractly reflect all transit places. With the ground softly rising towards the entrance, we are creating a movement that resembles how people would have moved through the portico and out to the tracks, leading visitors the same way as those leaving for the unknown between 1933 and 1945, without any horizon in sight.

'Part of the sensitivity towards the tragedy and challenge that exile represents is to make it tangible. Millions of people are forced into exile every year, and every single person represents a story of human life. The stories that will be told at the Exile Museum echo these stories of personal loss and catastrophe, stories of loss of culture, identity, and knowledge. To be exiled is to live in permanent impermanence, suspended in air with no clear path. It is to be in between identities, languages, and cultures, in a state of exposure and fragility. And yet, we also find stories of hope, new knowledge, cultural exchange, and diversity. Highlighting the importance of the remaining fragment of Anhalter Bahnhof and allowing history to be visible is not only about creating a place of recollection but a means for awareness and empathy, a place where we can comprehend the calamity of exile in a time where it has never been more critical.

'Historically saturated or uncomfortable places often provide an opportunity to insert an emotive dimension. Architecture is still a mute art form in that the presence of past injustices does not necessarily doom a building forever. There is a way to expose it, comment on what existed, and instil new meaning, which enables us to reconcile ourselves to it and move forward without attempting to erase the past. In 2021, we were asked to reimagine the complex of buildings that constitute Saalecker Werkstätten in Germany, transforming it into a place for international design exchange and exploration. A disturbing past marks the site inevitably tied to architect Paul Schultze-Naumburg who would become known as one of the leading proponents of Nazi cultural policy. In the mid-1920s, these otherwise relatively neutral spaces became a plateau for National Socialist sentiment and, ultimately, a think tank for totalitarian and racist ideology.

'Saalecker Werkstätten is an uncomfortable monument, and we cannot undermine or ignore its history. However, at the same time, we cannot let it be transfixed by it, preventing future generations from filling it with new content and values. When we analyzed the available documentation, it became clear that though Saalecker Werkstätten is laden with a difficult history, it is not a static place. Since its establishment in 1904, the buildings have been transformed several times.

'In the expression of the earliest building, you recognize the same aesthetic ideals found in other places in Europe at the time, which does not necessarily connect to the disturbing ideals that would later inhabit them. Carefully intervening against the haunting past by exposing, leaving, and adding new architectural layers, our approach to the transformation was to create a depth in the readability of time, balancing the site's dual legacies to allow the buildings to be understood from many different perspectives. We use colour and materiality as didactic tools to create tangible readability through a composition of layers instead of a uniform surface. In some places, they are restored according to the site's archaeology; in others, they are left untouched. A third layer representing the nontotalitarian design ideals present around Europe when Saalecker Werkstätten was built is added to convey an impression of what might have been. The layers are exposed, superimposed, and integrated into a complex weave that allows past and present to coexist and for future generations to influence its development.

'When working with buildings and sites with heavy historical and emotional layers, we need to be thorough in our analysis, making sensitive and strategic design decisions that can balance the story of what was and the new meaning we add. We should never attempt to ignore or erase what happened, as we cannot change the past. However, we can find ways to confront history directly and form a more complex and balanced understanding of our past and present, allowing these uncomfortable monuments to become places of recollection, reflection, reconciliation, and education.