Memorials

I don't know if I've written much about memorials in Berlin, but I was reminded of them yesterday when I joined the procession of people taking their post-Xmas-lunch stroll through Mitte. If you look down at the ground, you'll often spot little gold tiles embedded in the concrete. They're known as Stolpersteine, or literally "stumble stones" and can be found in some of Germany's big cities. On the stone is a name, a date of birth and death (usually 1943), and the word Auschwitz.

The stones are placed outside the buildings where these people lived. They're a great idea, I think - a reminder of the war and its victims that's subtle. Other war memorials in Berlin include the Missing House, which is just around the corner from where I'm typing, where a gap in the buildings has lists of names and occupations on each side. The signs mark exactly where the person lived, in the building which no longer exists, before they were murdered in concentration camps.

There is also a list of concentration camps near Nollendorfplatz, and a list of murdered Jews in Gendarmenmarkt, which has a mirror behind it so you see your own reflection when reading the names. There's a Holocaust memorial being built near the Brandenburg Gate, but is highly controversial and is taking years to finish. And that doesn't include all the Berlin Wall memorials, which now includes the model Wall in the middle of town, and all the crosses to mark each victim.

It is a strange feeling sometimes to live in a city where so many bad things have happened, but you must remember that alongside these memorials are all the exciting things that are happening now, so it's not like Berlin is one big memorial to the past.