Jury report, 2009
© Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning
19 Hohenzollerndamm
Monument to Freedom and Unity
On 9 November 2007 the German Bundestag approved the construction of a national monument at Schlossfreiheit Square in Berlin Mitte to commemorate the peaceful revolution of 1989 and the reunification of Germany. The monument would also honour liberation movements and attempts at unification in previous centuries. An open competition was launched by the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning in 2008, aimed at artists, architects and other creatives worldwide – with the objective of finding conceptual ideas that would provide the basis for further development. The project was not uncontroversial: doubts about the need for another site of remembrance in Berlin, which already possesses so many authentic sites of recent historical interest, became voluble and the choice of location and its symbolism were also seen as problematic.
When the jury convened in April 2009, it became clear that none of the 532 submitted designs had received the required majority of votes. However, the panel did recommend continuing with the plan and holding a second competition in 2011, which was not open this time, produced the winners: the office Milla & Partner together with the artist Sasha Waltz designed the 50-metre-long “Unity Seesaw”. The 532 ideas from the first competition remain unrealised.
Protocol Report
The protocol report of the jury can be downloaded in full from the websiteof the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning. (in Geman only)
For What If Berlin, Akira Takayama transposes unrealised projects from the archives of the Berliner Festspiele and other Berlin cultural institutions, as well as from architects and artists, into the present and asks us which vision we want to realise in the future.
The future vision for the project Monument to Freedom and Unity, that will be presented in the frame of What If Berlin from 28 August 2026 onwards, will respond to the following question: What if Berlin reopened all 532 ideas for the Monument for Freedom and Unity?
Which of the 27 visions for the future is the most exciting? Which project does Berlin need in future? Which idea should actually be realised?
Until 30 September 2026, you can vote for up to three of the 27 visions for the future. The results will be displayed live to give the latest impression of the public’s reactions.