• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
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  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

T4 Memorial

  
   - darkometer rating:  5 -
 
A new memorial-cum-open-air-museum in Berlin at the site of the administrative headquarters of the Nazis' euthanasia programme “Aktion T4” in Germany during the Third Reich.  
More background info: see in general under Aktion T4 and the links to the six T4 sites listed there, in particular Hartheim, Bernburg and Hadamar.  
  
This fairly new memorial was opened in 2014 at the address that once gave the euthanasia programme its code name “T4”: Tiergartenstraße 4. It is administratively a branch of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin (officially: Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas”). 
  
The location of the memorial is remarkable in as much as it it stands right outside one of Berlin's most famous cultural institutions, the Philharmonie concert hall complex with its striking modernist architecture. Rarely do fine arts and dark tourism come so close to each other – in physical juxtaposition, as it were. I wonder how many concert-goers will encounter the topic of the Nazi euthanasia murders for the first time here. 
  
Before the larger memorial was set up, there was only a comparatively small information panel by the bus stop across the road. This is also still there.  
  
  
What there is to see: This is not just a memorial in the form of a monument and maybe an info panel, it's more like a mini open-air museum. 
  
The main monument part is just a simple blue perspex wall. Facing this is a stone construction on which a row of text-and-photo panels and weather-sealed screens are arranged in one long row. 
  
There is bilingual text on the panels in both German and English … though actually it's even more, because the German comes in different forms. In addition to the “regular” German there is also a Simple German version. Moreover, some of the text is also available in Braille and on the screens you can activate sign-language translations too. This is of course only fitting for a memorial that commemorates the systematic crimes of the Nazis against mentally and physically disabled people during the Third Reich
  
Content-wise, the texts go through the topic mostly chronologically, from the development of “eugenics”, including the appeal this ideology also had in other countries outside Germany, such as the USA. The integration of “eugenics” or “race hygiene” into the context of the Nazi ideology is next, followed by the first measures taken – such as forced sterilizations.
  
The actual programme called “Aktion T4” takes up a key position in this topic including this particular location. Historical photos show the original villas that used to stand here and in which the whole operation was bureaucratically planned and overseen. 
  
The topic of protests against these operations are also covered, which eventually led to Aktion T4 being stopped, at least officially. The more undercover operations of basically the same nature that carried on are described in some detail too, including the systematic use of the same methods of killing e.g. in various concentration camps
  
A large amount of information is also given about dozens of individuals involved, both perpetrators and, in particular, victims. The aftermath of T4, from prosecution of perpetrators to sites of contemporary commemoration form the final points of the story.
    
While some of the information is given in fixed, physical form, a lot more is relayed by means of the interactive screens. Next to them are buttons to select the various chapters available, extra documents and photos and also the sign-language versions. 
  
It's all pretty state-of-the-art museum commodification – only out in the open air, which is rather unusual. You can't help but wonder how weather-resistant all this will be in the mid to long term …
  
The most robust-looking element on the square is an object set a bit away, closer to the street opposite the bus stop: it's an installation consisting of two curved rusty iron walls … but whether this actually has anything to do with the memorial or if it's a completely separate piece of art, was unclear (my guess is the latter). 
  
Across the street, the older, more concise memorial panels by the bus stop that I had found when I first went to this place in 2008 are also still there, even though they have technically been superseded by the new memorial. 
  
Small as this may be, it does convey a lot of information if you are prepared to spend some time with it. This will of course be weather-dependent. I guess the memorial will attract a lot more attention in fine, warm weather than in wet and cold conditions. One downside of sunny weather, on the other hand, is that the screens are a bit difficult to see in bright sunshine. But that's pretty much unavoidable. 
  
All in all, this is an unusual but very worthwhile addition to Berlin's already rich commemoration of its multifaceted dark past.  
  
  
Location: in front of the Philharmonie concert hall complex on the corner of Tiergartenstraße and Herbert-von-Karajan Straße, just south of the Tiergarten park in the centre of Berlin.  
  
Google maps locator: [52.5106, 13.3694]
  
  
Access and costs: fairly easy to get to; free
  
Details: To get to the memorial you can walk it from the transport hub of Potsdamer Platz, heading first north-west on Bellvuestraße and then west past the Philharmonie concert hall. The memorial is in the open space on the corner of Tiergartenstraße and Herbert-von-Karajan Straße. You can also take bus line 200 which has a stop right opposite the Philharmonie. 
  
The memorial is accessible (barrier-free) at all times; free of charge. 
  
  
Time required: between 15-20 minutes for a more cursory look and potentially over an hour if you want to read all the material available on the interactive screens.  
  
  
Combinations with other dark destinations: in general see under Berlin
  
The physically closest and also thematically related other site in the area is the German Resistance Memorial on Stauffenbergstraße, which branches off Tiergartenstraße one block to the west. 
  
In the other direction, to the north-east, the Holocaust Memorial (that administers the T4 memorial too) is only a bit over half a mile (850m) away.  
  
  
Combinations with non-dark destinations: right behind the memorial stands one of Berlin's most famous modern edifices and prime cultural institution, the Philharmonie classical concert hall complex. More recent hyper-modern architecture can be found nearby on Potsdamer Platz just a short walk to the east. 
   
Bordering Tiergartenstraße to the north is the huge park of the same name: Tiergarten. Despite that name (literally 'animal garden' – in German commonly a synonym for 'zoo') this is not a zoological garden but really just a park, Berlin's largest in the centre. It was once a royal hunting ground (hence the name). At its north-eastern corner stands Berlin's No. 1 landmark, the Brandenburg Gate
  
See also under Berlin in general.
  
  
   
  • T4 memorial 1 - new installationT4 memorial 1 - new installation
  • T4 memorial 2 - bilingualT4 memorial 2 - bilingual
  • T4 memorial 3 - interpretative panelsT4 memorial 3 - interpretative panels
  • T4 memorial 4 - video screenT4 memorial 4 - video screen
  • T4 memorial 5 - choiceT4 memorial 5 - choice
  • T4 memorial 6 - monumentT4 memorial 6 - monument
  • T4 memorial 7 - in front of the PhilharmonieT4 memorial 7 - in front of the Philharmonie
  • T4 memorial 8 - Philharmonic concert hallT4 memorial 8 - Philharmonic concert hall
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
 

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