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The German government on Friday started construction of an exhibition center 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.
The site "stands like no other place in Berlin for terror and genocide," Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit told reporters while marking the start of work. With the new center, he said, "one of the most important, authentic places of remembrance in Berlin will gain in stature."
The functional glass-and-metal structure, a single-story pavilion designed by German architect Ursula Wilms, will complete a memorial known as the "Topography of Terror" at what was one of the centers of Nazi power. It should be opened on May 8, 2010 — the 65th anniversary of Nazi Germany's final surrender. Visitors — currently around 500,000 a year — have been able to view an open-air exhibition in what remains of the Gestapo cellars, which were uncovered in the 1980s in what is now largely wasteland.
The site "stands like no other place in Berlin for terror and genocide," Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit told reporters while marking the start of work. With the new center, he said, "one of the most important, authentic places of remembrance in Berlin will gain in stature."
The functional glass-and-metal structure, a single-story pavilion designed by German architect Ursula Wilms, will complete a memorial known as the "Topography of Terror" at what was one of the centers of Nazi power. It should be opened on May 8, 2010 — the 65th anniversary of Nazi Germany's final surrender. Visitors — currently around 500,000 a year — have been able to view an open-air exhibition in what remains of the Gestapo cellars, which were uncovered in the 1980s in what is now largely wasteland.