2023-10-03 04:00:00
On October 3, Germany celebrates German Unity Day, 33 years after German reunification. The monument to freedom and unity was supposed to be inaugurated on the 30th anniversary of the unification – in 2019. However, this did not happen. Political debates, bureaucratic obstacles, security concerns and lack of funding delayed the start and therefore the completion of construction.
Construction has been underway since May 2020. As the design office Milla & Partner in Stuttgart confirmed to DW, the pedestal in front of the Humboldt Forum, where the Berlin City Palace once stood, is almost complete. And the design that won a design competition in 2011, popularly known as the “Einheitswippe” and reminiscent of a “children’s swing”, appears to be taking shape. According to Milla & Partner, 32 finished steel segments in the production hall in North Rhine-Westphalia are also awaiting shipment to Berlin. And yet, a new problem arose.
The monument will not be completed until 2023
“The work on the Freedom and Unity Monument will not be completed this year,” creative director Sebastian Letz told DW. “We have drawn up a plan for implementation in 2024 and recently handed it over to the Minister of State for Culture and Media.” Now the decision is up to Minister Claudia Roth.
DW sent a request to the office of the Minister of Culture and Media. “All participants in the project are trying to ensure the rapid completion of the monument,” explained a representative of the State Minister for Culture. However, only the general contractor of the project, the Stuttgart bureau Milla & Partner, can name the exact opening date. “According to the general contractor, there are currently delays in construction due to problems with a subcontractor in the metal structures sector,” employees of the Bureau of the Minister of Culture explain.
Project: a platform with slightly curved edges towards the sky, length – 50 meters, movable, like scales or a children’s swingPhoto: Milla & Partner
The reason may also be the increase in costs for the construction of the monument. Initially it was about 15 million euros, then about 17 million euros. Now this amount could be even higher, suspects publicist Andreas Apelt of the Berlin Association of German Civil Society. In an interview with DW, he admitted that he was “not particularly happy about this monument.”
The joy of the fall of the Berlin Wall
Anyone else excited about the idea of a Freedom and Unity Monument in Berlin? Its creation was initiated in 1998 by civil rights activist in the former GDR Günter Nooke, former President of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning Florian Mausbach, journalist Jürgen Engert and the first democratically elected Prime Minister GDR Lothar De Maizière to commemorate the “liberating joy that the fall of the Berlin Wall contributed to, historical happiness and tears of joy.”
In 2007, by decision of the Bundestag, it was decided to build and install this monument using federal funds. Then a political struggle began: the budget committee of parliament temporarily refused to allocate funds. The significance and meaning of the monument have been questioned. Finally, the second resolution of the Bundestag, adopted in 2017, confirmed the decision to build the monument. The groundbreaking ceremony took place three years later – in 2020.
Since then, work has been in full swing at the construction site in front of the now completed and opened “Humboldt Forum” in the center of Berlin. One of the structures of the monument is a platform with edges slightly curved towards the sky, 50 meters long, mounted on a support and movable like scales or a children’s swing. According to the plan, if more people move to one side, the scales will tip accordingly. The curve of the bowl is intended to form a kind of stage on which the slogan of the protesters in 1989 will be embossed in large gold letters: “We are the people. We are one people.”
“Political kitsch”, “attraction” and “weak imagery” were the criticisms of opponents of the monument, while its supporters praised the “strong symbolism”: as in 1989, supporters and opponents had to come to an understanding and act together to realize this idea.
Reaching agreement is becoming increasingly difficult
“What kind of unity should we celebrate?” – Annette Ahme from the public association Historische Mitte says in an interview with DW. In her opinion, the unconditional annexation of the GDR into the Federal Republic of Germany without accompanying constitutional discussions was wrong, and the process of unification between East and West has since failed. “And now the monument should immortalize this?” – the expert asks a rhetorical question.
Olaf Zimmermann, managing director of the German Cultural Council, lacks widespread social support for the monument, whose symbol, the “swing of unity”, in his opinion, is “no longer relevant.” Why was the monument project delayed for so long? “Because in the end no one wants it,” Zimmerman says. He is also unsure whether anyone else needs the monument, given growing tensions between Germany’s eastern and western states.
Hendrik Berth, professor of psychology and transformation researcher at the Technical University of Dresden, talks about the different views of East and West Germans on German unity. “Perhaps the monument should have been erected quickly in 1991/1992,” he suggests. “The longer it takes, the harder it will be to find something that can even achieve agreement.” He considers it unlikely that a monument to unity will have much effect, at least as a contribution to the preservation of internal unity.
According to civil rights activist Andreas Apelt, a rapprochement between East and West is inevitable. “Reunification was a stroke of luck in history right after protesters overthrew the dictatorship. We must maintain the momentum of that time and move forward with optimism into the future,” Apelt stressed.
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