Field of Stelae
Eisenman Architects

The Field of Stalae Holocaust Memorial  is located on a 19,000 m2 stretch on the edge of Tiergarten, a few yards from the Brandenburg Gate.

The site for the Memorial was until 1945 part of the "Ministry Gardens," a private park that was attached to the ministries along Wilhelmstrasse. The war and post-war years and the fact that the Berlin Wall, built in 1961, and the "death strip" ran along Ebertstrasse occupying almost all of what is now the memorial site, obliterated any traces of what was there before 1945.

The design features 2,752 concrete slabs (stelae) arranged in a grid pattern.  The slabs are 0.95 meters deep and 2.38 meters wide and vary only in height from 0.2 meters to 4.8 meters. The unevenly sloping ground, giving the impression of an undulating field, is paved with concrete stones. In the western part informal groups of trees form a transition to the Tiergarten.

A subterranean information center is located at the southeast corner. The center consists of several rooms, some lit by natural light, with an exhibition area of ca. 100 meters.

The "Field of Stelae" does not have a fixed entrance, center or exit, visitors are able to choose their own way in and out of the complex.

Field of Stalae was inaugurated on May 10, 2005, sixty years after the end of World War II, and opened to the public two days later.