Case Study of the Jewish Museum, Berlin

Case Study of the Jewish Museum, Berlin The Jewish Museum Berlin incorporates the social and cultural history of the Germany after World War 2 and aspired to correspond to the effects of the Holocaust on Jews in Germany. In his design, Libeskind claimed to combine three main concepts; the incapability to comprehend the historical agendas of Germany without the knowledge of the civilizational, academic and economic contribution that was made by the Jewish people in Berlin. Secondly he wanted to capture the bodily and spiritual journey in correlation to the experience of the Holocaust and its repercussions the society of Jews and finally he wanted to make amends by the acknowledgment, removal and the incorporation of voids, through which Berlin can move but this time with humanitarian existence. When the construction ended in 1999, the Director Michael Blumenthal declared that, â€Å"the chief aim of the museum will be to bring a sense of the richness of Jewish cultural life in Germany before the Holocaust† LIBESKIND S BOOK However, the Holocaust infuses the museum so strongly the museum has been called by reviewers and critics both â€Å"didactic† and â€Å"pedagogical† that the message is one for the present and, more importantly, for the future (BOOK MAKE UP). Because the context of the Holocaust remains such a strong thread in this space, it warrants examination as a unique addition to genres memorializing the Holocaust. Additionally, the museum’s triumph in its massive turnout rates particularly with young people, over the last decade calls for an analysis of its complexity of design and content to understand how the space performs to change the way we see things.WHY HE WON? For Libeskind, who was worn in Poland, a coupl of hundred Kilemoters from Berlin and whose family devastated during the Holocaust, the project presented a chance to reconnect to his past. Both of his parents were arrested by Soviet officials when the Red Army and upon their return home and have spen d some time in concentration camp. Upon their return they learned that 85 members of families had died at the hands of the Nazis. These experiences made Libeskind design extremely personal and in a sence biased. In an nterview to â€Å"Jewish Currents†, a Jewish on-line magazine that deals with activism, politics and art Libeskind explains his approach; â€Å"I would first point out that it’s not a project that I had to research in a library or study in the archives because it is part of my background, including my immediate background in every sense. My parents were Holocaust survivors and my uncle Nathan was one of the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. I myself grew up as a Jew in post war Poland under quite anti-Semitic circumstances. And I’ve lived in Israel and New York. Certainly that museum is speaking, both backwards and forwards, to many issues that are part of my Jewish sensibility†. Jewish Currents Just by observing the form of the structur e, already the sense of pragmatic effect is playing a large role. The building is recognisable by its gleaming zinc walls, asymmetrical shape of the zigzag form with daylight penetrating through asymmetric cuts suggestive of the vile stabs on Jewish presence in Germany.