A Tour of Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum Berlin
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While developing the design for the Jewish Museum Berlin, architect Daniel Libeskind plotted the addresses of prominent Jewish and German citizens on a map of prewar Berlin and joined the points to form an “irrational and invisible matrix,” on which he based the geometry and shape of the building.
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In front of the museum stands Libeskind’s Garden of Exile. Russian willow oaks grows atop 49 concrete pillars set on a sloped foundation. According to the architect, the garden is meant “to completely disorient the visitor. It represents a shipwreck of history.”
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Visitors enter the museum through the Baroque Kollegienhaus, a former courthouse, and descend to an underground passageway.
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The old and new buildings—two pieces of architectural history—never touch above grade.
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Libeskind’s glass courtyard at the rear of the Kollegienhaus opens to an outdoor garden.
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Note the expressive structure of the pillars and beams that meet at the ceiling of the glass courtyard.
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Although Libeskind’s design expresses the difficulties and tragedies in Jewish history, it also, as seen in this outdoor garden space, celebrates the joy of life and rebirth,.
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A trellis forms a living tunnel.
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Stairs leading to the underground passageway connecting the old building and Libeskind’s new structure.
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Three intersecting underground corridors, called the Axes, connect the two buildings and serve as exhibition spaces. They symbolize three paths of Jewish life in Germany: continuity in German history; emigration from Germany; and the Holocaust.
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Light at the end of the tunnel.
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The façade of the museum gives few clues to the expression of the building’s interior.
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Slitted windows, as seen from the exterior, are harrowing representations of colliding train tracks.
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Five vast spaces in the new building, called the Voids, express the darkness and uncertainty faced by so many during the Holocaust and throughout Jewish history.
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The bare concrete Holocaust Tower is neither heated nor cooled, and its only light comes from a small slit in its roof.
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The section of the Voids with *Shalechet (Fallen Leaves),*an installation**by Menashe Kadishman.
