Judisches Museum

The Jewish Museum. A radical new concept for a Jewish museum by Daniel Liebeskind. Although the displays are still not yet set up, a tour of the architecture and design of this museum is fascinating. In itself it is a huge display. The architecture conveys a message about the Jewish experience.

Hallesches Tor, this is the area where the museum is located and also the name of the closest U-Bahn station. The area behind this bridge is Merhingplatz.

Urban art. The walls of the two buildings in the background serve as canvases for art.

Berlin Museum. In the basement of this building is the entryway over to the new building of the Jewish museum (the steel and glass construction above). This building and the new one will contain exhibits on Jewish culture.

The tour of the museum starts in the basement level. This symbolizes a return to the past, to the source of the problems. This is the "Hall of Decision" (my apologies in advance if the names and explainations are not exact) where one must choose a path to take. The one on the right leads to the "Garden of Exile" and the other upstairs to continue the tour of the museum. This represents the difficult challenge that the Jewish had to make in their lives before and during WWII.

The Garden of Exile. Not your garden of paradise, but rather one feels as if they've stumbled into a maze. It has a dizzying and confusing effect to it. This is enhanced by the fact that the ground in the garden is slanted.

Inside the concrete columns are olive trees. Olive trees are have religio us significance in the Jewish culture. Eventually their branches and leaves will produce a leaf ceiling in this garden.

You can see the slanting here when you compare it with the building in back.

Holocaust tower. One is surrounded by the thick walls. The heavy door slams harshly behind you. There is only a slit opening where light comes through. If you visit in the winter it would be really dark and cold. When looking up, it is hard to tell where the black ceiling actually is, giving off the effect that the room extends further upwards than it does.

The stairs up to the rest of the museum, and a picture of our tour guide.

View down onto the garden.

View of the Hallesches Tor area.

A very steep staircase. The concrete beams above were added to reinforce the wall, but ironically makes the building seem even more interesting.

For these unusual lines in the building, Daniel Liebeskind took the address of Jewish who lived in Berlin and perished during the Holocaust. Each line connects two addresses. They are seen in the ceiling lights and reflected into the window panels. They give "light" to the Jewish experience.

The ceiling.

A scaled model of the museum area.

A close up of the model of the new construction.

View of the museum and garden from the rose garden.

	Hallesches Tor, this is the area where the museum is located and also the name of the closest U-Bahn station. The area behind this bridge is Merhingplatz.
Urban art. The walls of the two buildings in the background serve as canvases for art.
	Berlin Museum. In the basement of this building is the entryway over to the new building of the Jewish museum (the steel and glass construction above). This building and the new one will contain exhibits on Jewish culture.
The tour of the museum starts in the basement level. This symbolizes a return to the past, to the source of the problems. This is the "Hall of Decision" (my apologies in advance if the names and explainations are not exact) where one must choose a path to take. The one on the right leads to the "Garden of Exile" and the other upstairs to continue the tour of the museum. This represents the difficult challenge that the Jewish had to make in their lives before and during WWII.
	The Garden of Exile. Not your garden of paradise, but rather one feels as if they've stumbled into a maze. It has a dizzying and confusing effect to it. This is enhanced by the fact that the ground in the garden is slanted.
Inside the concrete columns are olive trees. Olive trees are have religio us significance in the Jewish culture. Eventually their branches and leaves will produce a leaf ceiling in this garden.
	You can see the slanting here when you compare it with the building in back.
Holocaust tower. One is surrounded by the thick walls. The heavy door slams harshly behind you. There is only a slit opening where light comes through. If you visit in the winter it would be really dark and cold. When looking up, it is hard to tell where the black ceiling actually is, giving off the effect that the room extends further upwards than it does.
	The stairs up to the rest of the museum, and a picture of our tour guide.
View down onto the garden.
	View of the Hallesches Tor area.
A very steep staircase. The concrete beams above were added to reinforce the wall, but ironically makes the building seem even more interesting.
	For these unusual lines in the building, Daniel Liebeskind took the address of Jewish who lived in Berlin and perished during the Holocaust. Each line connects two addresses. They are seen in the ceiling lights and reflected into the window panels. They give "light" to the Jewish experience.
The ceiling.
	A scaled model of the museum area.
A close up of the model of the new construction.
	View of the museum and garden from the rose garden.