And yet another example of the ungoing efforts to capture the horrors of Nazi-Germany in a museum context. Last week the German government started construction of an exhibition center in Berlin at the site where the Gestapo, leaders of the SS and other top officials in Adolf Hitler’s police state presided over Nazi-era crimes in the period from 1933 to 1945.

The so-called Topography of Terror (German: Topographie des Terrors) started as an outdoor museum in 1987 and in 1993, an architectural competition for a museum building was won by the design of Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. However, the project was cancelled due to technical and financial reasons. In 2006 the Berlin office Heinle, Wischer und Partner won a new competition for the documentation and visitors’ center. It should be opened on May 8, 2010, the 65th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s final surrender.

 
A hand points at a detail of a scale model of a new building for the ‘Topography of Terror’ exhibition. (AP Photo/Miguel Villagran)

  
The single-story, glass-fronted pavilion, designed by German architect Ursula Wilms, should be ready in 2010. (Heinle, Wischer und Partner)

Read article (Yahoo/AP, November 2, 2007)
Go to website Topography of Terror