Jewish Museum Berlin

Libeskind’s museum is a zigzag building clad in zinc, with windows that cut through the façade like wounds. Inside are voids that cannot be entered, a sign of what was lost in the Holocaust. The building tells its story even before the museum is filled with objects.

In 1988–1989 Berlin held a competition for an extension to the Berlin Museum for its Jewish department, and the then almost unknown Daniel Libeskind won. Construction lasted from 1992 to 1999. The building was shown to the public empty, and many felt that it spoke powerfully even without exhibitions. The museum opened with exhibitions in 2001.

The new building is reached through an underground passage from the old Baroque building, the Kollegienhaus. Below ground three axes cross: the axis of continuity, the axis of exile and the axis of the Holocaust. The axis of exile leads to a garden with 49 slanting concrete pillars, and the axis of the Holocaust to a dark, empty tower. The building’s plan has the form of a broken lightning bolt, and through it cuts a series of voids that cannot be entered. The façades are clad in zinc, and the windows are narrow slits in different directions.

The Jewish Museum has become one of the most visited museums in Berlin. It established Libeskind as an internationally recognised architect, and he later won the competition for the master plan for the World Trade Center in New York. The building has influenced how memorials and museums can use architecture to tell a story.

• Contemporary architecture
• Daniel Libeskind