Existing state
The burial site for the victims of national socialist tyranny is located in a small area at the entrance to the Altglienicke Friedhof. Around 1950, an official measure was taken to install a collective memorial stone, which by today’s standards, is rather minimal. The fact that you are standing on a collective grave first becomes apparent when you read the inscription on the memorial stone.
Design
A dignified ceremony will now give back the names to those buried here. Similar to the two-part burial site of grave and gravestone, we are designing a two-part memorial site: on the burial site for the urns of the victims, plants will be grown, and it will be wrapped with a ribbon of letters thus forming a communal burial field. Next to it, the names of the dead will be written on a large glass element.
Location of the names
An L-shaped dark green glass element is located in front of the cemetery walls. The transparent-green element does not entirely conceal the thick materiality of the historical wall, while at the same time, its green hues reflect the colors of the vegetation. Legible on the element are the names and dates of birth and death of those buried here. Every name is written in its own personal handwriting, visible as a light recess in the dark-green, glass volume. Sun and light diffract on the bright matte glass recesses, which give the lettering a shimmering volume.
Burial ground for the urns
The area of the burial ground for the urns will be framed by a strip made of architectural bronze on which is written in Polish, German, and English, where those who are buried here were murdered. The burial field within this frame is slightly raised and planted with a ground cover of evergreens, similar to the surrounding graves. The existing memorial stone from the 1950s, as the first visible gesture to recognize those buried here, will remain where it was originally placed and will be integrated into this area.